Flamenco Knowledge or How to Learn Palos
I remember some time ago I was watching a show on a classical music channel, Mezzo I think it was, about the fusion of various ethic musics. A world famous composer (can't remember who it was) had gathered representatives of musical genres from different countries and was listening to them separately to figure out how to get them to play together.
I distinctly remember his exchange with the gypsy flamenco player. The guitarist would say "Here, this is buleria" then strum a few chords, then go "Seguiriya is like this" and play a short falseta, so and so forth. The composer would carefully listen and nod his head. I was surprised. "Can anyone really pick up the structure and subtleties of such a complex musical culture?" I kept thinking.
Also, I was pissed off at the producers of the event for suggesting that a classical composer could easily mix and match the "less evolved" genres of world music. Well, in hindsight I think it was an interesting project. But I still believe it is not possible to understand a music without immersing yourself into it either by listening and reading or actually playing it.
In my previous articles I talked mostly about the flamenco guitar technique. Which makes sense as I am something of a technician. But there is another side to flamenco guitar that is equally if not more important than moving fingers: learning and understanding flamenco music.
I receive students with varying degrees of technical and musical knowledge. At one extreme of the spectrum I have absolute aficionados who know the subtleties of flamenco much more than I do, yet have no prior experience with guitar. Then at the other end I have the technical wizards with super agile fingers but with almost no exposure to hardcore flamenco music.
Each type of learner comes with their own challenges and perks.
But, once we cover the basic techniques, it is easier to teach the first group. The students who know the music, that is, the ones who can tell the difference between a solea and a buleria.
Paco de Lucia says he was familiar with pretty much every aspect of flamenco music before he picked up a guitar himself. Not to compare myself with the maestro or anything but I also had developed an understanding of flamenco music through CDs and concerts before trying it for myself. I was able to hear the basic characteristics of a buleria and how that differed from alegria. I didn't know the strict rhythmical structures but I had a feel for each palo.
What is a palo? Solea is a palo; buleria is a palo. It is essentially a certain way the chords and beats come together into a meaningful musical whole that defines a type of song. Each palo has it's own rhythmical and harmonic structure and usually originates somewhere in Andalusia. Each has a distinct way of singing and dancing associated with it.
Compas is the underlying rhythmical pattern and timing of a palo. It is a very important notion in flamenco. "One must always play "in compas" except for the free form palos such as Granaina or Taranta.
How can one learn the palos?
I can certainly give you the basic compas structure of solea in numbers which will simply be a numeric formula such as 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12. Quite meaningless on paper. Or I can teach you some of the basic chords and transitions, which also would not give you much knowledge.
What you need is to HEAR the palo. A solea is unmistakably a solea and it will speak to you directly with every audible aspect of it. Similar to not needing to measure the wavelength of the reflected light from a surface to call it red.
What you need is lot's of listening. The formulas are not the right place to start. Once you start to hear the characteristics of the palo then you apply the theory onto it to render it usable. By usable I mean playable. Once you get well acquainted with the norms then it is possible to compose and even bend the rules a bit to create new stuff that still sounds authentic.
In this day and age it is possible to access a ton of material to learn flamenco music. Again, I learned everything I know from CDs, DVDs and the internet. Youtube is almost a bottomless pit for hearing and seeing flamenco.
Therefore, especially for learners who are not very familiar with the flamenco music I make listening and watching a part of the teaching process. I occasionally send them youtube links to observe and study.
Such as:
I distinctly remember his exchange with the gypsy flamenco player. The guitarist would say "Here, this is buleria" then strum a few chords, then go "Seguiriya is like this" and play a short falseta, so and so forth. The composer would carefully listen and nod his head. I was surprised. "Can anyone really pick up the structure and subtleties of such a complex musical culture?" I kept thinking.
Also, I was pissed off at the producers of the event for suggesting that a classical composer could easily mix and match the "less evolved" genres of world music. Well, in hindsight I think it was an interesting project. But I still believe it is not possible to understand a music without immersing yourself into it either by listening and reading or actually playing it.
In my previous articles I talked mostly about the flamenco guitar technique. Which makes sense as I am something of a technician. But there is another side to flamenco guitar that is equally if not more important than moving fingers: learning and understanding flamenco music.
I receive students with varying degrees of technical and musical knowledge. At one extreme of the spectrum I have absolute aficionados who know the subtleties of flamenco much more than I do, yet have no prior experience with guitar. Then at the other end I have the technical wizards with super agile fingers but with almost no exposure to hardcore flamenco music.
Each type of learner comes with their own challenges and perks.
But, once we cover the basic techniques, it is easier to teach the first group. The students who know the music, that is, the ones who can tell the difference between a solea and a buleria.
Paco de Lucia says he was familiar with pretty much every aspect of flamenco music before he picked up a guitar himself. Not to compare myself with the maestro or anything but I also had developed an understanding of flamenco music through CDs and concerts before trying it for myself. I was able to hear the basic characteristics of a buleria and how that differed from alegria. I didn't know the strict rhythmical structures but I had a feel for each palo.
What is a palo? Solea is a palo; buleria is a palo. It is essentially a certain way the chords and beats come together into a meaningful musical whole that defines a type of song. Each palo has it's own rhythmical and harmonic structure and usually originates somewhere in Andalusia. Each has a distinct way of singing and dancing associated with it.
Compas is the underlying rhythmical pattern and timing of a palo. It is a very important notion in flamenco. "One must always play "in compas" except for the free form palos such as Granaina or Taranta.
How can one learn the palos?
I can certainly give you the basic compas structure of solea in numbers which will simply be a numeric formula such as 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12. Quite meaningless on paper. Or I can teach you some of the basic chords and transitions, which also would not give you much knowledge.
What you need is to HEAR the palo. A solea is unmistakably a solea and it will speak to you directly with every audible aspect of it. Similar to not needing to measure the wavelength of the reflected light from a surface to call it red.
What you need is lot's of listening. The formulas are not the right place to start. Once you start to hear the characteristics of the palo then you apply the theory onto it to render it usable. By usable I mean playable. Once you get well acquainted with the norms then it is possible to compose and even bend the rules a bit to create new stuff that still sounds authentic.
In this day and age it is possible to access a ton of material to learn flamenco music. Again, I learned everything I know from CDs, DVDs and the internet. Youtube is almost a bottomless pit for hearing and seeing flamenco.
Therefore, especially for learners who are not very familiar with the flamenco music I make listening and watching a part of the teaching process. I occasionally send them youtube links to observe and study.
Such as:
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