what is flamenco?
# 1
A flaming flamingo obviously.
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 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.
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 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.
Try once,fail twice...
# 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.
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.
Try once,fail twice...
# 3
I think you might be the only one on this forum who plays flamenco besides me.
We should jam sometime :)
We should jam sometime :)
# 5
# 6
the only flamenco i can play is the classical guitar intro to "black star" by mr. malmsteen. i dont know of any other flamenco related songs. if i did, i would learn. any ideas?
We all drown in blackened waters
-zakk wylde
-zakk wylde
# 7
Black star is not flamenco. That's classical stuff. Classical sounds like flamenco but it's not. There's a difference and you have to listen to a lot of different music before you can learn to tell the difference. Listen to Paco de Lucia. Now that's some real Flamenco. Nowadays you got guys like jesse cook playing music they all flamenco when it really isn't. Flamenco has a spirit in it, it's soulfull music. That's what Paco has.
Practice 8 hours a day and God Bless you.
# 8