How Do I Learn to Accompany in Flamenco?

Ok. The good news - You don't have to go to Spain! The bad news? You have to find a Flamenco guitar player! Sometimes they are rather hard to find. When you do find one, follow him or her around while playing to see what they are doing. Once you get a good "feel" for how they move on the neck of the guitar, you then have to enrich your unknown history of the style and sound from the professionals.

Start building a collection of recordings and listen, listen, listen. If you're just starting, the older anthologies are usually better for picking out basic ideas. Contemporary flamenco is pretty jazzy, and while the foundation is there, the frame can be pretty obscure. It helps to go shopping with a knowledgeable Flamenco player to find the right music at your local stores. Obviously solo guitar recordings aren't going to be too helpful. The Gypsy Kings are cool, but mostly for another style that we will discuss later. Camaron and Paco are great ideas, but they are pretty difficult to master right now.

Student dancers rarely have the chance to work on their own with guitarists, so they're often eager to find ANYONE who plays. If you can find a dancer(s), they will help you in learning the rhythm that Flamenco encompasses.

This is all taken into case that you are still working on the formalities and still practicing the style at your leisure, so as to enhance your craft in the meantime. Remember, you're not a Flamenco guitarist by Flamenco standards if you can't accompany singers and dancers, even if you have it mastered. Sabicas said it best- " Spend 20 years accompanying cante; spend 20 years accompanying baile; now you're ready to think about solos. He did his time concurrently, but also spent time apologizing to people for having started soloing "too early."

The three rules of accompaniment:
1) Stay in compas. (rhythm)
2) Stay in compas. (measure)
3) Stay in compas. (character)

Compas is Spanish for 1) rhythm, generally, 2) measure-a coherent unit of rhythm, 3) the characteristic rhythm of a particular form. Thus, "he has good compas" means he has a good sense of rhythm. "The introduction is 4 compas long" means something like (but not exactly) "it's four measures long."

The backbone of all forms in flamenco that have compas at all (some of the lyrical songs don't) is the compas. Hopefully, you will play the right notes or chords at the right time, but mistakes of that kind are quickly history. Singers and dancers will forgive you many many off-sounding notes and terrible tone. Unfortunately, they can't work with you at all if you provide them a hesitant, uneven, or false rhythmic basis. For accompaniment, compas is key. It's also the downfall of many classical guitarists coming into flamenco, unless they do lots of ensemble work, or are blessed with excellent compas. Classical guitar practice is typically solitary, and tempts one to always go back and fix things. You can't do that when accompanying.

It's easy to show that you can provide minimal accompaniment without pitch at all with standard chords, but not without good compas. If you play ensemble arrangements, jazz, or accompany another musician, you know, and can stop here. If you play mostly alone, it's harder to understand.

Take a classical piece that you know cold by heart, and not one that technically taxes you in any way, one that you can hear in your head without playing it. Start the piece, and then, when the impulse strikes you, just stop physically playing for a few beats, but let the music go on in your head, in perfect time; when the impulse strikes you, resume not where you left off, but wherever the music is now. Continue this process and then sometimes let several measures go by until you've finished the piece. You are basically just playing a fill for a set in stone piece. If you try it several times, pick different places to suspend and resume your playing. In all cases, keep the music going in your head. This section is brief in regards to Flamenco, but there is MUCH more to come!

Click Here to Continue To : "Cantina Exercise 1"