Hi,

Has anyone hear ordered any transcriptions from Affedis publications?

http://www.affedis.com/

They are a bit pricey but they certainly offer some they I have been unable to find elsewhere, particularly a few by Diego and Paco del Gastor.

Cheers.

I have quite a number of them. All Sabicas and Paco Pena. Every year I get a few more. They are cheaper if you buy two or three at a time.
Most of the time I just learn a few falsetas together with parts of the compas that I find particularly interesting. They usually sound so easy but when I get them its a different story. They can be quite challenging and I have spent many many happy hours working on them. I get great satisfaction in knowing exactly what the great masters are actually playing even if I can't play them myself. Some have not been at all what I expected such as the use of non traditional keys. It's like learning a brand new compas.
The 2010 additions should be out soon and hopefully there will be new Sabicas transcriptions included.
Alain Faucher does good work and I would encourage all aficionados to support him. I hope he never quits.
Ed

Be careful about those "non-traditional keys" in transcriptions. I have many printed transcriptions of Sabicas and others, and actually the key is exactly what you would expect, but the transcriber transcribed it as played. The problem is that it had been played using a cejilla on the second or third fret, and the transcriber went and transcribed the actual key that the use of the cejilla changed it to. But the guitarist is really just playing in the traditional key and using a cejilla. So don't get fooled and kill yourself trying to play flamenco in five flats or something like that. You will almost never hear flamenco played in any non-traditional key. I have heard Farruca in E and in D, Alegrias in C, which is really just Cantinas, mostly played in C in Cadiz, but rarely anything else in a non-traditional key.

Dreadgod wrote:Hi,

Has anyone hear ordered any transcriptions from Affedis publications?

http://www.affedis.com/

They are a bit pricey but they certainly offer some they I have been unable to find elsewhere, particularly a few by Diego and Paco del Gastor.

Cheers.

Yes, I have bought most of his Diego del Gastor transcriptions. They are fairly accurate for fingering, but trying to write Diego stuff in notation for timing and phrasing, just doesn't work. I had the same problem with his Melchor de Marchena book. He does as good as anyone if not better than most with music notation values, but how does one write a note played as a 1/34 note? With Diego you must have the recording to go along with the transcription. I still have trouble playing it like Diego, so I use similar phrasing and melodies, but sometimes eliminate notes and lengthen values of other notes. Some of the rhythms Alain shows are not quite right for Diego, but I always come up with my own patterns anyway. Alain gets the chords correct even the ones with strange fingering. I was never able to get his discount on multiple pieces and ended up overpaying badly. He gave me credit (doesn't do refunds), but nothing else I want right now. All in all the 5 pieces I got from him came out about $35 each which sounds high, but compare that to lessons from someone that could teach you these at $150 hour and it would take several lessons. Having a teacher would of course be best, but at least Alain helps get you on the right track if you can also learn by listening to the recordings. Diego never intended to have his music presented as transcriptions of compositions. I would encourage you as I have been by one of Diegos nephews, to not try to parrot Diego, but use his music as base for improvising. In others words there is no order that one must play falsetas in or carved in stone connecting rhythms. Only thing that is a must, is compas. Alains transcriptions were very helpful and worth the money in my opinion. My advise, don't try to copy everything note for note, but listen to the melody and use the tab to get the idea where to find the notes, then play what you feel that fits the compas. I have to change many of the ligatos passages as my hands can't play them as written or heard. I feel many players go wrong trying to play "compositions" verbatim. Flamenco is about feeling and improvising imo.

Thanks guys! It is a real crapshoot ordering transcriptions and books online sometimes, and easy to be disappointed. Alain Faucher does seem to have a good name but I will keep in mind the transcribers propensities with keys

@Manos: I think you're right, these things should be stepping stones to one's own improvisations, not set routes one must follow without deviation. I didn't really understand why the "discount" does not appear in the checkout box, the whole thing seemed rather confusing.

Question for Prominent Critic about non traditional keys.
Are you suggesting that Alain Faucher may not be accurate in his transcriptions? Why would he do that? He always indicates where the capo is placed and the sound I get is exactly as on the recording.
My formal training in music is sadly very limited so I will allow for the possibility that I am mistaken but I have 2 Alegrias in Em one from Paco Pena and one from Sabicas (which is OK because I can jump between the two as I see fit.) There is a Taranta by Sabicas which as far as I can tell is in G#. I can't get those sounds in F#. And of course there is Siguiriya en Re and Zapateado en Re. I tried transposing some of those but I found I didn't have enough fingers and that they were way too short.
To add to Sam's post, I think it's a must to have the music for any of the transcriptions you buy, regardless of who the artist is.
$35 per piece is very high. That is not the 14 Euros each (for 3 or more) that I paid. The Affedis order page is not very user friendly and does not automatically show the discounts but I have received them each time (knock on wood). It would be nice if he could change that.
Ed