Here is our second installment of soleá. Another fundamental part of the guitarists’ repetoire. The cierre (cadence or closure) is from Manuel Granados – more about this incredible man in later posts. Read More
This lesson introduces the soleá with the most simple of melodies. This melody, played only with the thumb is a fundamental part of the guitar repertoire. Although easy to play there are some important things to consider. Read More
Start counting. Count the beats out loud, or in your head. Do it in any language you like, the idea is to start to develop a feel for the accents sub-consciously. It will help if you tap your foot, click your fingers or tap your knuckles on a table to mark the accents:
un dos TRES
cuatro cinco SEIS
siete OCHO
nueve DIEZ
un DOS
un dos TRES
cuatro cinco SEIS
siete OCHO
nueve DIEZ
un DOS
Remember that you will need to do this repeatedly and do it with several compases joined together. Use a metronome to keep yourself steady so that you do not accelerate. Practice slowly.
In this post I have included a review of the most common compases. There are three main groups: those that are made up of twelve beats, four beats and those of three. Please note that these descriptions represent only a very rough approximation: neither syncopation nor “swing” are taken into account. My intention here is to provide a base and to clarify my own thinking.
1a. Twelve beat compás – las soleares and so on.
The rhythmic structure is binary. In other words, half of this complete measure follows one time signature:
and then the other half of the compás follows another:
A complete cycle would be as follows:
This is the most basic rhythmic pattern for soleá.
Variations include:
and:
1-2-3-4-5-6-1-2-3-4-5-6-
1-2-3-4-5-6-1-2-3-4-5-6-
2-1-2-3-4-5-2-1-2-3-4-5-
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-1-2
1b. Twelve beat compás – las siguiriyas
I like to think of siguiriyas as the same as group one above, but in reverse:
2. Four beats forms – tangos family (and others)
They consist of a cycle of eight beats. With accents falling on the first and third beats as standard musical logic would dictate.
However, there are variations on this:
3. Sevillanas
or,
Warming up is making the joints, tendons and muscles of the fingers and hands ready to play. Use exercises that strengthen and make supple your fingers and hands to avoid injury (tendonitis).
A simple rubbing and stretching of our hands is enough to begin to achieve this aim. After this, short studies of scales, arpeggios, rasgueos and thumb work at various speeds will give a warm up sufficient to begin study.
There is a difference between playing and studying. When we study, we practice to train the hands and fingers whilst when we play, we use the skills learned in study to express our music. This distinction is important because if we tried to play a falseta without us having previously technically prepared ourselves for, we will simply be repeating our defects and making them become habits which will later need to be unlearned. All study should be done at a speed so we can perform the material cleanly and with control, after having analyzed the technical difficulties and devoted time and energy in careful study (and reflexion) to the parts that give us the most trouble.
To study one needs to be relaxed in order to focus the whole force of mind and body (not inconsiderable) into our fingertips. Each note needs to be played with the same volume and tone, excepting of course accents. To do this, each finger needs to move totally independently from the others without any force whatsoever, with a natural position and with only minimal excessive movement of either hands or fingers.
Study is:
Playing is:
To play well, we must study well and spend a lot of time doing it. Hands and fingers must always be in the correct place in order to attack the next note(s) with the minimum of force and tension.
There is little question that the guitar is an instrument that repays technical study but this is a study of many hours and requires dedication and consistency. But practice must be effective if it is to be reflected in our playing.
Good study involves:
Not following these simple rules will leave us worse that we started because we will have spent hours teaching our muscle memory to play “perfectly badly”. The resulting sound only serves to make out audience feel stress and tension. At best, these vices will be extremely difficult to correct later on, and at worst will be the cause of eternal frustration at not being able to play what we would like to in the way we would like to play it. Under those conditions, improvement will be impossible. Please don’t ask me how I happen to know this… I just do [;)].
Learning how to study the guitar is as important as learning to play given that we will only ever play what we practice. If we don’t practice well, we will never play well. For this reason it is important to learn how to practice: defining what we want to achieve and knowing how we are going to meet those aims. This series of posts will help us to make our practice more effective.
