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Who here came to flamenco via jazz/improv vs. through composed music?
Hey guys - I'm a bit of a lurker/slacker when it comes to the forum, so pardon this question from a stranger, but..
I'm curious about how people got into flamenco. And what styles - if any- they did before hand. Namely, if they were into improv type music vs. a composed music. Like jazz vs. classical.
I play jazz and brazilian music, and went to Berklee. I was always into the "do it your own way" school - but do your homework/transcribing,etc as well!
At times it seems my struggles to gain confidence and understanding in flamenco may relate to not having been through a more "classical" type training/mentoring.
When I read the judges commentary of the challenges, I realize I never had a teacher break down my **** so thoroughly. Jazz world is all about "sound great man..just keep working on it". Very vague. Even at Berklee.
(In all fairness though, it's harder to criticize someone's be-bop improvisation - made up on the spot - than their rendition of Villa-Lobos..or PdL for that matter. You can't even ask them to repeat something if you wanted to hear it again more closely! Because most jazz players don't - and can't - play the same thing twice)
But when you hear Vicente play tunes in concert almost EXACTLY like he does on the record - as so many modern concert flamenco guitarists seem to do (Gerardo, Paco, etc etc)- it blows my mind they can play a concert of what must amount to 2 hours of memorized music that scarcely repeats and flows so organically.
When I hear flamenco, it has all the energy, swing and irreverance of jazz, but it seems that so many of the contemporary greats are performing it like classical music; playing "their pieces" just like they practice them, with minimal improvisation.
Granted, I know they can improvise...
But anyway, my question probably geared towards the more experienced players here:
do you guys feel as comfortable improvising on an open rumba (like Aguas or Rio Ancho) as you do playing a through composed piece? Did you transcribe Paco's improvisations to get the gitano flavor? Do you play "Vicente licks" in the same way a saxophonist throws in some John Coltrane licks Giant Steps? Or are you kinda playing 'in the key', using your ear instead of "playing the changes"??
Are there nights when you play SOLO - in front of a big audience - and start a Tango or Bulerias or whatever, and know that you'll improvise falsettas and compases, switch up the order of the falsettas you known, etc etc?? Or are you performing the pieces exactly as you practice them because it's too risky to improvise a solo bulerias to an audience of 200?
I suppose the nature of my question has mostly to do with the solo/concert flamenco guitar phenomenon, as opposed to accompanying or quadro format or whatever.
Posts: 1893
Joined: Dec. 2 2006
From: Budapest, now in Southampton
RE: Who here came to flamenco via ja... (in reply to turnermoran)
there's an interesting question...i happen to like improvised jazz very much and i sort of came to flamenco through that - thanks to Paco's experimenting in the trio...but before i decided on playing flamenco, i went through the very usual phase of playing blues and rock...i'm comfortable improvising in those styles, using my ears and not knowing anything about the theories behind the notes...but then i wanted to play jazz and gave it up quickly because of the so much theory involved, and having had to learn to read standard notation...i guess i was just too lazy to do that...flamenco is a very fine way in between improvised and composed music...if you want you can play flamenco note for note but i'd think as you get more and more experienced the more you improvise while playing (even in front of an audience)...but to me this really means improvising different falsetas, different rhythms, not making up melodies right there but rather choosing different falsetas or different rhythmic patterns that still suit the intended mood... we have a monthly flamenco club here with a small audience and us guitarists always have the opportunity to play and most often we improvise...sort of like a real juerga, say we play tangos, i start playing and of course i had no idea what i was going to do as i had no tango piece prepared, but i had several falsetas in my mind...so i just played those and in a different way that i usually do...one is that one always likes to experiment and the other things is that the musicians around you really influence the moment...if the cajón player beats it differently than what you're used to, you also play your stuff differently so the music becomes one entity instead of two...and sometimes it's the other way around...it's all about interaction that you have prepared for... it's just me but i don't play rumbas, i really hate the type of rumba that's most often heard, people improvising in a scale or two at best over 3-4 chords...it can be done well but i'm not into that stuff and it's not a part of my practicing sessions trying to do that...i also feel that my lack of knowledge in theory - or the general lack of practice of different scales over different chords makes me very uncompetitive in that regard...so i'd rather be the guy strumming the chords than the one who improvises... the thing about great guitarists on stage, once you become great, people expect to hear the stuff that you recorded so there's little room for improvisation, of course they could do a lot more of that, sometimes they do too, but there are expectations to meet...that's a job, it's not like a small club gig or a juerga...still, i think they do try out new things but those are in the minor details that many people don't even notice...and they need to do that otherwise they'd be bored to death playing their own music for the umpteenth time...
RE: Who here came to flamenco via ja... (in reply to turnermoran)
hey understand your background to well and be good to hear some feedback.. think the vibe is that there is.nt alot of improvisation in a jazz sense...and i guess alot of the brazilian players like raphael and yamandu also have their stuff worked out so maybe closer to that approach than say be bop etc... saying this the flamencos [guitarists] i work with like the jazz mindset when it comes to extending chords and linear expansion providing it becomes a set thing eventually...ideas born from improvisation end up us composed forms with a bit of room for variation.. with my solo playing things are pretty set..pieces if you like..still wrestling with some basic ideas...
with playing a solo over a rhumba things could open up...playing either in a linear way or vertical way, really depending on the situation...guess that's jamming more so than a performance piece...
hope this makes sense as we share a very similiar background but also with a classical rep [which i never really play anymore...].....
with the various palos falsetas can be switched around..take one from here or there or one of your own....dont think theres too many out there who can improvise a bulerias on the spot...just to much technique to deal with...unlike streaming a set of 16ths or 8th notes over changes...very different worlds..
RE: Who here came to flamenco via ja... (in reply to turnermoran)
quote:
At times it seems my struggles to gain confidence and understanding in flamenco may relate to not having been through a more "classical" type training/mentoring.
ps not sure it's that important, think your background in jazz and brazilian music will be of greater benefit in terms of rhythmic and melodic understanding.. the rest maybe understanding compas and flamenco technoque...there is nothing like it in any other styles.. if you play alot of choro..this would help even more..think raphael was heading in a very flamenco way before he died or current players like alessandro penezzi..
RE: Who here came to flamenco via ja... (in reply to turnermoran)
I agree with what's been said. Every once in a while, a completely new falseta might appear out of nowhere or you might make minor changes while performing, but most of the time improvising involves changing the order of falsetas or substituting a section of one falseta for another. Another kind of improvising is done at home when you look for ideas and develop them until you feel like using them for performance.
RE: Who here came to flamenco via ja... (in reply to NormanKliman)
I understand that the improvisations in flamenco - at least for solo playing - have more to do with plugging in and out different pre-rehearsed falsettas.
Which is interesting to me, having come from a jazz background where that is patently frowned upon. It's kinda the opposite of "improvisation".
Anyway, it makes for an interesting reconciliation of something that came up in a lesson once.
It was the sentiment "how many times can you play the same thing and still love it anyway?". It was expressed in a flamenco lesson given to me by one of our own bad-asses here at Foro (who I am fortunate to live close enough to to get a lesson!) I think it was a suggestion to use what I already know as part of my flamenco playing, rather than adapt to something foreign that might not suit me.
Anyway, the thing is, the level of difficulty seems so damn high for flamenco, that the only way to get the aire is to play something a million times. I have been working on "Almoraima" for years!. And it's still not there. But by the time it is, I'll probably never want to play it again.
Don't you guys get tired of performing the same falsettas? I mean sure, you can compose/learn more, but this is exactly the essence of my question:
Is the jazz musician the type of person who needs total freedom and a flamenco musician the type who needs the structure? 2 different species?
Would flamenco "work" if one said to himself "I'm gonna play a bulerias, and limit myself to not playing any falsettas I know, yet keep playing and improvising them while staying in compas - in a public performance?"
If the tables were turned in jazz, sure it would work. Jazz guys could memorize a 4 minute solo, to be played just like they practice it. But it would be boring and.."predictable". It wouldn't be jazz.
Granted, we're talking about 2 different genres, from 2 different cultures. But it's interesting to consider that both emerged as expressions of a highly oppressed culture, and both use virtuosity as requisites - which fits with the notion that to be recognized for your skills when society treads upon you - you have to do it twice as good as the oppressor. Many more parallels exist, and many unique things as well
RE: Who here came to flamenco via ja... (in reply to turnermoran)
quote:
I understand that the improvisations in flamenco - at least for solo playing - have more to do with plugging in and out different pre-rehearsed falsettas.
not true..... we improvise...... note by note..... sometimes we quote other players falsetas to show our cleverness the way jazz players make quotes..... but when I improvise I improvise.
as in this video at 1:30 ... I never played the falseta ever before and will never play it again. I didn't think before play this falseta or even... which note to start on... I just simply "went for it".... thats how I improvise and that is how a flamenco player should improvise.
I do also play set falsetas in my shows, but about 50% of the falsetas I play in a show are improvised.
Before flamenco I......... played CLassical Jazz Rock - bass, drums, keys- I was way into Zeppelin, Hendrix Cream, Rush and Yes. Got into early metal but by 1985(16 years old) I was focusing on jazz and classical. Gospel - I was the church keyboardist
One day I was roofing a house in the Texas sun because I thought my girlfriend was pregnant. She was sure and I knew my relationship with "Manuel Labor" was going to get much closer. We had torn off the composite shingles on a particularly high pitched roof leaving the plywood underneath and a few nails and staples and other nasty dangers sticking up everywhere.... Yes, I slipped at the top of the roof and slid down the entire way dragging my ass which was barely covered by a pair of blue jean cut-off shorts, luckily at the very last moment thrusting off the deck to make it into the backyard swimming pool instead of the concrete below. I had been trying to stop myself on the way down and had demolished my nails and fingertips in the process. After getting out of the pool, not realizing or caring about the bloody thrashing my back side had taken, I looked at my fingers and in a fit of rage, held them up the the sky and began to scream at God. "What the hell is this!!!!!!!, What a dimented fuk you are!!!!, You give me a talent for music for THIS!!!!!!!, I hate you!!!!!!!!"
When I got home and after I explained the day to my girl, the phone rang. It was the pastor of a church. She had heard me play piano at her house messing around. I played bass in funk band with her son who played guitar and her other son who was the singer. The band was called "The Pee Shivers." Anyway......I said "Ma'am, I am really sorry but I don't REALLY play the piano. I only know a few chords. She said, "GOd told me to call you and those few chords will do just fine. The position pays $250 per week."
I took the gig. Girlfriend got her period the first Sunday I played there.
They used to have me come and play guitar solos (classical) on their TV show, but the main duties were to jam on funky Southern Gospel music with my band mates from The Pee Shivers. We had a strange duality. Psychedelic Funk on Saturday Nights and Church music on Sunday and prayers for forgiveness of our many transgressions.
The congregation of that Church passed a plate around when I told them I was moving to New York to play flamenco. They raised $500 to add to my grand total of $0. They all prayed for my salvation and wished me happiness and success which luckily has come to be. They were amazing people who I connected with musically every Sunday for 2 years. I thank each and everyone of them.
I also messed around with oud,sitar and Celtic music.
My first professional gig was at the age of 16. I was in the pit orchestra for a production of Evita. I was paid $250 for 17 performances of the show. I was obviously the only guitarist in town (Dallas) that could read and would take such crappy pay.
Since it was a pit orchestra I didn't mind bringing in my white Jackson Randy Rhoads model with horribly shiny gold hardware......
