Erik van Goch -> RE: PDL says you dont need to study ! (Nov. 13 2013 16:13:01)
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ORIGINAL: Shroomy726 It is not a music that a conservatory can explain and say: ‘this is good and this is how you play it’. My experience tells me it is not like this, it tells me that you do not always know how to continue and so you have to invent it; to play without knowing exactly the path. There are no doubts: Flamenco needs the heart. In my opinion one does not exclude the other. When Paco Peña first talked about annotating flamenco with my father Paco honestly believed flamenco could not be expressed in written notes. So my father showed him various examples of period music (playing both the written version and the various ways he could interpret them) which made Paco realize the same argument applies to all kinds of music: without severe knowledge of the music involved (based on many hours of listening/feeling/playing/understanding) and without putting your heart and soul in it not any kind of music will come alive, nor in- or outside a conservatory. When i entered conservatory i was 22 years old, i played the guitar for 13 years and from those 13 years 4 were solely spend on (ear)playing flamenco, something i really really put my heart and soul into on a daily base... with zero results. In that period of time (70ties) living outside Spain mend you had only access to a handful of (solo) flamenco recordings on LP or written scores (cd, video and internet did not exist yet). In my case i had a knowledgeable father as well, but unfortunately i showed no interest in music theory/didactics and studying music/technique at all. I just ear played whatever i was able to trace on my guitar. As i know now i had an excellent ear for melody/harmony but a blind spot for all other aspects of music making involved like technique/rhythm/tonal quality. At the time (despite playing flamenco with heart and soul over a 4 year period) i would not have been able to understand most of what is shared on the foro. I was not able to name/picture myself a singe style (Soleares? Tarantas?), i had no clue there was something like compas or that a soleares fallows cycles of 12 beats, my rhythm was a mess and i played picado with 1 finger (and that was one of my better techniques). I would not have known the meaning of 3/4 or 4/4 (during my audition i named it hoempapa and hoempapapa) or what to picture myself when someone told me to play a C or a C chord. My only knowledge (aside my ability to ear play most things i heard instantly) was that i was able to name the open strings. I did not need to know the chord names because unlike the readers i could find the chords of any pop song blindfolded in any key they choose (the readers often were in despair when the singers selected a different key then the one chosen by their chord book or unintentionally changed key halfway the piece, which offered no problem to me as long as they did not select quarter tones). That was my level of playing/understanding when i entered conservatory. I shared the class with 10 others that could play the guitar way better then i did and already knew the names and the compas of most styles. Despite the fact that in my ears they all played as good as Paco Peña we all had to start from scratch, both technically and musically. We all were very reluctant to do my fathers technique exercises because that was considered to be theory and killing the heart and soul. Most of them (but me) changed their opinion when we discovered that all the top players we met did similar exercises (i only started to take them more seriously when i run into structural technical problems a couple of years later). Non of them (but me) showed an interest in learning music theory, which in my case included learning to recognize/name/practice/annotate notes, chords, rhythms, compas. On top (despite my innital lack of interest) i learned the THEORY of left and right hand strategy and interpretation which highly improved my level of playing. They made me aware there was something like rhythm and tonal quality, i learned the names/compas of many styles and how to interpret them the correct way (there are many many ways you can misplay/interpret them when you only put in your heart and soul but lack the talent to spot your numerous black spots). I can assure you it is extremely rewarding when you are able to read written scores made by the very best, showing you the exact notes, rhythm, left and right hand strategy and interpretation based on a lifetime of experience of both Paco Peña and my father. It basically allows you to look inside the head of the very best, especially when you have the luxury to met them on a weekly/monthly base for personal coaching. It raised my level from being a total amateur to (semi) professional levels. Still the teachers consider the course as just a start for future personal development... a future development supported by (potentially) professionally trained hands and minds and the didactical knowledge of how and what to study. When we had to learn Paco's Solea por bulerias like usual it took me 3 hours to memorize that piece from paper. Some parts were so complex i had to conceptualize them on paper before i was able to understand what was going on. One of the other students (years ahead on me in technique and in understanding flamenco) suffered the same problem of conceptualization. Unlike me he was not able to analyze it on paper and as a result it took him not 3 hours but many months to learn that piece. The same applied to a tricky tientos variation we learned. Despite being years behind on the others i was the only one playing it correctly because i was the only one able to conceptualize it on paper, allowing me to see/understand were my brain tricked me (in the same way it tricked all others). When i entered a dance school i was submitted to numerous rhythmic patterns not practiced by me before. On top the teacher made numerous mistakes in compas and individual beats which was not a big help in understanding what was going on. Fortunately i have a natural ability to feel when something is correct and when not. I simply recorded all the lessons and every time a pattern came out correctly i annotated it on paper. Some dance parts went wrong almost every time and sometimes it took many takes before i was able to capture the last black spots of the choreography. The end result was a written score of the complete piece showing all the the patterns in the correct order. It allowed me to understand the events more quickly, to compose music that really supported the dance (both on the field of inspiration as well on the field of didactics, when possible correcting the teachers lack of didactical skills) and it allowed me to share that knowledge with other players joining in (if they showed an interest and were able to read rhythm). So in short conservatory showed me a totally different way of looking at music/flamenco and made me a 1.000.000 times better then i was before. They did not kill my individuality (nor my heart and soul) all they did was hand me many many tools to express myself the most optimal way, first of all by pointing out and helping me solve my technical and musical lacks of skills. Harmony lessons did not change my compositions, but the lessons in technique, rhythm and interpretation i received highly improved my level of playing and composing. Technique and interpretation in a way are theory based as well, not meaning everybody has to use the same fingers, hand position, intonation, notes and interpretation etc, but MY experience is that only a limited amount of people (like Paco de Lucia) are able to play the guitar with a natural technique "out of the blue" and without making numerous translation mistakes between thought and execution. Conservatory doesn't offer you instant solutions for all your problems and there is still a lot you have to discover yourself, but they can help you to develop yourself more structurally. Conservatory (like real life experience) can be a perfect start for a musical career but it obviously is not the only way and basically nothing more then just a first step in a future career as an individual (heart based) musician. Obviously Spain hosts many many players way more capable as me, but i believe there are also lots of players that will struggle to play some of the stuff i learned to play (and i play less then 2 hours a week). Why should listening to records of top players be better then receiving private lessons of them on a conservatory? Obviously when they basically live in your house 24/7 it's an other thing, especially when you study 12 hours a day on top of it. Even paco plays the same stuff over and over again, the same notes, the same interpretation, ... only over time interpretation will change. His involvement with others did not kill his individuality but inspired him to develop and to get the very best out of himself (like conservatory did with me). In the same way music theory did not kill the individuality and heart of Bach, Mozart, de Falla and Ridrigo like Shakespeare did not suffer from his ability to write and read.
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