Tired of Tackling Difficult Falsetas? Or How to Compose your Own Flamenco Music
Don't you sometimes feel tired of trying to play Paco de Lucia's falsetas some of which require super human speed and endurance? I certainly do. I still love Paco's music and will probably keep trying to play it as long as my fingers function. But seriously there will always be Paco who plays better than me, not to mention the technical monsters like Grisha or Javier Conde.
I am not saying one should not play the music of the masters. In fact, it is extremely important to analyze and even mimic the greats to familiarize yourself with what is out there and to learn the palos. But it is also important to have a certain vision of where you are headed in terms of your own music. But let me put that aside an focus back on the difficulty of playing the available flamenco repertoire.
So, yes it is very difficult to play the pulgar intro of Cepa Andaluza, the tremolo falseta of Fuente y Caudal, etc.
Then why don't you compose your own falsetas and design them within the limits of what you can play?
How does one compose flamenco guitar music?
Composing for flamenco is significantly different than composing in the classical sense. It is easier. This may sound oversimplified for some of you but keep reading and hopefully I will be able to explain myself.
A classical composer starts with a blank page, so to speak. There are certainly some forms such as sonata, prelude, fugue, suite, symphony, etc. But these are not as limiting as flamenco forms and especially the modernist composers of the contemporary music scene do their best to break away from tradition and try to compose in a vacuum.
Here is a blunt analogy for you: if composing in classical style is like trying to build abstract shapes out of sand, then composing flamenco music is reminiscent of building something interesting with Lego pieces.
Primarily, you have to compose in a specific palo, such as Solea, Buleria, Tangos, etc. You cannot really begin to compose unless you have one of these palos in mind. Once you decide on the palo, a very strict musical grid will limit your freedom in terms of time signature, key, and chord progressions. Then you also have predetermined sections for the musical phrases such as llamada, remate, and cierre. Plus the accents attached to some of the beats...
This limitation is quite comforting. For each palo you can start playing traditional remates, strumming sequences and typical anonymous phrases just to get into the mood of the palo, then progressively alter them to impose your own creative personality.
But before doing that, you need a good understanding of the palo in which you intend to compose. I did address this issue in a previous email. Again, I don't mean memorizing the accent points or the chords. You need to HEAR the palo. For that, the best you can do is listen to as much flamenco music as possible. Also, it is at this point that playing others' music becomes critical. I have been doing that for quite some time at the atrafanaSchool youtube channel. I called each video an "exercise" precisely because it was an exercise in trying to ingest the ins and outs of a palo within a specific right hand technique.
The Compas Mastery Packages at the atrafanaSTORE are intended to help you compose in various palos.
Once you understand the palo you can start designing your own original melodies. Even with the rigid musical grid provided by the palo, you will still feel as if you are trying to create music out of nothing. For that, I have a few techniques I can suggest to you that will help in coming up with some musical phrases.
Primarily, you need to compose falsetas and not full pieces. Traditionally speaking flamenco music has no pieces anyway. Obviously one needs separate tracks on an LP (or CD) and our access to this music has been via concrete pieces for the last 80 years or so. But originally, a tocaor would be asked to play, for instance, a solea and keep playing as long as the song or the dance continued. All they needed was an intro and a finale.
So you need to do the same and start composing falsetas. Once you have a good collection of falsetas, you can start organizing them into a structure.
And here are some concrete tools to help you compose:
1- Steal! (or "quote" if you want it to sound more honest)
Remember what Paco said quoting Stravinsky: "All musicians influence each other, but the geniuses (referring to himself) simply steal."
Find a short melody that you like and force it into the palo you are working on. You can use any source for this. Classical music, popular songs, advertising jingles, you name it. But here is one rule: do not steal from another flamenco player. We already play other players' falsetas to learn. I find classical music particularly suited to this kind of appropriation. Manuel de Falla's music was a big influence on Paco de Lucia and you can hear various melodies of Falla sounding through his falsetas.
I did the same and composed a buleria falseta using a phrase from Falla's La Vida Breve. Check this out:
I am not saying one should not play the music of the masters. In fact, it is extremely important to analyze and even mimic the greats to familiarize yourself with what is out there and to learn the palos. But it is also important to have a certain vision of where you are headed in terms of your own music. But let me put that aside an focus back on the difficulty of playing the available flamenco repertoire.
So, yes it is very difficult to play the pulgar intro of Cepa Andaluza, the tremolo falseta of Fuente y Caudal, etc.
Then why don't you compose your own falsetas and design them within the limits of what you can play?
How does one compose flamenco guitar music?