RE: Who here came to flamenco via ja... (in reply to turnermoran)
quote:
Do you play "Vicente licks" in the same way a saxophonist throws in some John Coltrane licks Giant Steps?
Here is my young student improvising a solo in a Vicente Rumba. He is using Paco licks left and right...... sort of the inverse of what you are talking about....
RE: Who here came to flamenco via ja... (in reply to JasonMcGuire)
I never played the falseta ever before and will never play it again. I didn't think before play this falseta or even... which note to start on... I just simply "went for it".... thats how I improvise and that is how a flamenco player should improvise.
quote:
Sweet! I was hoping you'd say something along these lines. Totally inspiring!!
I'm sure everyone has their approach, but it's good to know some are really pushing to take risks by taking a first step without knowing where the next one is - on stage!
Now as for that Randy Rhodes guitar, I hope you squeezed in some Dee quotes between numbers:
RE: Who here came to flamenco via ja... (in reply to turnermoran)
My first classicalish things were.... Mood for a Day, Black Mountainside, The Clap etc..... but I did exploit the early 1980's by learning "DEE" and also Rik Emmet's "Midsummers Daydream" because the girlies at school loved those tunes.
Posts: 1872
Joined: Jul. 12 2004
From: San Francisco
RE: Who here came to flamenco via ja... (in reply to turnermoran)
Yes, it would work, but the performer has to be good enough to make it work. If you search youtube , you'll find guys playing long buleria solos that clearly have improvisation. Not like a jazz guy taking choruses, but consider that they also don't have anyone comping. Take a jazz soloist, and he can do an improv without anyone playing changes, but for how long can he maintain structure and interest? Typically, for a few choruses. Not so much a ten minute solo. A more apt comparison would be jazz guitarists playing chord melodies, and in that case, I think there probably isn't any more improvisation than a flamenco guitarist at a similar level. While masters like Joe Pass may have been able to do a great deal of improv in his solo playing, I think most mortals are apt to work out dificult passages. Same with flamenco, high level guys are always going for it IMO.
quote:
ORIGINAL: turnermoran
Would flamenco "work" if one said to himself "I'm gonna play a bulerias, and limit myself to not playing any falsettas I know, yet keep playing and improvising them while staying in compas - in a public performance?"
RE: Who here came to flamenco via ja... (in reply to Mark2)
this could be impro
at 5:00 there is the chord progression that is being soloed afterwards. Probably the most beautiful way to develop the circle of fifhts i have ever heard...
from what i know the typical jazz imrpo is not imrpovising a whole new composition, it is usually soloing (by single notes or chords) over a pre set chord progression. Anyways i think that delivery is much more important. Its hard enough to deliver even easy falsetas in a highly dynamic way...
RE: Who here came to flamenco via ja... (in reply to XXX)
Here in this next video is a different improvisational concept. We had 2 days to put a show together..... always the case it seems.... this was just one of a few big numbers. Yaelisa put us in the studio and said each of you do a different style of Cantiñas. This was BEFORE the singers got there. The singers only had 1 day to learn the arrangement. We talked for a couple of minutes.... who is going to do Mira Bras? Alegrias de Cordoba? etc..... ok. Falsetas... I grabbed the guitar and played a few ideas and said "Its going to go sort of like this, but I don't have time to arrange them note for note so LISTEN CLOSELY and I want to do the silencio using 'Round Midnight by Thelonius Monk." The dancers as always were pissed because they wanted to have it completely MOUNTED. No go. They recorded the ideas on their iPhones and we rehearsed it the next day and did the show the following day. This video is from the 2nd night. All 3 nights were different but "riffed" using the same ideas because the material was loosely decided upon.
