Tomatito at Paradiso

Man, it rocked. He/they is great live. But this is a nice, quiet bit.

Still Ill

That's a song by the Smiths. And I'm not still ill. But I was. I went for a long walk in the great outdoors and apparently got bit by a deer tick and ended up with a viral infection called Lyme disease. Which knocked me out for ages. But I'm back. At first I could only sleep but as I started to recover it gave me the chance to get some serious practice in and I'm feeling the benefit. So 2 lessons:
1. Fresh is not in fact good for you.
2. Get ill if you want to get some practice in.

Compas Top Tip

I had the good fortune going out for an evening in Seville with a dancer & a singer. The both said something so startlingly obvious, something that I should have thought about ages ago, that it makes me understand why we're probably doomed as a species. Because despite being obsessed about this, despite desperately wanting to do the right thing, despite practicing & playing for hours each week, I still hasn't seen it. Maybe that's a big claim for what I'm about to say but if I can't see this then how are we going to solve global warming, world peace, fair trade etc. Anyway, you decide on that, I've decided on this. They said, in a round about way, flamenco guitarists are too busy being the best guitarist when they should be focusing on being a great flamenco. And I'd be learning a very basic passage of siguiriyas when they said this. Just strumming. Most of what I learn is technically smart. Something other guitarists will go, ok that's quite cool. The wouldn't say that for this bit because I was just strumming & using the golpe for the accent. I realised I should do that for each palos I've learnt. Get back to basics and get a more fundamental, visceral feel for the compas. Especially bularias which is all visceral feel but I'd been learning quite elaborate stuff. So that is my tip: strum it & tap it. First finger, up & down, plus with golpe on 3/6/8/10/12.. And then try different movements between chords, in different places, leave more gaps, hang around on one chord. Experiment. Then all of a sudden you start to sounds a little bit more like Tomatito. A little bit anyway..

A friend of mine want to start playing flamenco guitar. So for the first time someone is asking me questions about flamenco. The pupil turns teacher. Maybe not a very good one but nonetheless...
Anyway, he asked me for some exercises to get him started.
So I thought: if I knew then what I know now...what exercises would have the biggest impact.
It’s not easy to answer.
Interestingly some of the more famous stuff you’d use less in day to day playing eg. Rasguedo. But you should try them anyway. Here are a two though that will impact you’re playing every day.

1.
It’s vital to get your fingers moving and improve you rhythmic flexibility.
So here a good exercise that does both.
Play the Phrygian scale – that’s from E across up through the ‘white’ notes (as in on a piano) so no sharps or flats.
Do that for at least 5 minutes each time you pick up the guitar. Ideally every time you pause in daily life.
Once you start being able to do it fluently get out a metronome & set it slow – maybe 50 BPM, maybe more, maybe less – it doesn’t matter.
Play the scale to a count of 2 notes per beat.
After 2 up & downs across the fretboard change to a count of 3.
Do this for 3 up & downs – which is when you return to the E on a count of 1 – and change to a count of 4.
Do this for 4 so you return to E on the count of 1. Then go to a count of 5.
This will blow your mind/make your fingers go wobbly at the knees. The odd numbers are very hard to begin with, especially 5. Our brains are so trained in 2 and 4. But eventually it will become second nature. Try to remember where the finger will stop on each 1 for the triplet (count of 3)and quintuplet (count of 5).
Slow the metronome down if you need to. Take it away if you need to (as long as you bring it back later).
But soon you’ll get fluent, your fingers will start moving more quickly and finding the right place whatever you’re playing but best of all you’ll start internalising unusual counts – which is fundamental to flamenco.
Tip: the count of 5 can be done as hip-po-pot-a-mus. And do it as much as you breath.

2.
Do arpeggios with any chord sequence you like. Change the chords, it will keep you fresh.
Do 4 notes, then with the same tempo do 6. That means P-I-M-A (thumb, 1st finger, middle, 3rd) or PIMAMI.
I suspect the arpeggio is the unsung hero of flamenco guitar.
Make sure you’re finder are curling up into your palm rather than pulling at the string. They should strike it. Try to keep your hand upright and move the angle around a bit to find different sounds and tones.
Here’s an nice progression: Dm – Bb – C – Am7 – Bmaj7 – Am – Gm7 – A.
Now go play.

Paco de Lucia & Cameron for the first time.

OK it's not, it's a TV film. But this is how it might have been. Possibly. Or probably not. But it's interesting. A little anyway.
Passed on by my Basque compadre Kakau.

Flemenco & Heart of Darkness re-done

I met the guy who taught me to play rock guitar this week-end. Hadn't seen him in over 20 years. I told him I was now learning flamenco guitar he said something like: you're going in deep....like Apocalypse now.
Is right. I'm told Denny Laine, ex-Moody Blues & Wings, gave up being a pop star when he discovered flamenco. Wikipedia suggests this is not true but I like the myth.

More Flamenco technology

This bit of flamenco kit might be useful, or it might not. It's a flamenco metronome from Graf-martinez. Thing is, I can't get it to do anything. And it seems nearly every function is blocked for the demo version. Which is hardly in the spirit of t'internet.
Anyway if you can get it to do anything,  let me know. It looks like it counts to 12, which helps.