Flaminco??

[Mr Bojangles]

I've been playing acoustic and electric guitar now for about 60 years. Just recently, I bought a flaminco guitar, and I am finding out that learning to play it is almost as difficult as when I was first learning guitar.

I guess I just need more time in the saddle...

[Charlie Bernstein]

Sounds like a great saddle to ride. Hi-oh, Silver!

[mr. beaumont]

Flamenco is easily one of the most demanding styles, requiring total immersion. It is not just music, but dance and culture. Good luck! Playing for 60 years and still learning new things? THAT is the way to be.

[blakey]

I owned a Amalio Burguet Flamenco guitar for a while. A beautiful guitar (I regret selling!). A good flamenco guitar should have a very low action by definition. Mine was really easy to play compared to a typical steel string or even a classical. Mine just growled, in a really good way.
The technique of proper classical or flamenco Is really hard though. I used to just noodle on mine. May well get another one some day. A proper traditional one though and hand built, like my last one.

[BlueBowman]

Originally Posted by mr. beaumont

Flamenco is easily one of the most demanding styles, requiring total immersion. It is not just music, but dance and culture. Good luck! Playing for 60 years and still learning new things? THAT is the way to be.

Indeed! Learning a new style can be the life blood of creativity. I love flamenco, but the latest style I’ve ventured into is bluegrass. Never thought I would listen to BG, let alone play it! But it’s been WAY more fun than I thought it would be. Also, I don’t sound like a hardcore BG player now, but the style has informed my playing for the better.

Keep learning!

[neomastino]

Originally Posted by BlueBowman

Indeed! Learning a new style can be the life blood of creativity. I love flamenco, but the latest style I’ve ventured into is bluegrass. Never thought I would listen to BG, let alone play it! But it’s been WAY more fun than I thought it would be. Also, I don’t sound like a hardcore BG player now, but the style has informed my playing for the better.

Keep learning!

I am right there with you on the bluegrass front, I have found it to be a great learning adventure, especially coming from an exclusive fingerstyle and classical background. Of course now I really, really want a Martin D-41, lol.

[redir]

If there are any Flamenco shows in your area then seek them out, it's part of how you learn that style.

[Robin, Wales]

Originally Posted by Mr Bojangles

I've been playing acoustic and electric guitar now for about 60 years. Just recently, I bought a flaminco guitar, and I am finding out that learning to play it is almost as difficult as when I was first learning guitar.

I guess I just need more time in the saddle...

I was in Seville last autumn - it is a wonderful city.......just go to Andalucía and immerse yourself. You'd love it

Originally Posted by BlueBowman

Indeed! Learning a new style can be the life blood of creativity. I love flamenco, but the latest style I’ve ventured into is bluegrass. Never thought I would listen to BG, let alone play it! But it’s been WAY more fun than I thought it would be. Also, I don’t sound like a hardcore BG player now, but the style has informed my playing for the better.

Keep learning!

Originally Posted by neomastino

I am right there with you on the bluegrass front, I have found it to be a great learning adventure, especially coming from an exclusive fingerstyle and classical background. Of course now I really, really want a Martin D-41, lol.

Ahh bluegrass....The only thing I'd say about bluegrass guitarists is that they are as useful as a chocolate fireguard if they can't sing!

[catt]

The right hand must train to render complex patterns played with precise syncopations - just as a drummer. When I was learning, back in college, I drove a bus for income; all day long I would drum my fingers on the steering wheel to practice all the rasqueados and right hand elements...just as I did with drumming rudiments when I played drums. Flamenco toque (gtr) is essentially a dance one does with the right hand: it is a very physical form that requires much physical training.

[Inyo]

Originally Posted by Mr Bojangles

...Just recently, I bought a flaminco guitar, and I am finding out that learning to play it is almost as difficult as when I was first learning guitar...

Flaminco guitar, eh?

A Flamingo guitar provides greater opportunities for flights of fancy:

Originally Posted by BlueBowman

Indeed! Learning a new style can be the life blood of creativity. I love flamenco, but the latest style I’ve ventured into is bluegrass. Never thought I would listen to BG, let alone play it! But it’s been WAY more fun than I thought it would be. Also, I don’t sound like a hardcore BG player now, but the style has informed my playing for the better.

Keep learning!

Originally Posted by neomastino

I am right there with you on the bluegrass front, I have found it to be a great learning adventure, especially coming from an exclusive fingerstyle and classical background. Of course now I really, really want a Martin D-41, lol.

Originally Posted by Robin, Wales

...Ahh bluegrass....The only thing I'd say about bluegrass guitarists is that they are as useful as a chocolate fireguard if they can't sing!

Ah, come on now. Don't advocate judgemental exclusion.

Bluegrass bass, banjo, fiddle, dobro, and mandolin players who can't sing wanna feel useless too, don't ya know.

[Robin, Wales]

Originally Posted by catt

The right hand must train to render complex patterns played with precise syncopations - just as a drummer. When I was learning, back in college, I drove a bus for income; all day long I would drum my fingers on the steering wheel to practice all the rasqueados and right hand elements...just as I did with drumming rudiments when I played drums. Flamenco toque (gtr) is essentially a dance one does with the right hand: it is a very physical form that requires much physical training.

That's a fascinating insight. When I was is Seville in November I was walking through a courtyard just outside the Alcazar and there was a flamenco singer with a Cajon. The rhythmic patterns against voice he produced were mesmerising - a really physical performance. And the guitar players I saw in the city were the same - the playing was full of physicality.

[BlueBowman]

Originally Posted by catt

The right hand must train to render complex patterns played with precise syncopations - just as a drummer. When I was learning, back in college, I drove a bus for income; all day long I would drum my fingers on the steering wheel to practice all the rasqueados and right hand elements...just as I did with drumming rudiments when I played drums. Flamenco toque (gtr) is essentially a dance one does with the right hand: it is a very physical form that requires much physical training.

That's crazy you would mention this. I also (prior to my knowledge of flamenco guitar) would drum my fingers in various rhythmic patterns from childhood onward. I mean, I would do it all day long while at school, home, anywhere. And when I finally did get around to learning some flamenco later in life, those percussive patterns fell right into place in a most natural way.

I LOVE that style of playing. Like you say, it takes impeccable timing and sense of rhythm, not to mention that vivacious energy. A beautiful style.

[BlueBowman]

Originally Posted by Robin, Wales

Ahh bluegrass....The only thing I'd say about bluegrass guitarists is that they are as useful as a chocolate fireguard if they can't sing!

But it is the playing that I love!

[Norsepicker]

Learn the a minor, d minor, e 7 progression and the Andalusian Cadence (G, F, E, D) and fool around. Don't worry about "puro" for awhile, it's one of the most accessible sounds I know - then learn the a minor scales in first and fifth position. Then work on rasesquado and piccato (using your index and middle for notes in the scale)
You'll recognize the sound, loads of living room fun, and when you're ready maybe get serious. Several classical guitarists talk about the impossibility of the mastery of both flamenco and classical, and Segovia was a real prude about it, but I gave up the idea of mastery a long, long time ago and I love fooling around with flamenco. Don't be intimidated.

[RJVB]

Originally Posted by Robin, Wales

The rhythmic patterns against voice he produced were mesmerising - a really physical performance.

Saw her as a kid in the 70s doing a programme combining traditional dance and "vocal" interpretations like in the 2nd video; I can still remember the energy she cropped up and had to release regularly: