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Miguel de Maria -> Marija Temo workshop (Sep. 22 2003 17:55:48)
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This weekend I attended some classes given by Marija Temo, 3 "flamenco communication" and 2 "cante."
Temo is a somewhat brash young woman, curly reddish hair, dancer physique. I don't know how old she is, but she can't be in her thirties as she appears, for she has the astounding ability to play guitar, sing, and dance flamenco! How much knowledge she has is amazing, and she has systemized these things and demystified them for us non-spaniards to better understand.
The class was about communication, but it turned out to really be having dancers do their choreography and her telling them what they were doing wrong. I'm sure most people here wouldn't be surprised that most of the dancers did their steps meekly and without the proper attitude. The "interpretation" is very important, it seems. If the dancer leans forward, she is geting ready to do something, if she leans back, she's reposing, she's waiting for someone else to do something. If she does two llamadas, the second one better be more dynamic than the first. It's rude to do loud things when the singer is singing, or the guitarist is playing. Your moves, as a dancer, should complement and express the singer or guitarist. Now that's a new one--the dancer actually accompanies the other. I like that. You mean the dancer's not supposed to elephant through her choreography and never notice the guitarist unless she thinks he messes up? Really? That's how it works?
Temo stressed improvisation, the ability to improvise, which really comes from a knoweldge of structure and underlying beats. For example, in bulerias, which is based on the 12 3 6 8 10, almost all moves/falsetas will fall within that rhythm or a few others, such as 12 3 7 8 10, 12 3 6 9, 12 2 4 6 8 10, or 1 2, 4 5, 7 8, 10 11. If you play a falsata or make a move and don't know which pattern it's based on, you have no business playing it! You don't get it! On the other hand, knowing how this works makes it so much easier to figure out falsetas, as well as to play them.
A lot of this was a bit over my head, since I don't even know how to play a desplante, but I appreciated the gist of it. After all, in every group I've played, when I want to take a solo, the other guitarist seems to feel the need to play chords (which are louder than solo lines, by the way), as loud as he can. When you are playing in a duo, do you even listen to the other person? Or just yourself? Don't you get bored of listening to yourself do rumba strums on I V progressions? Okay, I've vented.
The cante class was nice. Now I know how hard it is. For me. I've been taking voice lessons for a few months and realized an amazing amount of progress, but always wondered if a flamenco would accept my opera technique. Well, Temo recommended to everyone to get voice lessons in a conservatory. First learn how to control your voice, second, make it sound flamenco--this is stylistic. So yes, you sing scales, octaves, vowels, that kind of thing. There are people who cringe at the thought of scales or of systematically working on technique, but I am not one of them. Temo believes, as do I, that anyone can learn anything if they apply themselves to it (and get lessons from a good teacher). Of course, most musicians are ignorant and racist--you're not from spain, you can never play flamenco, I can't show you how to play guitar, you have to feel it. Okay, I'm off my soapbox!
If anyone gets a chance to study with Ms. Temo, I recommend it. She's brash! But she knows her stuff and she doesn't give you any nonsense or mumbo jumbo about gypsies or natural talent. You just have to listen and practice and study! And she is a good place to start.
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