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