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I’ve been pressed into playing for some dancers in October ( long /short story) and they usually dance to canned music. I told them I wanted to play for a singer and I won’t work with canned music. The person who leads this group says they can sing Tanguillos ( Lordy why?) but nothing else. They asked for a suggestions of which palos to try to learn.
Any suggestions about universally accessible examples of cante or lessons online? I’m going to recommend they learn two letras of Alegrias, Tangos, Tientos and Fandangos de Huelva.
Anyone got any ideas?
This job is a Sh&t sandwich, but on the bright side it means my hands are healing well enough to try playing for this mob.
RE: Elementary cante lessons/example... (in reply to estebanana)
If it's free then there are some on youtube such as below. But cante is hard to learn, it really needs lessons one to one/in person. In Japan more than any other country there are some more convincing cantaores. Maybe there is someone there, e.g. Ayako Endo, Yoko Omori (sang at Minas de La Union in 2015), Taka de Tokyo etc..? If they speak Spanish then I could recommend some online in person cante teachers in Spain e.g. Jose Anillo.
RE: Elementary cante lessons/example... (in reply to orsonw)
Thanks for the leads Orson.
I know cante is difficult to learn, I took some lessons from Inez Bacan, that was interesting. I learned the letras that she sang solea por buleria at the time.
I need to tell these folks to try to study in order that they get the seriousness of the situation. I’ve known about these people and the ‘flamenco’ group they have ever since I got here, but for several reasons didn’t get involved. I was asked by a person who’s in a high level position in city government to participate as in this, which puts me in the situation of if I say no I look selfish and like a big snob.
The situation isn’t good, but I’m hoping by strongly suggesting they study cante that a bad situation can get slightly better. My main hope is that they realize they are in the deep end of the water without a pool noodle. But they have been under the delusion for many years that you can shortchange flamenco and study / perform it without cante.
As soon as I arrived here in 2013 word got around that I could accompany dancers ( to well studied amateur level) and I had pressure put on to work with this local group. Since I’m not a dancer or dance teacher there wasn’t much for me to offer them, but they hired me to accompany them stomping around at wedding reception. ( fook me)
The reception was at a ranch that was built by an eccentric dude about 60 years ago to be an architectural facsimile of an Andalusian finca, it’s Japan stuff happens. The kids of the original owner took it over and made it into a theme event venue. So we played to a mostly flamenco ignorant crowd who didn’t know Fado music from a cow fart and I survived. After we played a Spanish guy who happened to be a guest of the bride and groom came up and spoke to me in English. He said, nice solea solo, and you got through the rest of it. Good job.
When this wing ding affair was being organized a month before the gig date, the gentle nosey old ladies on my street insisted on chaperoning my first meeting with the woman who leads the group. The reason the Obachan Morality Squad insinuated themselves into my planning of a rehearsal schedule with the leader woman is because this woman was known to have had an affair, which was aired out in public in a small town. So they rightfully apprised my wife that the woman was of questionable character and that I as a naive newcomer shouldn’t be allowed to alone with her lest it become an engine to start further tongue wagging that would paint me as a suspect in un-marital behavior.
So the country is all wrong, but the universal meddling of old ladies yielding a palo to enforce morality is as it is in deep small town Andalusia. Since I’ve got ten years of street cred as a non cheating husband ( that they know of) I can handle this gig planning on my own now. My terms are, they attempt to study cante. Nothing more, nothing less.
Posts: 2697
Joined: Jan. 30 2007
From: London (the South of it), England
RE: Elementary cante lessons/example... (in reply to estebanana)
quote:
So the country is all wrong
There doesn't seem to be much wrong with the old ladies logic.
Accompany you to meet a lady who's had some previous, secret hanky panky, so as to protect you from any potential reputation damage?. Seems fair enough...
Posts: 15233
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC
RE: Elementary cante lessons/example... (in reply to estebanana)
quote:
Since I’ve got ten years of street cred as a non cheating husband ( that they know of) I can handle this gig planning on my own now
Jeezus what drama, fuk. Look you need to convince everybody to just do sepuku as a group, this is shameful.
