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.

Flamenco goes modern: Apps for iPhone/iTouch

OK, there not flamenco apps as such, they are guitar apps. But they are mightly useful.
I'm using two. Both have tuners, chord dictionaries and metronomes.
This one from Gibson is free. I'm mainly using it for the metronome on my iTouch and I've been checking out the lessons in bed. Crazy.You can get it here at the iTunes store.
This one is not free. It's five English pounds & from someone calling themselves Agile Partners. But it is pretty good. I particularly like the way you can tap in finger positions and it will tell you what chord it is. A must for a flamenco guitarist who inevitably plays all sorts of strange, fragment chords and doesn't know what they are. You can also set the chord dictionary for different members of the guitar family, like the banjo, mandolin, ukuele etc. I've been fascinated by that: i had no idea how they are tuned. And when you strum it, it has sound! So you can pretend you are playing the banjo in a meeting. How cool is that? One quibble: for that amount of money they might have thrown in some lessons. It also has a metronome but or some reason I play the Gibson one. Maybe cos it's free. I'm like that...

Flamenco Boot Camp. Nearly.

I decided I'm not getting brilliant quick enough. On Sunday the sun was shining. I played for an hour but I really need to be playing for more. Much more. I need to play with the metronome more. I've got a new one on my iTouch and iPhone. That's how modern I am. But just like the old metronome, it's a little fascist. )Maybe that's why flamenco blossomed in the 30s? Dunno, I'll let the historians work that one out.) It's also highly insensitive. It just won't stop reminding me that me timing is, let's just say, not flawless.
But I'm going to win.
So everyday, for the rest of my life, I'm going to get out of bed an hour earlier and play/battle with the metronome. And do some sit-ups. And eat a healthy breakfast etc. It's all change from here on in. You watch...

Paco Interview

There is very little of Paco de Lucia actually talking. Maybe he did when he was younger & he's probably bored with it. He's probably spent so much time with his guitar & his music that he feels the questions don't do him justice, that they couldn't even begin to allow him to express the insights he has about flamenco guitar.Sometimes you can do too much, sometimes you can go too deep. Like Marlow in Heart of Darkness/ Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now. I like this interview from Flamenco World because there are clues into that experience.

Flamenco Heaven

This year is the bienal in Sevilla. Which happens every two years. Obviously. You didn't need to speak Spanish to understand that, I suspect. It's an outrageously beautiful town, pant rash hot and there's lots of wonderful flamenco.
Check out the site. Book your tickets. Pack your sun hat.
Seville flameco bienal site

David Palomar

http://www.myspace.com/davidpalomarI mentioned this gig recently (post 16th march). I've finally got round to downloading the film from my phone, then uploading it to YouTube, then embedding it here. Not sure it was worth. it was a great gig but an iphone does it now justice whatsoever. trust me it was magical.

Review: hidden gem or gold dust, whichever is better

I was in Sevilla for the flamenco festival 2008 and desperate to soak up any flamenco, wandered into the flamenco specialist shop. He was playing this for some local aficionados. I had no idea what they were saying but I knew straight away that I loved it. It's raw, simple and dramatic. It's really well recorded, and I'm not sure all flamenco is. The opening bulerias is blow your bollocks off. If your not English, that just means it's very good indeed.
It's mainly singer plus guitar, with some percussion, lots of palmas but some other stuff too. My understanding is that it's not an act as such, rather it's a collective, so there's all sorts of singers and presumably players. For what it's worth, I listen to it more than any other flamenco.
Then the strangest thing happened: I went to Jerez for a long week-end not so long ago, ate, drink and staggered around trying to find some flamenco. Found a pena and saw a short but pretty good show. In front of an audience of about 7. Got home and realised it was the dudes from this CD. There's not famous, they didn't seem very flash, they play to rooms of about 7 but by jingo they're good.Nueva Frontera Del Cante De Jerez 2008

The sheer buzz of live music

I went to see some flamenco on Friday, took a mate who is slowly getting into it. he doesn't play anything but he's beginning to get it. And man, we were blown away. A group led by a young-ish chap from Jerez called David Palomar. I think too many of the performances we see in this part of the world are too, well, polite. For a theatre. I know lots of people love that, even in Seville. I've seen it: big theatres full, with tiny specs, flamenco as contemporary dance. But I'm a simple man, I love football, I love flamenco, I love chips. I want it to kick me in the bollocks. Metaphorically. Friday did that.

Paco at his best

Watch it first.


It was late. We'd been drinking. I was with my muso, tabla playing mate. I mention that because he knows what he's doing.

We were surfing flamenco on YouTube and clicked on this. And for about 30 seconds, we couldn't figure out what was going on. We started with 'Oh, Paco is so great' to 'wow, this is out there' to 'this sounds wrong'. Then we got it. It took us that long. And then we pissed ourselves for 5 minutes. It's done so well. As I said we were drunk, and it was late. So we spent the next hour watching all the other shreds. Clapton is great.

By the way, this, of course, is how I think I sound on those bad days.

This is the real deal of course, and to my probably ignorant ears, Paco starting nuevo flamenco.

if you want the track, it's on this great CD.

Fuente y caudal

If you want to know a little more about the man, check this out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paco_de_Luc%C3%ADa#Discography

Siguriyas

I've been away. But not from my guitar. Now I'm on to Siguiriyas. I love it. I'd sum it up as: strong, driven, beautiful, bittersweet.
The count is like soleares but starts in a different place. You begin with the 2 beats then go to 3s.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 rest.

But I actually count it to 5, which for some bizarre and unfathomable reasons I can do easily with this but not with soleares or bularias.
1 and 2 and 3 and-a four-and-a five. Pause. One...

Equally strangely: counting this way to 5 rather than 12 makes me feel uber flamenco.

Here is someone doing it better than me. (Although I'm not bad at it, so feeling good about my playing. Watch our compadres.)