RE: Who here came to flamenco via ja... (in reply to XXX)
quote:
at 5:00 there is the chord progression that is being soloed afterwards
funny though that even the most amazing players like Antonio Rey put chord progessions to solo over that don't really change keys. So they aren't really "changes." Only Paco for the most part solos over changes that actually modulate. As in Zyryab. But is that improving Paco is doing or did he work out his business before hand?
Miles Davis would have fired him for that.
I am not so great at playing over changes either. So I have to work things out sometimes as in this video.
RE: Who here came to flamenco via ja... (in reply to JasonMcGuire)
quote:
One day I was roofing a house in the Texas sun because I thought my girlfriend was pregnant. She was sure and I knew my relationship with "Manuel Labor" was going to get much closer. We had torn off the composite shingles on a particularly high pitched roof leaving the plywood underneath and a few nails and staples and other nasty dangers sticking up everywhere.... Yes, I slipped at the top of the roof and slid down the entire way dragging my ass which was barely covered by a pair of blue jean cut-off shorts, luckily at the very last moment thrusting off the deck to make it into the backyard swimming pool instead of the concrete below. I had been trying to stop myself on the way down and had demolished my nails and fingertips in the process. After getting out of the pool, not realizing or caring about the bloody thrashing my back side had taken, I looked at my fingers and in a fit of rage, held them up the the sky and began to scream at God. "What the hell is this!!!!!!!, What a dimented fuk you are!!!!, You give me a talent for music for THIS!!!!!!!, I hate you!!!!!!!!"
When I got home and after I explained the day to my girl, the phone rang. It was the pastor of a church. She had heard me play piano at her house messing around. I played bass in funk band with her son who played guitar and her other son who was the singer. The band was called "The Pee Shivers." Anyway......I said "Ma'am, I am really sorry but I don't REALLY play the piano. I only know a few chords. She said, "GOd told me to call you and those few chords will do just fine. The position pays $250 per week."
I took the gig. Girlfriend got her period the first Sunday I played there.
They used to have me come and play guitar solos (classical) on their TV show, but the main duties were to jam on funky Southern Gospel music with my band mates from The Pee Shivers. We had a strange duality. Psychedelic Funk on Saturday Nights and Church music on Sunday and prayers for forgiveness of our many transgressions.
The congregation of that Church passed a plate around when I told them I was moving to New York to play flamenco. They raised $500 to add to my grand total of $0. The all prayed for my salvation and wished me happiness and success which luckily has come to be. They were amazing people who I connected with musically every Sunday for 2 years. I thank each and everyone of them.
no comments about this whacky and true story...... damn.... all that typing for nuthin'
RE: Who here came to flamenco via ja... (in reply to JasonMcGuire)
this is the funniest god damn story ever!
the image of you in some tight 80's style blue jean shorts as a member of the Pee Shivers makes me think that maybe the congregation was praying for your salvation from your fashion sense.
You should do a project w/ R.Diaz. He can wear the suspenders-over-flower print blouse look-with chinese slippers, and you can wear the biker shorts with fringe cut off over construction boots. Or maybe your Crocs! Fakemenco? More like Fuked-menco!
RE: Who here came to flamenco via ja... (in reply to XXX)
quote:
this could be impro
I'm pretty sure it is "off the cuff" (ie playing stuff in an area they've explored before in private), but if you listen to it carefully, it's actually quite boring, with the same template being used all the time and ending in the Rondeñas resolving chord which they milk for all it's worth like a kid with a new toy.
"Hey check me out ...eh?"
The main thing these guys have is good rhythm, so they could play anything and fart on 10 and it would still be pretty good Flamenco, since most Flamencos care more about the rhythm than any damn notes or fancy fingering anyway.
(They are only half-listening anyway and waiting for the singer. )
Actually, thinking about it, a lot of the OldSchool falsetas were very cleverly thought out pieces of intricate genius in comparison to this IMO.
RE: Who here came to flamenco via ja... (in reply to Ron.M)
quote:
since most Flamencos care more about the rhythm than any damn notes or fancy fingering anyway
nailed it. BINGO!!!!!!!
