Hola a todos,

I just read the post "Meet the foro" on the intro page, and am happy to meet you all. It's great to see such a diverse group of aficionados. I'm glad to see that Old School Flamenco is alive and thriving.

I noticed that most members are men. With the exception of Jenny, Abuela and myself, are there any other women guitarisrs?

Lorette

There is Chris that is ogteacher. Haven't heard much from her since she got her new guitar. There are some more but they haven't ever posted or only posted once so I cannot remember their screen names off hand.

Hola Lorette
I think that there are a growing number of female flamenco guitarists in Spain and possibly in other countries too.
I think that maybe for some time there have been more and more female classical guitarists.
Incidentally recently I was discussing, well more listening to several women on the subject of what women like in music and especially what women do not like in flamenco guitar.
I would be interested to have your opinion.
The women told me that they do not like when they flamenco guitar is too high and too fast and seeming to sound like a wasp.
They do like slow and deep sounds.
This interests me a little because I wonder about the development s in recent years in flamenco guitar playing in which there are a lot of high wasp sounds and I think this may mean very fast techniques like picado with a thin sound and very high.
Maybe one of the reasons that this has developed in flamenco guitar maybe because flamenco guitarists tend to be men and tend to play to and want good opinions from other men. Not always but tend to.
Men know that playing a very fast very high picado is difficult and maybe they want to do it to impress each other.
But I wonder if they played low deep falsetas in the bass strings is it possible that they may in that way mean more to women listeners in general?
I really do not know if any of this is true. The women seemed to be saying that.
Anyway welcome to here and by the way I listened to your playing and liked it a lot..no wasps!!!

Saludos

Tomás

Yes, Tomas, I agree with the women you spoke with, and also with your statement, “Maybe one of the reasons that this has developed in flamenco guitar is maybe because flamenco guitarists tend to be men and tend to play to and want good opinions from other men. Not always, but tend to. Men know that playing a very fast very high picado is difficult and maybe they want to do it to impress each other.”

I think that when playing gets too fast, that we say “wow”, the guitarists is trying to compete/ impress and in doing so he looses the duende. I prefer to feel the music, not be impressed with super speed technique. That’s just my opinion.

Lorette

Lorette wrote:
I think that when playing gets too fast, that we say “wow”, the guitarists is trying to compete/ impress and in doing so he looses the duende. I prefer to feel the music, not be impressed with super speed technique. That’s just my opinion.

Lorette

Feeling and expression of such is what flamenco is about. Nothing more or less! In my opinion a solo guitarist must convey the feelings a singer would. Lots of high technique is fine and a nice addition, but when one plays with all flash, the feeling is lost and the playing is meaningless. Maybe with the increase of women now playing flamenco on guitars, the course of today's frantic jazzy flamenco will be altered and will help men rediscover the roots of flamenco that were slower and more meaningful.

I share Sam and Lorette's views on the place of guitar in flamenco, and I think most of our Old School members agree. It's not surprising that guitarists who accompany/accompanied women singers--like Diego with The Sisters, Melchor when working with La Niña, Niño Ricardo or Miguel García with Manolita de Jerez, or Antonio Gómez with Rosario López--play with (in my opinion) great taste and restraint, or greater restraint than they do with male singers. Even a powerhouse player like Morao throttled back the voltage for, say, La Perla, that he would normally lavish on Terremoto. I personally also much prefer a less aggressive but subtle sort of accompaniment a la Perico or Diego or any one of a vast number of tasteful, atttentive guitarists who know what accompaniment is all about.

Carlos