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Hey guys! I've seen a few posts lately about teacher recommendations and I was wondering what your experience have been like regarding the content you studied with your teacher. When I was there I studied with El Pulga at Taller Flamenco who was really talented and a great teacher but really only showed me falsetas. Are there any good teachers that have expertise in teaching accompaniment? Or do most teachers just throw many falsetas at you?
RE: What do you guys study when you ... (in reply to Gabewolf)
The thing is that you can't learn accompaniment without anyone to accompany. Some places might have specific classes for that. The most common thing is just that a teacher asks a dancer or singer to drop by one day and teaches a few things then. But if you really want to learn accompaniment, there's no replacing first juergas and second sitting in during a dance class.
If none of these are an option, then bring a CD or a video of music you like to your teacher and ask him to break it down for you. That way you can learn the structure of cante or baile. And once you have the structure you can ask him to show you some examples of certain components, like escobilla, remate or detalles that he likes to throw in.
I met El Pulga once. Nice chap. He tricked me into paying for the beers but he was most generous with the herbal goods.
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RE: What do you guys study when you ... (in reply to Gabewolf)
lots of guitarists sing, not necessarily with a full flamenco voice, but enough to make do in a dance class if there is no proper singer, and enough to be able to show the appropriate accompaniment to what they are singing.
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Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC
RE: What do you guys study when you ... (in reply to Gabewolf)
As far as teachers they will give you falsetas and if you are lucky interesting compas variations. Honestly that is all there is to learn with flamenco guitar. Accompanying, as mentioned, has to be learned with dancers or singers, NOT with a guitar teacher. It's a mental exercise not a physical one despite the fact there might seem, superficially, specific things that need to be played quite different than a guitar solo....but really there aren't. You have to understand the dance choreography or the different letras being sung and play the appropriate thing, that's all. A guitarist can show you what he plays, but it doesn't actually teach you how to do it on your own.
RE: What do you guys study when you ... (in reply to Gabewolf)
When I was there El Pulga invited me to a Peña that would meet every week, which was great for learning some accompaniment. He also sang Soleá enough to show me accompaniment for that.
Posts: 503
Joined: Jun. 14 2014
From: Encinitas, CA USA
RE: What do you guys study when you ... (in reply to Andy Culpepper)
What, no herbs?
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Ah well, there was a fantastic passion there, in my case anyway. I discovered flamenco very early on. It grips you in a way that you can't get away - Paco Pena
RE: What do you guys study when you ... (in reply to Gabewolf)
If I had a long stay in Spain to work on stuff I would go right for trying to hang out with any capable singers aficionados or artists that would have me in their circles.
You can find dancers who are very good outside Spain and you can get falsetas anywhere today, but hanging out with singers is difficult. I would also learn to sing as many letras as possible and study palmas with the best artists who do palmas professional.
I would try to find singers who are game to let a newcomer accompany in their bar and hang out buying Cana for nice people.
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