Click on the category “practice” for more. To find all categories, scroll down and look in the left hand column.
This tangos introduces thumb and index work and the thumb to play simple compás as well as the abánico technique.
Practise dead slowly, as always because speed will come alone. The focus here is to stay in compás and keep everything even and clean.
The fingering for the abánico can be found with the other rasgueado exercises here. The abánco is shown in numbers “e” and “f” on that page.
The “palo” is called “tangos”.
In this lesson we will look at basic rasgueados and some thumb techniques. You can find some exercises and advice for rasgueados here and for thumb work here.
You will see that there are two mp3 recordings. One features guitar and the other is palms and cajón. When you practise, always play to a metronome or a rhythm track to help you develop a feel for the compás.
You will notice that the tablature is divided into four sections: A, B, C and D.
Section A
This section is repeated. The first time there is no ‘golpe’ on the sound board, and the second time there is. The aim here is to practise both using and not using the percussive ‘golpe’.
Every rasgueado in this section is played using ‘i’ only (index finger). Don’t be fooled into thinking that this is too easy to practise. Later on, this extension practice will serve you well for other techniques and palos.
Section B
Here, the first beat of every measure is still silence. The third beat features a new rasgueado: the three (or four) finger rasgueado. I prefer the three finger rasgueado that is played using only the a-m-i fingers. The four finger rasgueado uses the little finger as well.
Section C
In this section, there are variations to the previous section with a more developed rasgueado technique and a little ‘cierre’ or close at the end.
Section D
Here, simple thumb technique is introduced which alternates with the single finger rasgueados. See the above link to find some exercises and advice on thumb work.
The last but one measure features a thumb up and down stroke, played in triplets. This is known as ‘alzapúa’.
. See the thumb link for more help on playing this technique.
Happy practising and I shall be back in two week2s time for another instalment.
Here is a tangos that features a Solo Compás backing track. I have been practising picado recently and here are the results. Of course, still lots of work to do with respect to technique, but the practice is paying off, slowly but surely!
There is also a new alzapúa falseta that I came up with today as well as a little arpeggio work. This little arpeggios falseta is very commonly played but is proving quite reluctant to come off clean!
Perhaps I should be spending some time on the organisation of compositions. Anyway, there remains still plenty to do, so I shall leave you with this and start to get the next recording prepared.
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Here it is, after far too long, is some music for you. It is, after all the purpose of the site. Continue reading, using the link below to hear the mp3. This soleá is por medio and the cejilla is on the fourth fret. It is really a technical exercise, but with some very useful vocabulary for soleá por medio. The idea of practising crotchets and triplets came from Gabriel Cabrera in Málaga.
If you would like a soleá por medio compás track to practice along to, you can find one here. I would have uploaded the palmas track, but it is a little too ragged!
The first compás is not on the tablature, but the second is. Bar three features some of those arpeggios that have been taking up so much effort to get clean and crisp. Still some work to do, but there is progress. How are yours?
More arpeggios! Compás is three (bar 9) features more arpeggios. They end with some “rasgueado con golpe”, using the middle finger (m) only with golpe using the knuckle on the downstroke (bar 7) and end with some thumbed basses. That ends our arpeggios for now and onto the thumb exercises…
I always thought that my thumb was strong – until I started to record this. The problem here is that there are crotchet and crotchet triplets. First crotchets, then the triplet and finally, mixed! The problem you might experience is getting the triplets in time. Bar 33 begins with the triplets played using alzapúa and then bar 37 plays the same melody with thumb and forefinger. Can you get both of these sections to sound exactly the same in terms of volume, compás and feel? They are simply the same thing played twice, but using different techniques.
The final compás in the tablature (bar 65) has a nice cierre with alzapúa combined with ligados and index finger. Could be played more clearly, but time has run out!
Happy practising.
I received in my in-box today a news bulletin from jondoweb.com. After a quick glance I decided to have a look and to my pleasant surprise, I found a great site with a whole series of links to artists’ sites. The link that started my journey this one, copied directly from the email:
“El archivo sonoro que este mes te sugerimos es un cante por malagueñas de Antonia Contreras. Pincha aquí para escucharlo“
If you listen to this malagueñas, you will hear, I think, the guitar of Gabriel Cabrera, from Málaga, a one time teacher of mine and a great accompanist.
