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.
Does he play flamenco tremolo on each string? What scale at 0:42 and at 0:53? I want to tab it. Thanks.
F Lydian, then a partial whole tone descending (Eb-F-G etc.). The pattern at :53 is the typical pattern I show in Frevo (here 1:18:00 it is in A but paco is doing it open in E):
The pattern at :53 is the typical pattern I show in Frevo (here 1:18:00 it is in A but paco is doing it open in E)
I tabbed the first descending scale at 0:53. What I noticed is the i-i part (marked in yellow) which is not strict alternate. Is it cheating or picado must be executed this way whenever the left hand plays hammer-on?
Images are resized automatically to a maximum width of 800px
F Lydian, then a partial whole tone descending (Eb-F-G etc.).
It was E phrygian with G#. What follows is descending A whole tone scale played smoothly into G F E. Overall a nice melodic run built around Andalusian cadence.
Looks like he plays it more often during a warm-up.
It was E phrygian with G#. What follows is descending A whole tone scale played smoothly into G F E. Overall a nice melodic run built around Andalusian cadence.
Not exactly correct. It is a G# diminished arpegio ascending (G#-B-D-F, two octaves), then down F lydian (F-E-D-C-B), then partial F Lydian Dominant (B-A-G-F-Eb-B-A-F-Eb-B-A) skipping C (C# would be whole tone) and D, then down G-D-G-F-C-F- E. So the harmony is moving from E tonic to F7#11, then back to E. It is not the Andalusian cadence harmonically. You can think also simply E7b9-F7#11-G-F-E. The cadential tension of the descending scale is F7.
Paco first used this type of harmony/scale idea at the conclusion of the slow solo of David with John Mclaughlin. In fact this thing he is doing is his version of Mclaughlin’s descending C-B-A-F-Eb, where G and D are skipped in each octave down. (David key is up a 5th from this, C7#11, or F#7alt). The jazz view of this scale is actually the B superlocrian (V7 alt->I in E major, or tritone sub creates the flamenco sound II-I)
It is a G# diminished arpegio ascending (G#-B-D-F, two octaves), then down F lydian (F-E-D-C-B),
I can't agree. It's E phrygian with G#. It even starts with E E F G# A B at 0:42.
quote:
then partial F Lydian Dominant (B-A-G-F-Eb-B-A-F-Eb-B-A) skipping C (C# would be whole tone) and D, then down G-D-G-F-C-F- E. So the harmony is moving from E tonic to F7#11, then back to E. It is not the Andalusian cadence harmonically. You can think also simply E7b9-F7#11-G-F-E. The cadential tension of the descending scale is F7.
I like the idea F lydian dominant because of the direct connection to F7/#11. F lydian dominant has also the notes G D and F C so that it can resolve nicely to E7/b9. But the thing is whole tone scale is a dominant scale. So you can play F whole tone scale over F7/#11.
Anyhow, I've never heard of partial scales, either it's your own term or it really exists.
His first noodling attempt I don’t count as he just turned his head from the interviewer and hits un intentional chromatic notes. The second run (0:47) is the definitive run and it was as I wrote note for note. The conclusion of the scale uses G and D, and the top notes down are FEDCB, so it is Lydian period, and he alters the E to Eb on the way down. In order to use the whole tone or consider the sound to be that, you need to hear the C#, and deliberately avoid D natural (which he hits twice in the descending portion).
Whenever a run is not using a sequence of 7 notes, it is not fair to name the scale until you have a complete picture. Whole tone notes share 5 notes with lydian dominant, so if that is all you hear in an example you have to either invent a new name for the “scale” or admit it is a partial use of either scale. The C natural vs C# would, in that case, answer the question of the parent scale, but we don’t have them. Because he descends (after the diminished 7th going up) and we do hear D and C, and later, D again, I personally lean in the direction of describing this thing as Lydian Dominant, skipping a couple notes to taste…plus, as I said earlier, he has done this before with Mclaughlin where Mclaughlin uses more the entire scale and Paco does this personalized step down using two fingers as you see, so there is a methodology.
But feel free to do whatever the heck you want, and think about it however you want.
Never mind. Your explanation is based on practical knowledge. So I have no doubt about it. Always a pleasure to receive a high-quality input from a pro player.