I agree about the older material. Some brilliant stuff back then. amazing..... some real crap too....
Today most of us are just screwing around with the guitar trying to find a way to get into some dancers "squirrel covers." Older flamenco was way more dignified.
Posts: 1827
Joined: Jul. 8 2003
From: Living in Granada, Andalucía
RE: Who here came to flamenco via ja... (in reply to JasonMcGuire)
quote:
ORIGINAL: JasonMcGuire no comments about this whacky and true story...... damn.... all that typing for nuthin'
Crap.
I enjoyed that story jason, just reading the thread now. Its the sad fact of a musicians life that at one time or another he will have to do van deliveries, fix roofs or cars or whatever. Sounds like you had a direct line to God though, can you give me his number I need some help right now.
Harold once got a job as a film extra on an Italian film about a gold heist in London. So there he was driving through London with a sawn off shot gun and a balaclava over his head, the film crew right behind him or so he thought, when an armed response police car pulls him over. Turns out the film director had not got permission to shoot mad driving scenes on the streets of London and so they sped off leaving Harold to explain to the coppers, "honest guv I'm making a film" !!!!
RE: Who here came to flamenco via ja... (in reply to Kate)
quote:
Sounds like you had a direct line to God though, can you give me his number I need some help right now.
Apparently he responds quicker if you wear cut off jeans and you most certainly would look better in them than I. Do a lot of finger pointing and use foul language....he will be replying to your needs in short order.
RE: Who here came to flamenco via ja... (in reply to turnermoran)
Hi,
very interesting topic!! I agree with most of what been said, but maybe couldn't get this:
quote:
Because most jazz players don't - and can't - play the same thing twice
well, I think, the question is to improvise to what level? Joe Pass says in one of his videos that You should be able to play the exact same thing, cause unless You don't have that, the music is not coming from your heart, or from you or whatever... You don't know what's happenig, but You should! And as a jazzist you should be able to play back any tune by ear at the very first time -at least a couple of my jazz-guitarist friends say and does it. So I think, it's just the point of wiev
I played rock, classical, bossa, little jazz, and flamenco of course. I often improvised a lot on rumba stuff, even before public not rehersad before.
I improvised on jazz, blues as well, but sometimes I played very well, sometimes very bad. It's not consistent. Cause I sometimes I don't exactly know what was happening. I 'improvise' in flamenco just by variating different pre-learned falsetas, sometimes slight variations in rythm or notes, but not that freely. My aim would be to improvise freely over anything in compas just like Jason does, but I'm not to that level yet. I may improvise in compas by just using chords, and play compas, but not falsetas..
Anyway, the videos above show that anything can be done.
Yep, and one more thing - I remember Manlo Sanlucar said in an interwiev that Paco not just composes but improvises regulary his own, prewritten stuff - I think he meant his flamenco stuff by this.
Oh, and one more - when Juan Carmona was in Hungary some years ago, He said that his most common problem with playing together with jazz musicians was, that even some fine jazz player couldn't not hold/improvise in compas.
So two different thing, two entirely different world, with examples to both extremes. The biggest difference is maybe that a flamenco guitarist usually have to reach a quite high level/understanding regarding technical things, compas etc to be able to improvise in authentic forms, while jazz players, even the begginners start with improvisation.
RE: Who here came to flamenco via ja... (in reply to JasonMcGuire)
Jason,
I don't know if you're joking with me or what, but what I can say in my experience anyway is that if you play Samba rhythm to any Brazilian away from home and feeling nostalgic , then ANY Samba from any period or by any artist, then his heart will fill with joy regardless.
Same goes for ANY Jamaican and Reggae of any kind.
Play it on a guitar, or with your knuckles on a table, or sound it with your voice and finger clicking....
Flamenco IMO is no different.
Fashions come and go, but the rhythm remains.
In Western cultures, we like and associate with "tunes" and "melodies" much, much more.