There are lots of links to explore, and I will be adding the best ones to the links page. Happy listening!
Nearly everything consists of rasgueados and a couple of very short falsetas. You will notice that the compás (featuring cajón, palmas and jaleo) is excellently done. This is not my work, but a track that I have used from the excellent series of cds called “Solo Compás”.
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This week I am back to recording and study. This recording follows the great meeting I had on Friday night with Gengizhan. Another flamenco fan, he has been playing for many a long year. Unfortunately, as with many guitar players who have never visited Andalucia, he has never accompanied cante. So we struck a deal, he will help me to play the guitar, and I will help him with compás.
So, after a my time away from recording, I sat down and thought that we could start with some tangos. And here it is. There are a couple of simple falsetas, but the whole idea is to think about compás – keeping it simple and everything in its rightful place.
A little soporific, but the idea was simply to play slowly and give the piece a little swing…
After listening to the recording online, I realize that there is some slight distortion. I will fix the problem during the week.
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Very upset I was when I was told that flamenco compás can be changed as you like and that inserting extra beats and/or chords in non-usual places is called syncopation. This is an error.
Compás cannot be changed, it is the fruit of evolution and forms part of the cultural legacy of the people of Andalucía. Compás is what makes flamenco what it is (as well as the words of the cante). In Andalucía it is respected and almost venerated-
If you were to go into a flamenco reunion in Andalucía, and play out of compás, or beat palmas with no sensitivity, you would, at best, be politely requested to shut up. There are some people who would take great offence if you were to persist.
You do not have to be a virtuoso to play the flamenco guitar. The whole flamenco thing is about the transmission of a particular feeling through a vehicle called the cante. The cante is the song, and without cante, any performance is usually a sterile display of guitar – and guitar is not flamenco – the place of the guitar is secondary to the cante, and even in the hands of people like Paco de Lucía or Gerardo Nuñez, Vicente Amigo, and so on, the guitar is secondary. For proof, listen to Paco with Fosforito, Gerardo with Carmen Linares, and so on. All these great palyers first learned how to accompany the cante, and then went on (because they were especially good) to become soloists.
Here are some links from You Tube:
Below you can see some flamenco, these guys are just messing around and having a lark – but the compás is solid. Larking around, and great flamenco. Such memories I have of Jerez!
This is a little more straight laced, but the compás is what allows everyone to understand what is happening. The video quality here is quite poor.
Here is Fernanda de Utrera, nor she, nor the guitarist are making it up as they go along. The very idea would have shocked her.
Potito por bulerÃas from the Saura’s film “Flamenco”.
If you see this man or any of his family in or around Jerez (the one with the gold teeth), never tell him that compás is open to change and that you are going to change it. I know Manuel de los Santos ¨Agujetas¨ and I know he will no take your comments kindly! If you listen right to the end you wil hear a very very sinister sound. There is fire in his eyes as he sings:
Ya no soy quien como era,
Ni quien debe de ser.
Soy un mueble vieja
arrumbado contra la pared¨I am not what I was
Nor who I should be.
I am just an old bit of furniture
Shoved up against the wall.
Frightening stuff.
Here is another with Morao – one of the greatest guitar players from Jerez.
A lovely birthday party. Note the total lack of flashness and showing off.
Utter, uttter pathos from Camarón. Can you see the people behind the door? Lucky for us they respected this great man and his cante.
Yes there is fusion of musical forms and an opening up. Here you can see Tomatito playing to the compás of bulería, but you cannot say that he is playing flamenco. Nor would he. This is not flamenco, it is a fusion form of music.
Finally a treat. One of the best ever flamenco guitarists: Diego del Gastor. Yes he can play his stuff, and, yes it is brilliant. But he is not technically proficient. Flash was what Diego hated the most.
