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Posts: 1945
Joined: Jul. 12 2004
From: San Francisco
RE: is this guy on drugs or what?!?!... (in reply to Yojimbo)
The guy may be a professor, and smart as a whip, but calling himself a flamenco professor and putting out instructional vids is a mis judgement on his part IMO. I remember the online beef he had with Jason and had to smile when Cory was upset that flamencos smoked in the hall where they were contracted to appear. It reminded me of a passage from one of Porhen's books where he wrote that a certain singer was likely to spit on the floor regardless of where he might be.
RE: is this guy on drugs or what?!?!... (in reply to Mark2)
so this guy had a fight with jason mcguire on here? :O is there a link to the thread where they fought? I would like to read what that cory [deleted by admin] is saying. or was that topic deleted? what did they fight about if you remember?
Posts: 1937
Joined: Dec. 2 2006
From: Budapest, now in Southampton
RE: is this guy on drugs or what?!?!... (in reply to Yojimbo)
it's not elitism, not even snobism...it's about caring for the artform, and not wanting people trying to teach it without having a clue what they're doing...thanks to the likes of Ottmar and co., enough people associate flamenco with pink birds and elevator music...
RE: is this guy on drugs or what?!?!... (in reply to xirdneH_imiJ)
quote:
it's not elitism, not even snobism...it's about caring for the artform, and not wanting people trying to teach it without having a clue what they're doing...thanks to the likes of Ottmar and co., enough people associate flamenco with pink birds and elevator music...
I fail to see how posting criticism here about some guy on YouTube has anything to do with "caring for the artform". All it does is pander to the poster's feeling of superiority.
It's elitism - pure and simple. And it's not very attractive.
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RE: is this guy on drugs or what?!?!... (in reply to Yojimbo)
To me it feels like both sides arguments are being of sense.
For one, we in general and certainly could do with a more forgiving attitude about fellow men´s and oneself´s accomplishments / abilities; on the other hand there should be no doubt how misguided didactics will harm a student´s way. Whether autodidactically or through teachers.
The ideal case of an either inspirating or physiologically very updated guitar teacher can produce seamless and advanced players in a very short time. Whilst anything else without luck can mean decades of ever crawling along and never really getting versatile and seamless.
The morphological issue many people envision, however, commonly won´t really matter. What does instead is the functional and detailed picture of execution in mind.
The lucky ones us who either got such projected, or found it by chance themselves, just fly through the subject. Achieving after ~ 2 years what you couldn´t in a lifetime.
Posts: 1945
Joined: Jul. 12 2004
From: San Francisco
RE: is this guy on drugs or what?!?!... (in reply to Yojimbo)
I think the quality of instruction one receives, in particular outside Spain, is crucial. It's hard enough to have enough contact with good instruction as it is without being sidetracked, or flat out misled by well meaning folks who seem to think they know much more than they do.
It's one thing to blast a newbie who is just excited about showing what they know. It's another thing to expose someone who holds themselves up as an expert, but who clearly isn't IMO. While it may be seen as cruel, it could save a promising student years of wasted effort.
Even small things, such as hand position, the tone produced, etc, could mislead. Maybe this is sort of moot now with Tomatito, etc youtube vids out there, but a newbie could be fooled into following the wrong teacher.
Somewhere out there, someone is watching that blonde chick's vid with their guitar in hand, thinking they are learning flamenco. That is messed up.
RE: is this guy on drugs or what?!?!... (in reply to Yojimbo)
The difference is that if you listen closely, the blonde woman says she knows nothing about flamenco, but is going to show a technique that flamenco guitar players use. She sets up a disclaimer to be practitioner of that art. It's a rumba strum right? She does it well and in the context of steel string rhthym playing it works fine. It's actually more confident and succinct by comparison.
You can learn things from both videos, but for my time and money flamenco does not transmit in an academic environment or via videos. Both videos are gateway videos to encourage you to seek out a teacher in person.
The real problem with teachers who don't know what they are doing is that they can potentially teach students habits and ideas that have to be unlearned later on. Unlearning something is usually more difficult than learning it right the first time. It may sound harsh, but if general consensus of a guitar playing public pans a performance of a teacher it's probably because something is amiss.
I also know guitarists who've played for forty plus years for great singers in Spain who would not call themselves a 'professor'. I also know historians who work in colleges who gather primary source material and about histories by taking oral histories from people outside academia. Who is the real historian?
Mostly I think academia should be blown off the face of the planet with extreme prejudice for harboring those who don't know the difference between their ass and their elbow. . .. It's actually the reverse, it's academic snobbism to gird oneself with unearned title. With all due respect to the good classical guitarists I know who hold academic chairs in that art.
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