Flamenco guitar Blog

Tag Archives: Compás

Las Alegrías/Cantiñas

By miguel | February 1st, 2011

Originally, the word cantiña referred to any popular song: Cantinear, or canturrear, means to hum along to. It was originally a word used to denominate medieval songs from Galicia in northern Spain. The word is though to have arrived at Cádiz shipboard, where it was adopted by the local gaditanos (natives of Cádiz). Whether the [...]

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El Polo y La Caña

By miguel | May 20th, 2010

An introduction the Polo and Caña is illustrated with literary references, amongst the first ever references to flamenco. There is also video and the featured artists are Curro Lucena with Manolo Franco and Arcángel with Miguel Cortés.

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elementary – soleá 3

By miguel | January 6th, 2008

Here is the final installment of our soleá. There are four rasgueado exercises that form the basic soleá rasgueados. More details about these are given in the newly updated rasgueado page.You can download the pdf here:
At the top of the page I have shown some simple chords that are most often used for this [...]

Posted in Compás, Practice, Rasgueado, Soleá | Also tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

elementary – soleá 2

By miguel | December 16th, 2007

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.

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elementary – soleá 1

By miguel | December 16th, 2007

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.

solea [ 0:34 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
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elementary – rhythmic structures of the main palos

By miguel | December 15th, 2007

How can you start learning the rhythmic forms of flamenco?
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 [...]

Posted in Alegría, Bulería, Compás, Practice, Soleá, Tangos, Tientos | Also tagged , , , , , | 4 Responses

elementary – tangos and abánico

By miguel | November 25th, 2007

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 [...]

Guitar only [ 0:32 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Palmas only [ 1:02 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Guitar and palmas [ 0:35 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Posted in Abánico, Compás, Rasgueado, Tangos | Also tagged , , | Leave a comment

elementary: starting with rasgueados and thumb

By miguel | November 11th, 2007

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 [...]

Tangos guitar and palmas [ 1:19 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Percussion [ 1:27 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
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Tangos improvisation

By miguel | May 27th, 2007

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 [...]

Tangos [ 2:46 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
Posted in Alzapúa, Compás, Tangos | Also tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Exercise for soleá for alzapúa and arpeggios.

By miguel | April 24th, 2007

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 [...]

Posted in Alzapúa, Compás, Soleá | Also tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Alegría compás

By miguel | April 1st, 2007

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”.

Posted in Alegría, Compás | Also tagged | 3 Responses

Tangos compás

By miguel | April 1st, 2007

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, [...]

Tangos [ 2:24 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
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Compás and its place in flamenco.

By miguel | March 25th, 2007

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. [...]

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Soleá por medio

By miguel | December 17th, 2006

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 [...]

Posted in Soleá | Also tagged , , | 9 Responses

Bulería al golpe – palmas

By miguel | December 15th, 2006

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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