XPost: rec.music.classical.guitar, rec.answers 
 From: jpweage@mtu.edu 
  
 Archive-Name: music/classical/guitar/flamenco-faq 
 Posting-Frequency: monthly 
  
 rec.music.classical.guitar Flamenco FAQ for Classical Guitarists 
  
 RMGC-FlamencoFAQ Edition 1    14th November 1994 
  
 Edited by Joshua Weage (jpweage@mtu.edu). 
 Many thanks go to Bob Clifton 
 who has written the majority of this FAQ. 
  
 To find the answer to a listed question, search forward with the 
 search parameter '*.*' where *.* refers to the number of the 
 question. 
  
 1.1   What is flamenco? 
 1.2   What makes a guitarist a "flamenco" guitarist? 
 1.3   How do I learn to accompany? 
 1.4   How can I get a taste of what flamenco accompaniment feels 
       like before going to all this effort? 
 1.5   Who are some recommended flamenco guitarists to listen to? 
  
 1.1  What is flamenco? 
  
  A particular kind of music/dance (and some would say lifestyle)  native to, 
 but no longer restricted to, a small region of Andalucia in Southern Spain. 
  Like American "blues" it probably has ancient antecedents, but as a 
 distinct 
 genre is only a couple centuries old.  Not all Andalucian folk music is 
 flamenco.  Not all flamenco artists have been Andalucians (eg Sabicas), or 
 even Spanish (eg Greco). 
  Some classical guitarists (understandably, if they haven't studied 
 flamenco) 
 view flamenco as a "style" of guitar playing emphasizing certain techniques 
 above others and having a distinct sound.  Thus (oversimplified) if you play 
 rhythmic rasqueados and fool around with Phyrygian scales and a lot of 
 Ami>G>F>E, it's flamenco.  Not so.  At most, flamenco-ish. 
  Flamencos themselves (ie guitarists, dancers, singers, aficionados), 
 whatever their own specialty, and for both formal and historical reasons, 
 usually agree that what is fundamental to flamenco is *cante* (song), i.e. a 
 body of several dozen forms (*palos*) with specific rhythms, melodies, and 
 in 
 some cases themes, sung in a certain way. 
  Flamenco guitar started as accompaniment for cante, and in Spain has 
 largely 
 remained that, no matter how technically refined it has become.  Probably 
 the 
 same is true of flamenco dance -- that it started as an embellishment 
 through 
 movement of what the singer was doing.  Even the virtuosos like Paco de 
 Lucia 
 and the late Sabicas who are famous for solo work (and who play other music 
  besides flamenco) would probably define flamenco in terms of cante rather 
 than of guitar technique.  Both started within the tradition as accompanists 
 of cante, and were superb ones.  To anyone familiar with cante, even their 
 solos imply the cante from which they came. 
  Spaniards know this already.  You say "flamenco" and they think "Camaron" 
  (a popular singer who died in 1992) or "solea" (a song form) -- whether 
 they 
 like the stuff or not.  Non-Spaniards rarely hear cante, and understandably 
 have different associations -- for instance, the guitar played in a 
 particular way.   So it's important to emphasize for them that cante is 
 central to flamenco in a way that a particular rasqueado isn't. 
  
 1.2  What makes a guitarist a "flamenco" guitarist? 
  
  For non-flamencos, I can't say -- maybe it is having an incredible 
 rasqueado, or being able to play Entre Dos Aguas, or Luna del Fuego, or a 
 tremolo from granainas. 
  For flamencos, it is the ability (at whatever level of skill) to accompany 
 a 
 knowledgeable singer (and knowledgeable dancer) who is performing one of the 
 standard forms in a more or less standard way.  You don't have to be very 
 *good* as guitarist to qualify.  Many singers in Spain, for instance, 
 knowing 
 only two or three chords, and playing execrably by anyone's standards, can 
 crudely accompany themselves or someone else.  Most wouldn't claim to be 
 guitarists at all.  But they would claim that whatever they're doing on the 
 guitar is flamenco, not something else.  They know the song, and they know 
 what the guitar needs to sound like to go with that, even if they don't know 
 the guitar itself well enough to pull it off very well. 
  So, whatever else you are able to add to that -- machine-gun rasqueado, 
 blinding picado, etc etc -- it starts there: you know how solea goes (as 
 song 
 or dance), for instance, and what will fit it on the guitar.  It doesn't 
 mean 
 you have to sing or dance yourself (though that can be an eye-opener) 
 anymore 
 than a sportscaster has to be able to pitch.  The sportscaster *does* have 
 to 
 know the game, however.  (Or fans complain.) 
  This may sound like an eccentric definition to musicians who admire many 
 other things about flamenco, and may not give two hoots about cante or baile 
 (dance).  All I can say is get yourself into a group of flamencos and check 
 it out.  The guitar will invariably wind up, by subtle or not-so-subtle 
 consensus, in the hands of the guy who can accompany the singers and 
 dancers, 
 not those who can't, no matter how superb the others variously are as 
 musicians and guitarists.  It's not that superb musicians are not recognized 
 and valued; only that for flamenco to happen, the group needs a guitarist 
 who 
 knows how to support the singers and dancers. 
  
 1.3  How do I learn to accompany? 
  
 I wish the news were better.  It's not quite as extreme as "go to Spain 
 (with 
 a lot of money)", because you'll quickly encounter that anyway, but it can't 
 be done by ordering a book or tape.  You've got to go find some flamencos. 
  
 1.  Find another guitarist who accompanies and take lessons, or watch, 
 listen, spy, whatever  :-) 
  
 2.  Start building a collection of recordings (including videos if you can 
 get them), and listen, listen, listen.  If you're just starting, the older 
 anthologies are usually better for picking out basic ideas.  Contemporary 
 flamenco is pretty jazzy, and while the bones are there, they can be pretty 
 obscure.  It helps to go shopping with a knowledgeable flamenco to find the 
 nuggets (if any) at your local stores.  Obviously solo guitar recordings 
 aren't going to be too helpful.  Neither are the Gypsy Kings for anything 
 but 
 rumbas.  Camaron and Paco (or Tomatito) are great models, but pretty hi- 
 tech. 
  
 3.  *After you can sustain compas* (regardless of some mistakes in notes, 
 and 
 rough technique), find willing singers (!) and dancers, and practice with 
 them, the better the better.  Therein is a dilemma.  It is much easier (and 
 educational) for a student guitarist to follow a very good singer or dancer 
 than a fellow student (the blind leading the blind).  But of course it's the 
 beginning singers and dancers who are willing to spend time with you. 
  
 If you're in a major metropolitan area, where live flamenco happens, this is 
 probably more feasible than you might think, because most performers in the 
 US teach (economic necessity).  Here's what I'd do, assuming I found a group 
  
 [continued in next message] 
  
 --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05 
  * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)