Diego solo: Bulería
Bulería with Joselero
Diego solo: Soleá
The feel of Morón de la Frontera continues in the present day. There is a recent CD released with a group playing the now famous Morón sound. On the streets, you may see this man, Dieguito de Morón. He is the son of Joselero. There is a very very fine recording of him accompanying his father from around 1975 – an utter jewel from Morón. If you find it, my recommendation is to buy, beg it, borrow it or just steal it! I have found the remastered version here. Here he compás is pretty firm – but with Dieguito this is not always the case as he does not really rate the guitar without cante as being at all flamenco.
And there you have it. A collection of flamenco on video to demonstrate the importance of form in flamenco. Flamenco is a tradition and needs to be nurtured and respected.
Yesterday I came across a large web site managed by Chuck Keyser, based in Santa Barbara, USA, and I was most impressed.
Here you can find very useful information for those starting out with flamenco, the table of contents includes:
Flamenco guitar
Falseta collections
Compás analysis: solea, bulería, alegría and siguiriya, amongst other things.
Some visitors have asked for material related to tremolo and practicing trémolo. This technique gives many guitar players problems, but it need not present problems if the right approach is taken to study. Before we begin, some basic terminology.
The terminology:
Now for the advice:
Getting faster with speed bursts
Force your fingers to work independently:
Increasing extensor strength – this helps returning to the string ready to play your note…
And finally, Stepan Rak advocates practising using the little finger, giving it strength, thereby helping the anular…
One last word and perhaps the most important one – even weight and accentuation go far further in giving an impression of speed than does uneveness played fast. If you wish to listen excellent examples of trémolo you could not do better than to listen to some Manolo Sanlúcar and Gerardo Nuñez.
Here are the downloads [pdf]:
Arpeggios one p-i-m-a or p-a-m-i combinations
Arpeggios two p-i-m-a-m-i or p-a-m-i-m-a combinations
These right hand studies are intended to help develop finger independence. Many guitarists, myself included, have problems with naughty fingers that fly away from the strings when a string is played. The aim of these exercises is to promote the most efficient movement possible: as one string is struck, the next finger is preparing to strike. You can read more on this in the “gym page” – Especially see planting.
Arpeggios are very common in flamenco and without some dominion of this technique you will be extremely limited in what you can play. Even guitarists who dedicate themselves to accompaniment and never play solos use this technique. So, lets get going and work up a sweat.
Use any chords that you like for these daily workouts, though at the beginning it is best to use something very simple.
Words of advice from Sabicas:
“It is not done with speed and force, only with touch and tone. ‘Fast’ is a term that should not be applied to music. Only the note value and the tempo dictate the number of notes in a measure. The feeling of speed is most effectively achieved when tempo and note value are observed in a disciplined manner. It is rarely if ever accomplished when we try to go fast.”
Found on: Guitar people
Have a read 
Here is a short recording of the basic compás and falsetas. I have recorded the guitar playing solo, the guitar with percussion and both together. Getting the arpeggios clean and strong requires some work, and there is still some for me to do.
Soleá is often referred to as the mother of flamenco. This is because so many flamenco rhythms are based upon this basic structure. If you can get the hang of this rhythm, you will find that the rhythms of the slower Soleá and faster bulerías are more easily dominated. Use the cajón recording for practice.
The percussion instrument is called a cajón and originates in Latin America. This means box in Spanish. More than a box, a cajón has a series of strings in its interior which vibrate against the resonating tone board. It is very a popular instrument in modern flamenco and good cajón players are very much in demand.
Soleá por medio – solo guitar.
Download – Soleá por medio – guitar alone 1.5mb
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Soleá por medio – with percussion.
Download – Soleá por medio – guitar with cajón 1.5mb
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Soleá por medio – cajón alone.
Download – Soleá por medio – cajón alone 1mb
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Here is a short track of palmas for bulería al golpe. You will need an audio player which allows you to loop sounds, so that the track repeats over and over whilst you practise your compás.
Download – bulería al golpe – palmas (50kb)
Click to play in your browser:
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There is a new mp3 page. Use the links in the navigation bar at the top, or access the page from the “pages” list in the side bar.
The first installment is a Rondeña.
Download – Rondeña (5.2mb)
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2011 Bilbao
