Jon Boyes -> RE: a humbling experience (Mar. 23 2004 11:21:10)
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ORIGINAL: Miguel de Maria Now, everyone here thinks rumba is a silly, easy thing, but... when he played the rumba strum, it sounded SO good. He is one of those people that play a simple little strum and it's just--that's what it's supposed to sound like! I have to share the frustration on this - I am coming round to the idea that phrasing is the hardest nut to crack in flamenco. Being able to play some is one thing, but playing it and not sounding like Ron's 'Elvis impersonator' is another thing entirely. I find it a very odd that the flamenco tuition resources on the market devote so little to playing flamenco rhythm. There seems to be a whole load of stuff out there on developing basic techniques, a whole load of simple beginners solos with easy falsetas, and for advanced players there are plenty of transcriptions of modern players doing advanced solo stuff (like the Encuentro series and Fauchers books). But we seem to have a huge gap in the material that focuses on rhythm. I know there's the argument that you have to accompany in order to learn this properly, but I'm sure there's scope for something that teaches 'authentic rhythm'. What I'd really like to see is a tutition book/cd video that focus on this, playing through variations of the main palos, and with input from the tutor pointing out the accents and phrasing. In other words, a method that teaches exactly what Mike, Ron, and the rest of you are talking about, without fussing about falsetas, or focussing too much on what rasgueado is used when. If I were writing a flamenco method, this seems to me to be the logical approach - solid rhythm/compas first, then drop in the falsetas later. Its like learning the blues, you don't leap in and start playing Stevie Ray Vaughan licks, you start off learning twelve bar blues, triplet boogies (the Status Quo rhythm) and get your rhythm sorted first. In the middle of Juan Martin's first Video on Bulerias, he plays a short demo of a modern bulerias to show the compas, without any falsetas just rhythm variations, and its probably the most valuable bit on the video. The Faustino Nunez CD is a step in the right direction ("Oh, THAT'S what Tangos is supposed to sound like" [:D]), but there is precious little of it. There is no music/tab to illustrate what the guitarist is playing, and the narrator is only concerned with counting the compas as opposed to commenting on what the guitarist is actually doing. By the way, if there IS a tuition resource that does this kind of thing, please say so! Jon
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