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estebanana -> RE: Flamenco and Classical Guitars - Differences (May 13 2014 23:51:11)
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Would you attribute the percussive fast response and the special sound of rasgueados mainly to the low action and distance of strings to top at the bridge
No not at all. That has very little to do with it. What you are talking about has mostly to do with how the guitar is being played.
The sound of a flamenco and the whole nature of a flamenco guitar has to do with what you have glued on the soundboard (inside and outside) and how you have shaped and balanced it out.
Even though they may look very similar, there´s a big difference in how you balance out and voice a good flamenco guitar and a good classical guitar.
To add to what Anders said, classical guitars are very different from each other as well.
It depends of what the person wants to play and how. Some classical guitars are very close to flamenco guitars, and you can use flamenco guitars to play jazz or Bach or whatever you want. And with good success if you pick the guitar well.
Some classical guitars are built with the intension of emphasizing chords and crystal clarity in harmony. Those guitars do well with transcriptions of piano music and other classical music with close harmonic movement in the structure of the music. Another classical guitar might be better at sounding romantic and more flamenco, so they would maybe for the Spanish repertoire like Tarrega or Moreno Torroba etc. The music derived from Spanish popular music and folk song, but cast in a classical idiom.
Just an example- A classical guitar by Jim Redgate might be better suited for choral clarity and a Miguel Rogriguez classical might be more romantic sounding, each guitar could play the same music, but with a different emphasis on how the music works. One instrument might show the beauty of the harmony better and not have as lovely a singing voice in the melodic parts, the other might sing beautifully, but not separate the harmonic subtlety as well. So even in classical guitar there are a thousand shades of difference between intentions of players and how they can achieve them according to which type of classical guitar they choose. They may even choose a flamenco guitar to play classical music.
In general the attributes in a guitar that help a player to realize classical music are sustain in melodic passages and clear harmonic voicing in all parts of the fingerboard.
In flamenco guitars a shorter sustain helps keep the compas and rhythmic parts of the music clear. And the voice of the guitar is more narrow in its envelope of sound. The flamenco guitar emphasizes a narrower spectrum of sound as a result of being constructed to show less sustain. The guitar structure is made to react to the right hand to perform rhythmic motifs and ideas and this in turn effects the type of voice the guitar has.
So there are two different kinds of intention operating-
1- Flamenco guitars are intended to perform a primarily rhythmic function and are designed to stay out of the way of themselves harmonically. They are created to be able to stop and start fast when a player damps the strings to end or begin a rhythmic phrase.
2. Classical guitars are primarily made to produce clear harmony and sustained melodic singing even if that means the feel of the guitar does not lend itself naturally to rhythmic work like the fast starts and stops needed of a flamenco guitar.
There are many combinations of qualities that are mixed together in every guitar, and to make a guitar that has all the qualities is difficult. What happens is when you push the construction process to emphasize one type of quality, it takes strength away from another attribute. For example making a flamenco guitar more loose and rhythmically easy to articulate usually cuts down on the singing melodic aspect of the voice. In classical design the stiffness needed to give harmonic clarity often takes some thing from the flexibility of the guitar that makes it sound flamenco.
In a _very general sense_ if you are asking how does this happen in the structure of the top, the flamenco guitar top is designed to allow it to rock back and forth more in the direction of side to side across the top. The top is allowed to be slightly looser in the way the bridge moves and this is moderated by top stiffness and bridge flexibility and weight. The flamenco guitar top moves more side to side in a very subtle way allowing it to have less sustain and a more narrow envelope of sound. It's difficult to explain further because as I said there is not a lot of difference between classical guitars and flamenco guitars, but when each is being made the emphasis shifts from harmonic-melodic clarity to rhythmic clarity; and how the guitar maker pushes the guitar in either direction is very subtle if you want to blend the ideas together. If you want to make dramatic differences between a classical and a flamenco in sustain and reaction to rhythmic attack then there are major differences in how you structure the guitar.
So it's not always the case that the lines between a flamenco and a classical guitar are clear. It has to do with what your intention as a player is. If you wanted to make flamenco solo playing that required a lot of harmonic clarity and not so much jangly rasgueado a more classical guitar might work, but if you want to accompany dancers, a guitar with a more narrow spectrum of sound that has a cutting voice and 'stop on a dime' articulation might be better.
Musical intentions get blended all the time today so it is hard to say what is a 'classcal' and what is 'flamenco' except in the most general terms. At least that is my take on the situation at this time.
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