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Ricardo -> RE: How to start cante accompaniment (Feb. 7 2026 14:54:33)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: sol512
so basically:
1 there is no learning system so it cannot be taught or learnt didactically. (so no point seeking out courses or a teacher to isntruct since instruction is pointless)
2. it can only be absorbed by either living in Andalucia and immersing oneself in flamenco or having spent years listening to cante and trying it out poco a poco.
It is a continual learning process. Sabicas admitted in interview he "composed" as a youngster, but it was not until after 20 years of playing for dancers and singers that he felt his music was "por derecho". So during that training period, you learn "on the job" basically. If you are not actually doing the job then there is no real "learning" going on. That is not to say you can't "study at home". But a didactic method is simply too inefficient for the scope of the thing if you want to do it legitimately.
In the dance academy you (guitarist) learn basic rhythm and then signaling clues, your mental map of a choreography etc, it is a lot of cerebral work for the guitarist not just strumming chords. If you go in as a second guitar and follow that person's lead, you actually learn nothing at all. It is a bit systematic in the sense you have to graduate through easy to hard material (they, the dancers, don't normally let you do advanced things if you tend to miss cues or fall off time with contratiempo etc., so you have to work pretty hard). Many dancers are "proxy singers" that serve the role for the sake of teaching students in lieu of a proper singer. Because the singing sections are measured out mathematically to the choreography, the guitarist should be getting a road map for cante as well. Then when a real singer arrives to work with, you have a basic idea of what might be sung. After a long stretch (some years of experience) of using these worked out structures (one could almost think of letras being recorded with guitar only like a karaoke track and any old singer could come in and sing an appropriate letra that fits the choreography), the guitarist SHOULD notice that in the world minus dancers, the singer is much more free and loose to mess around with the structures and THAT Is where the more advanced concepts of accompanying singers arise. So a didactic step by step method would be learning and using those set letras geared for specific dance choreographies.
In that world outside of dance, it is very hard to learn unless you experience the nuances and tendencies of multiple singers of the same letras, and then work with a single singer that has a very large repertoire. Both of those will slowly develop the ability you are after. As Sabicas said, 20 years of that, it is not a joke or exaggeration. But it is not helpless. By doing what we did in the cante accompaniment thread, we have conservatively introduced some short cuts for those of us outside of spain. It is not proper didactic method, nor is it a substitute for "the real thing" but you can spend time there and develop some intuitions.
As I said in my first post, it is great that you prefer Soleá, but that is the hardest of the styles with the most nuance and variety. That is the mother form. To get there you need to tread water in the shallows for a bit. Do what I said, Alegrias two chord styles, then Fandango coplas, etc., those are much easier so if you want a didactic route, that is where you should start. Also simple rumba tunes like gipsy kings will not hurt you to learn to keep time and chord structure for the sung melodies. Sevillanas as well. That is where the dance class starts the beginners so don't fight the system, just accept that it is "different" and try the path already cut out.
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