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Funny, in the last years and months my main issue was my time. After working very hard on compás and timing, my issue now is that I play too metronomic. And Soleá does not sound good when you play it metronomic. In many recordings I hear the artists stretching compás, but wait, what does that actually mean? What is stretching compás? I could imagine, but whats the reason why stretching compás isn't playing fuera de compás?
Posts: 15506
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC
RE: Stretching Soleá-Compás (in reply to athrane77)
It is changing tempo in a tasteful way. Want a general starting point?.... don't slow down the hard parts, speed them up. You can slow down the easy parts instead for drama. If you are "metronomic" it is good at this point IMO. Make sure your speed ups or slow downs of phrases are controlled and deliberate and make sense. THink about driving on road that is quite smooth but has some hills. Rather than a very bumpy road. Ricardo
RE: Stretching Soleá-Compás (in reply to athrane77)
I understand, but what about these stretched notes in one compás-cycle? For example I play a note on the 3 beat like a half-note but in fact, or in theory it should played like a 8th-note?
RE: Stretching Soleá-Compás (in reply to athrane77)
I think you might be over analyzing it a bit. Every instance is different, hanging on beat 3 in the middle of an alzapua falseta will probably not work, but hanging on beat 3 when beat 3 is the end of some picado run will probably sound okay.
I think whats really important is that you can play it "metronomically". Once you have a solid grasp of the compas you've earned the liberty to make artistic interpretations of the BPM. Unfortunately it's not something where you can be like "Go slow from here to here and go faster from here to here." You have to just use your ears and make your own decision on what would sound nice. I'm certain if you gave the same piece of music to two different great players there would be a lot of differences in the way they interpret it, there would probably be a fair amount of similarities too. You gotta just use your best musical judgment.
so for example (beginner here ) In a tremolo falseta, slowing the bass line down to then speed it up? but finishing back in compas? Coz i do that all the time without meaning it
Posts: 233
Joined: Apr. 7 2005
From: Adelaide, Australia
RE: Stretching Soleá-Compás (in reply to athrane77)
I think the crucial thing is that the listener can hear where the speed up and slow down bits are - if they are done coherently and smoothly there shouldn't be a problem for the listener hearing what's going on in the compas. If you imagine the notes like dots drawn on a rubber band - then stretch or compress parts of it - the speed changes follow a distinct curve that the listener hears as part of what's going on. A great example is Vicente's Tio Arango.