Welcome to one of the most active flamenco sites on the Internet. Guests can read most posts but if you want to participate click here to register.
This site is dedicated to the memory of Paco de Lucía, Ron Mitchell, Guy Williams, Linda Elvira, Philip John Lee, Craig Eros, Ben Woods, David Serva and Tom Blackshear who went ahead of us.
We receive 12,200 visitors a month from 200 countries and 1.7 million page impressions a year. To advertise on this site please contact us.
Posts: 1943
Joined: Dec. 2 2006
From: Budapest, now in Southampton
RE: What have flamenco given you? (in reply to yohan)
besides the frustration and constant worry to sound good especially playing in front of others, it has given me a lot, technique, "an ear", persistence, discipline, some respect, and many friends...
Posts: 1531
Joined: Nov. 7 2008
From: New York City/San Francisco
RE: What have flamenco given you? (in reply to odinz)
quote:
I thought it would be interesting to see what flamenco has given people hereabouts!
Your thoughts and feelings and whatever, i dont know if there is a simmilar thread, sorry if it is!
Flamenco has given me…. a cyclical succession of exhilarating hope followed by meek disappointment in my ability to play the instrument I love. I am now seduced by my own ignorance of flamenco and enjoy relearning it all from the ground zero I inflicted upon myself. Therefore, more humility and less contempt now accompany me in what I thought would be a simple a journey -from LAmenor to Mimajor- and revealed as long and uncertain as el Camino de Santiago de Compostela.
For whatever it may mean to some of you, each time I hold my “flamenca” I give thanks to our Lord for such gift.
RE: What have flamenco given you? (in reply to gounaro)
its given me more than i would have ever expected...or dared ask for
patience, some discipline, many friends, humility, confidence, opportunities, travel, sex, love, drunken nights, some money (not a lot but enough to survive), lots of pleasure...some stress...but very little in comparasment...but most important its given me a purpose...i don't have to be one of those people wondering what it is that i love in life or want to do...i am never ever bored or lonely, never confused.....i am just as happy being out socializing or with a girl as i am being a home by myself practicing something in front of the computer for 6 hours..or transcribing something or listening to flamenco...so its also made me independent and self reliant
also ...u are always achieving goals when u are conquering a falseta or something you couldn't do before regardless how big or small ..so u constantly have that feeling that there's no limits and everything is possible and doable with enough practice and patience...and that translates to other aspects of your life too
at the risk of sounding a little cheesy i feel like finding flamenco truly was a gift to me and feel like the luckiest guy on earth every single day...i have one purpose and one goal in life...to continue to be in flamenco and to continue to improve...at whatever rate...sometimes big improvements sometimes small and almost unnoticeable...but even when u stand still in flamenco you are improving imo cause u are building up experience and are internalizing things u have no idea u are internalizing..so much of improving in flamenco is unnoticeable but also necessary....things u cant exactly put your fingers on or point out..but are never the less there in you every time you play
u go to any city in the world with a flamenco school ( and that's almost everywhere ) and you have instant friends and people you have a lot in common with
good topic...i always knew this kind of things in general but its nice to think about it in more detail when writing it down...so i can read it back to myself and remind myself
RE: What have flamenco given you? (in reply to Guest)
hahhhah
it was my first reaction ...but then i accidentay started to think about it seriously......so the deep , a touch too long speech
that's why they never let me win anything.... people know what i am going to be like in the speech god help the world if i ever get an excuse to make a speech on tv...it will be the only speech where instead of being graceful the guy making the speech is sounding bitter, and defensive and cursing and blaming..i plan to display no grace whatsoever
RE: What have flamenco given you? (in reply to Guest)
quote:
at the risk of sounding a little cheesy
Please don't worry about that Florian, I appreciate your sincerity. I identify with your thoughts but didn't write mine down. I often have to contain myself on the foro because flamenco means so much to me.
I always enjoy it when Ron begins a post- "dear fellow sufferers" like we are afflicted with an obsessive disease. I feel more possessed than obsessed and I like it!
Posts: 1821
Joined: Jul. 26 2009
From: The land down under
RE: What have flamenco given you? (in reply to odinz)
To many thoughts, experiences and influenced decisions to mention.