But in other cultures, the rhythm carries the heritage, not the notes.
RE: Who here came to flamenco via ja... (in reply to Ron.M)
quote:
ORIGINAL: Ron.M I'm pretty sure it is "off the cuff" (ie playing stuff in an area they've explored before in private)
Well since for most flamencos "picking falsetas" is already considered "improvisation", then this is more than that for sure. Flamenco impro (general opinion) is mostly playing things always a bit different, as you say there is an "area" that you know of, but you play it differently each time, mostly rhythmic variation. As Jason said in his example too he sort of has a big picture for the dancers, but not worked out in detail. No idea what you mean with Rondenas chord though...
quote:
The dancers as always were pissed because they wanted to have it completely MOUNTED
I would get along very well with your dancers. I like mounted things too!
quote:
So I have to work things out sometimes as in this video.
Pure sweetness at 0:46 Thanks, maestro!
quote:
Here is a picture from the time period.
No wonder why you played in a church, you looked like Jesus man!
RE: Who here came to flamenco via ja... (in reply to Ron.M)
quote:
I don't know if you're joking with me or what,
If you are ever wondering if I am joking....... I'm joking.
I agree with your observations and I think it is incredibly important for westerns to realize when they fall in love with flamenco. The collection of "gig panties" starts with great compas.
RE: Who here came to flamenco via ja... (in reply to Kate)
quote:
Harold once got a job as a film extra on an Italian film about a gold heist in London. So there he was driving through London with a sawn off shot gun and a balaclava over his head, the film crew right behind him or so he thought, when an armed response police car pulls him over. Turns out the film director had not got permission to shoot mad driving scenes on the streets of London and so they sped off leaving Harold to explain to the coppers, "honest guv I'm making a film" !!!!
I love it. The non corporate existence is amazing isn't it? This is how one can "improvise" life. These are the kinds of things that when happening drive you nutz because they suck so much. Later you realize them as defining moments.
RE: Who here came to flamenco via ja... (in reply to JasonMcGuire)
@Turnermoran I don't think that not having a classical background is a problem, most flamencos don't have it. Flamenco is just diffficult whatever way you come to it, experienced in any other music or a complete beginner. As far as improvising I think you maybe right that it happens more in group than in solo performance. I started playing punk rock on a classical guitar with two strings. Then played bass professionally for many years but until flamenco I have been very instinctive and unschooled. I enjoy the discipline needed in flamenco but I think the goal ultimately is to be schooled enough to know rules and free enough to break them a little when the music asks for it.
@Jason, enjoyed the story, and I am really enjoying that por medio harmony lesson you posted. I'm no expert but I do occasionally improvise when I'm playing por bulerias and tangos. I think one just has to go for it, my compas usually keeps me in check. It's amazing what comes out when you take the risk- doesn't always work out but it's very enjoyable.
Por medio I already play around with a barre at the 3rd and 1st fret but that lesson has given me loads more ideas thank you! I recommend it to anyone as a place to start improvising, of course compas needs to be in the body, can't be thinking too much about that.
Go to 5.30 for por medio improv discussion- Highly recommended!
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We had torn off the composite shingles on a particularly high pitched roof leaving the plywood underneath and a few nails and staples and other nasty dangers sticking up everywhere.... Yes, I slipped at the top of the roof and slid down the entire way dragging my ass which was barely covered by a pair of blue jean cut-off shorts, luckily at the very last moment thrusting off the deck to make it into the backyard swimming pool instead of the concrete below. I had been trying to stop myself on the way down and had demolished my nails and fingertips in the process. After getting out of the pool, not realizing or caring about the bloody thrashing my back side had taken, I looked at my fingers and in a fit of rage, held them up the the sky and began to scream at God. "What the hell is this!!!!!!!, What a dimented fuk you are!!!!, You give me a talent for music for THIS!!!!!!!, I hate you!!!!!!!!" 
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