So here is my take. I get your sentiment, I had this same thing early on. The problem is over time I developed such a love and respect for the art of cante, and what it expresses and means, I gradually could not tolerate people doing it for the wrong reasons. I greatly prefer instrumental versions of the letras to bad or mediocre singing. It is a real horror for me. To be fair the way it progressed is that there were the Compás CDs of soler of all the typical palos that had the most generic set typical letras dancers like and or learned from their short workshops in spain that they bring back and “teach” to students. I realized that since the dance teachers that used these CDs in class when there was no musicians available needed to try to do a student recital with real cante and guitar, they had the singers learn the exact same letras. So the so called singers around town were all doing these letras from the CDs. These CD’s are available on YouTube and whatever Japanese tube sight you want, probable with lyrics printed out in the comments, etc. That is the what you are looking for, and you can just strum the chords and everybody “happy”…for a while.
When I realized this was the norm, I started to get disgusted by the whole concept. That is that the dance requires this little section for the letras that is set in stone. You don’t need a singer, it is like Karaoke, just do the chords form. OR, what I started doing for my sanity, is just do a mix of chord and melody that is based on the exact letra that you need. This is NOT hard and gets the job done, and no out of tune wailing of the wrong notes of the traditional cante to give you a headache. You can even develop a sophisticated version of a letra, or ignore the actuall cante melody and just make your falseta of your choice that is beautiful and fits the MATHEMATICS….cuz honestly that is what dance students need, not the depth of some story about a gypsy cousin you were in love with that had to marry an old doosh bag in the neighbor clan. Let the real cantaor do the proper singing as it should be, as rare as it might occur in your neck of the woods, and just treat dance as math. It is still fun and musically interesting IMO.
Or, sing your damn self…that is another option I have been exploring. I am no Camaron but at least I sing with feeling and the actual melody.
RE: Elementary cante lessons/example... (in reply to Stu)
quote:
ORIGINAL: Stu
quote:
So the country is all wrong
There doesn't seem to be much wrong with the old ladies logic.
Accompany you to meet a lady who's had some previous, secret hanky panky, so as to protect you from any potential reputation damage?. Seems fair enough...
I’m a grown man and it made me very uncomfortable and angry to be infantilized as foreigner. If anyone tries that crap with me now I tell them to F off.
RE: Elementary cante lessons/example... (in reply to Ricardo)
quote:
ORIGINAL: Ricardo
quote:
Since I’ve got ten years of street cred as a non cheating husband ( that they know of) I can handle this gig planning on my own now
Jeezus what drama, fuk. Look you need to convince everybody to just do sepuku as a group, this is shameful.
So here is my take. I get your sentiment, I had this same thing early on. The problem is over time I developed such a love and respect for the art of cante, and what it expresses and means, I gradually could not tolerate people doing it for the wrong reasons. I greatly prefer instrumental versions of the letras to bad or mediocre singing. It is a real horror for me. To be fair the way it progressed is that there were the Compás CDs of soler of all the typical palos that had the most generic set typical letras dancers like and or learned from their short workshops in spain that they bring back and “teach” to students. I realized that since the dance teachers that used these CDs in class when there was no musicians available needed to try to do a student recital with real cante and guitar, they had the singers learn the exact same letras. So the so called singers around town were all doing these letras from the CDs. These CD’s are available on YouTube and whatever Japanese tube sight you want, probable with lyrics printed out in the comments, etc. That is the what you are looking for, and you can just strum the chords and everybody “happy”…for a while.
When I realized this was the norm, I started to get disgusted by the whole concept. That is that the dance requires this little section for the letras that is set in stone. You don’t need a singer, it is like Karaoke, just do the chords form. OR, what I started doing for my sanity, is just do a mix of chord and melody that is based on the exact letra that you need. This is NOT hard and gets the job done, and no out of tune wailing of the wrong notes of the traditional cante to give you a headache. You can even develop a sophisticated version of a letra, or ignore the actuall cante melody and just make your falseta of your choice that is beautiful and fits the MATHEMATICS….cuz honestly that is what dance students need, not the depth of some story about a gypsy cousin you were in love with that had to marry an old doosh bag in the neighbor clan. Let the real cantaor do the proper singing as it should be, as rare as it might occur in your neck of the woods, and just treat dance as math. It is still fun and musically interesting IMO.
Or, sing your damn self…that is another option I have been exploring. I am no Camaron but at least I sing with feeling and the actual melody.
RE: Elementary cante lessons/example... (in reply to estebanana)
**** Stephen, I don’t know wether to laugh of cry 🤣, keroki indeed!
_____________________________
I prefer my flamenco guitar spicy, doesn't have to be fast, should have some meat on the bones, can be raw or well done, as long as it doesn't sound like it's turning green on an elevator floor.
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