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  #1  
Old 01-08-2014, 11:05 AM
strive2bbetter strive2bbetter is offline
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Default beginner flamenco song suggestions

I just got my first nylon string guitar. I have played steel string for about 10 years now, but just getting acquainted with nylon. I'm wondering if any of you could recommend some "easier" flamenco or classical pieces that I should start with. I really like Spanish sounding music, but I have no experience with flamenco style strumming. Thanks...
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  #2  
Old 01-08-2014, 11:38 AM
Paikon Paikon is offline
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Easy "classical" music to start your journey is the music of Gaspar Sanz :Espaņoleta, Rujero, Paradetas , Canarios etc

Melodias trianeras is a good flamenco piece and not that difficult.
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  #3  
Old 01-08-2014, 02:40 PM
strive2bbetter strive2bbetter is offline
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Thank you so much!
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Old 01-08-2014, 10:08 PM
GolfSteve GolfSteve is offline
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Default La Gitanita by Jurg Hochweber

La Gitanita by Jurg Hochweber is easy and nice. I picked this up about six months ago. At first it sounded plain but once you get the hang of it, add some fancier strumming, and start to play in time and with some emphasis it sounds pretty good: http://www.hochweber.ch/pdf/gitanita-tab.pdf

There's a lot of mediocre versions of this on YouTube. I like this version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3wzE5tWFyI

Jurg also has a 17 page booklet of beginner flamenco. I worked part-way through it as an exercise in reading standard notation, and I should get back to it some day: http://www.hochweber.ch/flamenco/flamenco-tab.pdf

He has a bunch of other tab here: http://www.hochweber.ch/guitar.htm
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Old 01-09-2014, 08:32 AM
strive2bbetter strive2bbetter is offline
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Wow, thank you so much! I love La Gitanita, and it seems very doable. And Jurg's site with tabs is an excellent resource. I now have a plan of attack to start my journey. So excited to learn this new genre of music.
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  #6  
Old 01-13-2014, 10:55 AM
ceciltguitar ceciltguitar is offline
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Some good info on flamenco here, IMHO:

http://www.flamencochuck.com/Academy...ncoGuitar.html
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  #7  
Old 09-11-2017, 08:00 AM
BuleriaChk BuleriaChk is offline
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Flamenco is not a series of set "pieces", except at a very advanced solo level or for noodling classical guitarists.
First, you have to be able to keep chording compas like any Gypsy street kid in Jerez....
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  #8  
Old 09-11-2017, 04:54 PM
rob2966 rob2966 is offline
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Hey, just wanted to let you know of my flamenco experience. I have been playing guitar for over 30 years, fairly accomplished across many musical styles and completely self-taught. I had been wanting to learn flamenco for a while and even with the aid of books and YouTube, I couldn't fully grasp the unique skills required, especially the various right hand techniques (rasqueado, alzapua, picado, golpes, quintuplet tremolo, etc.). There are so many techniques that are exclusive to flamenco that I decided to take lessons for the first time in my 30+ years of playing. Definitely the correct decision. With the proper instruction and feedback I was able to make reasonably good progress.

As for books, I found El Arte Flamenco de la Guitarra by Juan Martin to be an excellent reference. Talks about the techniques and different palos, including some very nice representative pieces that sound great and are fun to play.

https://www.amazon.com/Arte-Flamenco.../dp/086359932X

I also found listening to the "older" flamenco artists (e.g. Sabicas) very helpful as well, definitely helps get the feel (compas) of the music. I find someone like Paco de Lucia, who is unbelievably amazing, is almost too complex for early learning/listening purposes. He also fuses jazz into some of his stuff which is a more modern take on traditional flamenco.

At this point my guitar skills are getting pretty good in most of the flamenco styles so for my next foray into flamenco I am hoping to try working with dancers, which will definitely help develop the compas of my playing. Accompanying flamenco singing (cante) is whole other level which is probably harder for me to get exposure too since it is really rare on Canada's west coast, many miles from Andalucia.

Good luck with it, I find playing flamenco extremely gratifying.

Later
Rob
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Old 09-11-2017, 05:01 PM
BuleriaChk BuleriaChk is offline
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The best way to learn cante accompaniment is to learn how to sing. In compas...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzIC1oMl1nY

(Great accompaniment por Bulerias of Beni de Cadiz by Manolo Brenes)

(the same with the dance, although I need a fair amount of fino before I do my Gypsy two-step...

When Farruquito gave a concert at UCSB a decade or so ago, at the fin de fiesta he did the Ansonini "Handkerchief drop".

(I picked up the 3/4 foot, 6/8 palmas dobles accompaniment por Bulerias from Ansonini at a fiesta in Moron de la Frontera in 1968...
Then for two decades I tried to convince Flamencos in Santa Barbara to do that way, and finally last month I noticed a local dancer doing it at a fiesta....

(well, ok, it has been more than two decades....)

Sheesh!

Last edited by BuleriaChk; 09-11-2017 at 06:24 PM.
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  #10  
Old 09-13-2017, 08:31 AM
pf400 pf400 is offline
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Two basic pieces I'm enjoying:


El Porompompero:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgpxRSfSIxY


Tempestad:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5nM_envFLM
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  #11  
Old 09-13-2017, 09:17 AM
BuleriaChk BuleriaChk is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pf400 View Post
Two basic pieces I'm enjoying:


El Porompompero:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgpxRSfSIxY


Tempestad:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5nM_envFLM
I'm delighted that you enjoy these "pieces", but there is a world of difference in those (both spiritually and in terms of Flamenco technique and approach to compas) and the clip I posted in #9.

Many American guitarists arrived in Spain in the 70's when I was there playing their "solos" that they had scraped off of sheet music or LP's (myself included) - in those days we didn't have YouTube or even cassette recorders. Play like that and the Gitanos would walk out of the bar. These days there is a wealth of excellent flamenco on YouTube - these two examples are not, even of teaching, because while in (nominal) rhythm, neither has the spirit of flamenco - they come off as pop quasi-classical noodling ....

Bulerias, Solea, and Siguiriyas are at the core of the Flamenco Palos - Rumba was very peripheral to Flamenco until the 60's, when the only compas foreigners could relate to was four on the floor rock n' roll (Think "Las Grecas" - charming gypsy girls accompanied by the most godawful rock band ever)

Even Paco de Lucia's "Entre dos Aguas" (which resulted from his noodling around in Em in the studio with his astounding technique) is arguably not Flamenco (well, ok, not Puro anyway...

If you want to listen to a Rumba with balls, listen to the one on "Furia" with Carmen Amay/Juan Marote, or

"Rumba Catalan" : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBKQpQPJVT8 (The letras are hilarious; they seem to be a great drunken fiesta ...

(Note: the guitarists on the Rumba above is NOT Paco de Lucia or Manitas de Plata. One is Juan Maya "Marote"; I can't remember the other one, but an excellent accompanist - maybe Andres Heredia or Habichuela?)

Bottom Line: do NOT play falsetas until you can carry chording compas like this.... Then your falsetas will have meaning - after you have mastered the transitions between the falsetas and the chording compas convincingly...

(IMO, FWIW, YMMV, etc, etc)

Last edited by BuleriaChk; 09-15-2017 at 09:03 AM.
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  #12  
Old 09-13-2017, 10:47 AM
BuleriaChk BuleriaChk is offline
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Default Compas Analysis, Loops

While I'm at it, here's a link to the (basic chording) Compas Analysis on my website with a number of (.wav) loops you can import into Ableton Live and change tempo without changing pitch.

http://www.flamencochuck.com/Loops.html

(set the time signature to 3/4 or 4/4 depending - don't set it to 6/8 even if that is the Flamenco phrasing, since the compas always resolves to 3/4 one way or the other)

From those, you can create your own variations (the palmas were sampled from Flamenco videos - commercially available sound samples of hand clapping sound like 12 drunks in a bar....

If you want to learn Flamenco, this approach is WAY more important than noodling around with, uh, Flamenco "pieces". TRUST me...
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  #13  
Old 09-15-2017, 08:58 AM
BuleriaChk BuleriaChk is offline
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"Rumba Catalan" : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBKQpQPJVT8

Note: this is one of my favorite two Flamenco rumba's in the universe. Neither of the guitarists are Manitas de Plata or Paco de Lucia; they are Juan Maya "Marote" and (I believe) Habichuela. The cut is on an LP I own called ("Flamenco Fire") and is entitled "Rumba Catalan" (see below)...

The other rumba is the one on the "Furia" LP with Carmen Amaya, "Marote" and Paco Amaya (Carmen's father). "Entre dos Aguas" doesn't count....

I may be wrong, but I think this cut is a (politically incorrect) "in" joke in Flamenco, starting with the title "Rumba Catalan" on the LP "Flamenco Fire". Everybody sounds like they are having a drunken blast, and the letras are hilarious (the rumba - or rather its original form - is sung at the wedding scene in "Los Tarantos" by Chocolate, as I remember...

(Note: Rumba Gitana was a very, very peripheral palo in Flamenco until the early 60's, at that point, four-on-the-floor rhythm made its way into Flamenco since it was the only rhythm marketable to foreigners....

Nevertheless, it is a full out example of the way the Gitanos understand rumba, as opposed to "civilians", and it is really fun, besides. Bulerias is more complex and nuanced, but you'll get the idea....

Here's what I get for the first letra:

"Bohemio...
caminante peregrino
tu que va por lo camino
desde que te conoci...

Bohemio....
Orgulloso de tu vida
porque tu va silencia
de tu carinoso aqui....

That introduces you to the context of the rest:

"Un beso en tu labio di...
"porque, porque, porque..."

(I'll stop now....

Note: (Catalans are from northern Spain (Barcelona, etc), not from Andalucia (where most flamenco is indigenous (Jerez, Sevilla, etc.), as was Carmen Amaya y familia ... ) I may be wrong, but....

Last edited by Kerbie; 12-06-2017 at 02:31 PM. Reason: Edited language
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  #14  
Old 12-04-2017, 10:59 PM
BuleriaChk BuleriaChk is offline
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Thought I'd drop in some finds on YouTube (there is a LOT of good stuff out there, and also a lot of junk)...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeqZz3KVXKo (La Tati)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLMgJ_8TyYU - Tangos (from Andalusian Journey)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCqtpqSKueo - Andalusian Journey (full movie)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3zQl3d0HFE Latchlo Drom
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  #15  
Old 12-06-2017, 12:10 PM
BuleriaChk BuleriaChk is offline
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Default Flamenco Links

I've started a new forum thread for Flamenco links:

http://www.acousticguitarforum.com/f...49#post5559749
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