I often ask myself, What would my life be like if i had never picked up a guitar? Its influence has so great that i cannot realistically imagine the alternative.
RE: What have flamenco given you? (in reply to yohan)
quote:
please explain
I don't think i have too...I am sure you know ...its given me almost as much sex as alcohol has but like i said the most important things are the deep feelings and the purpose in life and all that other crap
RE: What have flamenco given you? (in reply to odinz)
I think it's always been a secret refuge..an escape from the day to day world.
"In my mind I still need a place to go"..Neil Young
When listening carefully to a falseta or trying to learn it, or practising.. nothing else matters at the time...also listening to a good Flamenco singer gives you a perspective on things IMO.
Posts: 407
Joined: May 26 2010
From: Sarpsborg,Norway
RE: What have flamenco given you? (in reply to Florian)
quote:
at the risk of sounding a little cheesy i feel like finding flamenco truly was a gift to me and feel like the luckiest guy on earth every single day...i have one purpose and one goal in life...to continue to be in flamenco and to continue to improve...at whatever rate...sometimes big improvements sometimes small and almost unnoticeable...but even when u stand still in flamenco you are improving imo cause u are building up experience and are internalizing things u have no idea u are internalizing..so much of improving in flamenco is unnoticeable but also necessary....things u cant exactly put your fingers on or point out..but are never the less there in you every time you play
Thats not cheesy florian, actually i find that beautifully written, i think you answered for a whole lot of people with that, it is surely how i feel, or will when i am going to actually study flamenco
RE: What have flamenco given you? (in reply to odinz)
Respect from other musicians without playing more than a fragment. Identity. Friends. Girls. Confidence to pick up any other instrument and know that I can learn to play it. Tendinitis.
I also like what Florian said about having a purpose. There too much to learn and that learning is too much fun to really ever experience boredom again. However, I have to cut my practices short or suffer flaring tendinitis. It sucks to be forced to take long breaks and find something else to do.
thanks guys its nice to know i am not the only cheesy one here :-)
quote:
I have to cut my practices short or suffer flaring tendinitis. It sucks to be forced to take long breaks and find something else to do.
that sucks...i dont know how i would deal with it, i had a scare last year thinking i had something serious but it just turned out to be something i was doing wrong...i was getting too excited and gripping the guitar and tensing up to hard with my left hand when playing for dancers...i started to pay attention to that and remain concentrated and it went away...
but i soposse if i couldn't play all the time i would still practice around it...find things to do around it to make every moment count...transcribe stuff i liked (that dosent require too much playing), or listen to a lot of flamenco, analyze different compases and nice rhythms for bulerias, put them all aside to transcribe them ...practice palmas....i am sure i am not telling you anything new..u prob already do all this...but there's ways around it...and all those things have to be done anyway
do your hands hurt equally bad ? or is it just one
RE: What have flamenco given you? (in reply to odinz)
it's given me lates nights, great holidays, a sore head from too much manzanilla, and a sense of that music is not just a bunch of notes but divine inspiration and communion with god.
RE: What have flamenco given you? (in reply to odinz)
It's actually getting better. I still have a tendency to tense up with my left hand. I find it very hard to just press down enough to fret the note and get a good tone. The problem is in both of my hands. The sides of the wrist and tops of the forearms are the problem areas.
Some things that I've been doing that seem to be working: - play while looking in the mirror. I tend to sit with bad posture and slump my shoulders so I look up at the mirror and recognize when it's happening. - I ditched the cross-legged sitting style. I can't stay relaxed in that position for long. I've also ditched the footstool for a Dynarette over my right leg which I highly recommend. It gets my guitar in the same place as the cross-legged approach. Also, I switch between using the Dynarette and playing old-school style where the guitar is held between my left elbow and right thigh. This gets my back straightened out nicely.
Florian, when I couldn't play flamenco, I started playing steel guitar. The instrument has it's own unique challenges but sliding a bar around is far less technical than flamenco, obviously. This allowed me to continue to study music when not playing flamenco guitar. I look at the steel as a fretless bowed instrument with less technical challenges. It's my cello.
Printable Version
god help the world if i ever get an excuse to make a speech on tv...it will be the only speech where instead of being graceful the guy making the speech is sounding bitter, and defensive and cursing and blaming..i plan to display no grace whatsoever 
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread