Hello folks

I just joined this neat forum-been reading the posts and such over the past couple weeks and i am learning so much.

I come from a steel string background(fingerstyle) with about 4 years experience. as far as i can find(rather not find), there are no Flamenco players/teachers near me for hours. I live in Norton Virginia which is in the southwest tip of virginia.

oddly enough, Flamenco-or a hybrid type of it, is what brought me to the guitar. I watched "Desperado" years ago when it came out(antonio banderas starred in it). When the movie opens, a man is playing Flamenco like guitar on a length of bar table-i know its not as neat as being in Spain and finding oneself drawn to the music, but it is what it is. I had never played anything musical so i had no idea what i wanted to do or how. I found a local shop that sold steel string(i do live in the heart of bluegrass)and found a teacher there. Told him i wanted to learn to play with my fingers and not a pick-he was known as an electric strat player with a rock background and had won 6 guitar shootouts(electric) years previous. He did play some travis style picking and took me into that. in my mind and heart the sound of "spanish" style guitar haunted me. i researched classical as i thought it all was the same-and found it was not. finally figured out the sound of guitar that i was drawn to was actually Flamenco. By now i was 2 years into my steel string journey and enjoyed it-having acquired 3 nice guitars. i happened one day to find a Conde Hermanos EF4 and made a trade. that was in 2007. i picked up Juan Martins 2 books/DVDs and also Gerhard Graf Martinez two books/DVDs. around this time i became involved with a really nice lady who had 2 neat young girls. my time was extremely limited due to my job, working on an old home, attempting to learn steel string fingerstyle(ed gerhard is my favorite). i knew i could not offer much time in practice of flamenco so i continued the steel string and kept the Conde in its case. One month ago i awoke and had a huge urge to check in on the Conde and reopen my desire to learn some Flamenco. Being 51 years old i realize my time is limited as each day goes by. I started researching the ForoFlamenco(i had become a member years earlier). Also checked into Peter Tsiorbas website as i thought if possible i would like to get a real nice Flamenco in my lifetime. So a lot has happened in the past month. i talked with Peter-researched Peter-found he was becoming a very desired builder of ones instrument, ordered two new DVD's(for me): Oscar Herrera vol 1 "step by step"and Jose Montoya vol 1 Flamenco in 48 lessons(i've since ordered the other 3 of Jose Montoya's set as i like how its presented and it seems more basic than the Herrera series). Last week i sent deposit to secure a build spot with Peter in the next year for a basic Blanca.

i ended up married to the lady(she's a pretty awesome woman-she received engagement strings versus a ring(a Martin OMJM). probably my favorite Flamenco guitarist is Moraito. I found him quickly on Youtube when my search began a few years ago-there are two youtube clips of him at the Jerez festival and he plays Solea and Bulerias, i was and continue to be captivated by his musicianship. I am more drawn to the older style of playing, versus what i consider the newer style of very fast technical play(Nunez).

So now i have a year to sell my National NRP steep body 12 fret resonator that will help fund my Tsiorba. Lots going on and it feels a little scary to start something like Flamenco all on ones own-and i realize i will not progress as well as if i had a live teacher. But i'm determined and feel good about it-and i'm in no rush, i just want to learn some Flamenco playing for myself.

Thanks to Bob and whomever else started this forum and keeps it up

Sorry for such a long winded entry.
Looking forward to lurking and learning
daryl

Daryl, Learning on your own may be best to reach your goals. I am self taught for the most part, having only 3 or 4 lessons in 1971 from a guy that learned old Gypsy style flamenco from a couple of master Gypsy flamenco guitarist near and in Sevilla, Spain. From there it was books and reel to reel tapes, LP's, etc., to learn. I taught myself basic playing of several palos and also Brazilian classical guitar. After about 7 years of playing, I gave it up to work on hard labor jobs to support a family. After retiring at age 53 with nerve disorder disabilities, I decided to start again. I remembered nothing. I still had my old books and thanks to Youtube, CD's, DVD's and some new books, I got back some of the past plus learned a lot of new material thanks to videos where I could see what they were doing and try to copy it. Of course most of it I could not copy due to my hands being bad from nerve damage. I found most helpful to do a lot of listening. This helped instill compas automatically. Counting compas is necessary at first, but one must learn to feel compas without thought. I personally think one should NOT use a metronome as a general rule. They do not replace live palmas. The beauty of playing for you own enjoyment and learning on your own is you will develop your own style.

I recommend Juan Serranos book and CD along with Juan martins El Arte series as the best for traditional flamenco home learning. You can modify and simplify technique to what you can do. Example simple arpeggios you can play in place of difficult tremolo passages. Welcome to the foro and keep us informed on your progress and ask questions and post videos or audio cli[ps of your playing and many here will enjoy helping. Moraito is one of the best. One of our members recently spent some time performing with him. They were amazed watching him in person a few feet away.

I also like the Montoya style of presentation. His website also has some good video lessons.

The sound and the pulse are key. I've seen and experienced two very good examples of this. One was a blues lesson I found and tried in a teaching book that started you simply playing a thumb pulse on the open low E. Then it moved to variations of the pulse and you could hear the sound move away from blues. The second was a lesson I had with a flamenco player. He also started me with a pulse on the low E. He then played all around as I kept the pulse going on E. He then moved me to playing only one chord with single i strums with different compas variations. Again he would play all around my base. This also gives a good sense of the accompaniment aspect of flamenco--that even a simple supporting rhythm is part of the ensemble of sound and that performance together is the aim.

Another thing that I've always found to be a great touchstone in flamenco is muted playing. You can hear intros over and over that are simply muted rhythms and that sound purely flamenco. I've often thought that it might be a good way to begin to simply play muted for a long time until you achieved that flamenco sound. I notice that Montoya begins with muted rhythms as he introduces each palo.

byron

Daryl,
I am addicted to Moraito's style and believe as an accompanist of cante he is one of the greatest. Also, once past the very basics, I have found it rewarding to learn from transcriptions of recordings. Perhaps you know there is a great transcription of pieces from Moraito's "Morao y Oro" (by Alain Faucher).
Roland

Flamencoblues wrote:Daryl,
I am addicted to Moraito's style and believe as an accompanist of cante he is one of the greatest. Also, once past the very basics, I have found it rewarding to learn from transcriptions of recordings. Perhaps you know there is a great transcription of pieces from Moraito's "Morao y Oro" (by Alain Faucher).
Roland

Roland

thanks for that info, i did not know that about the transcriptions. i love that CD and was playing it today.
Are the transcriptions in tab also?

thanks
d

darylcrisp wrote:Are the transcriptions in tab also?

Yes, they are. However, not all tunes of the CD are transcribed. Transcribed are the tangos, sevillanas, siguiriya, buleria (buleriando), solea, and rondena.
Regards,
Roland