Ricardo -> RE: Emphasizing compas downbeats (Sep. 24 2012 13:44:11)
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The grounding and center weight for 12 counts, as I stated above, are 12 and 6. 3 or 4, 9 or 10, are the answer points or the tail end of the compas. (UNLESS YOU HAVE A VERY SLOW COMPAS also as stated) the chordal strums there are expressions of answering or finalizing a phrase. Thanks again. Can you please elaborate what means answering a phrase? And if one finalizes a phrase on 3 or 4, does one just wait until the next compas cycle before playing anything else? Does 3,4,9 and 10 answer/finalizing points work in every 12 beat compas? This kind of information is really helpful and I suppose very essential(even when I haven't bumped into it online before), thank you. Both when accompanying cante and playing falsetas, the idea is sort of question and answer. To harmonize for a flamenco singer we answer the melody with the chord change, rather than have the two occur simultaneously. Depending on where in time the melody stops and gives the clue to the guitar which chord to play, you either answer on 3 or 10. Counts 4 or 9 actually reveal if you want to imply or make a half compas phrase (relative to the 'normal" 3 or 10 beat feelings). IN this manner the singer can improvise and the guitar accompanist follows with not a pre concieved concept of a chord chart (as in jazz or pop music where the chart IS the song structure. IN flamenco we can make up the chart on the fly as per the melodic wims of the singer). In some forms doing a half compas is acceptable but not so common (exception is buleria where it is quite common to discard or add 6 beats to answer a phrase). It is an interest and unique thing about flamenco rhythm. I would say that no ALL 12 beat song forms are like this. Guajira for example has same rhythmic phrasing, but harmonically the guitar sticks to keeping chord changes on the down beats (12 or 6), but it's a fine line since the underlying feeling is similar so sometimes say alegrias ideas creep in. Regarding guitar solos, melodic phrasing tends to be symmetrical in the sense we most often end a melodic phrase on 6 (down beat) or 10 (tail end of compas). THis allows a square feeling such that a melody ending on 6 gets rounded off by some interesting rasgueado or other type of phrase (remate) which nicely answers the melody. Other melodic phrases that end on 10 are thought to already include the remate within the notes themselves such that the full idea is complete and no "answer" is needed. THe new cycle begins afterwards on the downbeat of 12. In the case of buleria mainly (although this happens in some guitar solos of alegria in minor key and solea too ie slow compas) it is acceptable to do half compases. So if a phrase ends on 4 of a cycle, it is taken to feel as 10 and the next 6 becomes 12 of a new cycle. Conversly if a melodic phrases ends on count 12 in buleria, it begs for a remate or resolution answer that need not be longer than counts 1->4 and again that is taken as count 10 as a half compas. IN the case of very long melodic passages, there need not be any remates (ending on 4 or 10) so a constant phrasing in 3 or 6 is expressed (12 and 6 are most important and the feeling of 10 say, is played through or perhaps 9 is accented instead). There are in fact complete guitar solos that make very little use of remates or even rasgueado strumming, and often refered to these days as "vals buleria". They tend to have a "spanish classical" vibe too. There are sequential type phrases too where a chord could put on the head beats (12 and 6) and the melody leads to next chord hit. Other phrases via pick up notes might lead into down beats and chords are done as answers (on 3 and 9 for example). and after all the beats I have avoided talking about can be deliberately expressed in similar fashion, to answer a melody of pick up notes that lead the down beats. (Tomatito famous bass line falseta that starts on 10 going to D minor in 5th position on count 12 and the chord answers on 2, then next phrase begins 4 leads to 6 with C chord answer on 8 etc on down Bb-A). It is important to understand that the number system is not followed like a math rule. We talk about these details after the fact, the truth is the phrases need to be simply felt and most players would not even know what beat they land on other than intuition as "oh I am on the downbeat and I need to rematar...". Other times half compases are very deliberate such as the way Manuel Morao accompanies bulerias with a forced half compas remate everytime. It is not counted per say or even thought of in numbers, but it is not random. I will finally add that you will also encounter, very rarely, odd phrases of 3 too, where not even a full half compas is made. Again do to the fact there is no counting just feeling of phrases. THis would be considered a mistake to most professionals however because it forces the palmeros to adjust their internal down beats.... but it's been done.
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