Composing for flamenco is significantly different than composing in the classical sense. It is easier. This may sound oversimplified for some of you but keep reading and hopefully I will be able to explain myself.
A classical composer starts with a blank page, so to speak. There are certainly some forms such as sonata, prelude, fugue, suite, symphony, etc. But these are not as limiting as flamenco forms and especially the modernist composers of the contemporary music scene do their best to break away from tradition and try to compose in a vacuum.
Here is a blunt analogy for you: if composing in classical style is like trying to build abstract shapes out of sand, then composing flamenco music is reminiscent of building something interesting with Lego pieces.
Primarily, you have to compose in a specific palo, such as Solea, Buleria, Tangos, etc. You cannot really begin to compose unless you have one of these palos in mind. Once you decide on the palo, a very strict musical grid will limit your freedom in terms of time signature, key, and chord progressions. Then you also have predetermined sections for the musical phrases such as llamada, remate, and cierre. Plus the accents attached to some of the beats...
This limitation is quite comforting. For each palo you can start playing traditional remates, strumming sequences and typical anonymous phrases just to get into the mood of the palo, then progressively alter them to impose your own creative personality.
But before doing that, you need a good understanding of the palo in which you intend to compose. I did address this issue in a previous email. Again, I don't mean memorizing the accent points or the chords. You need to HEAR the palo. For that, the best you can do is listen to as much flamenco music as possible. Also, it is at this point that playing others' music becomes critical. I have been doing that for quite some time at the atrafanaSchool youtube channel. I called each video an "exercise" precisely because it was an exercise in trying to ingest the ins and outs of a palo within a specific right hand technique.
The Compas Mastery Packages at the atrafanaSTORE are intended to help you compose in various palos.
Once you understand the palo you can start designing your own original melodies. Even with the rigid musical grid provided by the palo, you will still feel as if you are trying to create music out of nothing. For that, I have a few techniques I can suggest to you that will help in coming up with some musical phrases.
Primarily, you need to compose falsetas and not full pieces. Traditionally speaking flamenco music has no pieces anyway. Obviously one needs separate tracks on an LP (or CD) and our access to this music has been via concrete pieces for the last 80 years or so. But originally, a tocaor would be asked to play, for instance, a solea and keep playing as long as the song or the dance continued. All they needed was an intro and a finale.
So you need to do the same and start composing falsetas. Once you have a good collection of falsetas, you can start organizing them into a structure.
And here are some concrete tools to help you compose:
1- Steal! (or "quote" if you want it to sound more honest)
Remember what Paco said quoting Stravinsky: "All musicians influence each other, but the geniuses (referring to himself) simply steal."
Find a short melody that you like and force it into the palo you are working on. You can use any source for this. Classical music, popular songs, advertising jingles, you name it. But here is one rule: do not steal from another flamenco player. We already play other players' falsetas to learn. I find classical music particularly suited to this kind of appropriation. Manuel de Falla's music was a big influence on Paco de Lucia and you can hear various melodies of Falla sounding through his falsetas.
I did the same and composed a buleria falseta using a phrase from Falla's La Vida Breve. Check this out:
2 - Modify
Take a falseta from another player and change the notes preserving the durations and accents. You can start by making small changes at the beginning. The end product needs to be considerably different than the original.
I did exactly that with a tangos falseta from Paco Pena:
Take a falseta from another player and change the notes preserving the durations and accents. You can start by making small changes at the beginning. The end product needs to be considerably different than the original.
I did exactly that with a tangos falseta from Paco Pena:
3 - Fill the gap
You need pen and paper (or a tabbing software) for this one. On a single bar of a palo set the first chord/note and the cierre (the standard ending bit) and fill the space in-between with random notes. You need to have clear markings on the paper for the accents as well. Then play the outcome. If you have done it right, you will hear something that sounds exactly like, say, a buleria with really strange sounds. Who knows, maybe you will have composed one of the most original compositions of all time
You need pen and paper (or a tabbing software) for this one. On a single bar of a palo set the first chord/note and the cierre (the standard ending bit) and fill the space in-between with random notes. You need to have clear markings on the paper for the accents as well. Then play the outcome. If you have done it right, you will hear something that sounds exactly like, say, a buleria with really strange sounds. Who knows, maybe you will have composed one of the most original compositions of all time
For this exercise, you need to feel absolutely free and not worry about making something that sounds wrong or stupid. Once you hear what you have composed, you will start revising it. This revision process, which may take a while, will lead you to a falseta.
You don't need to know music theory for any of these techniques. But you do need to understand the palos.
So, go ahead an compose a solea falseta now...
You don't need to know music theory for any of these techniques. But you do need to understand the palos.
So, go ahead an compose a solea falseta now...
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