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..