Flamenco, As Digested by a Classical Musician

so I've been studying FileMaker now for a number of months and it's been one of the most eye-opening experiences as a musician it's really changed how I understand rhythm and form in particular and if you stick around until later on in the video you can hear a composition that I recently wrote which infuses elements of flamenco with my own style in writing music for those of you who aren't familiar with this genre flamenco is a form of Spanish music that involves voice instruments such as the acoustic guitar Russian dance when I'm writing music I'm constantly looking for inspiration from other musicians styles and genres to help me consider new ideas to incorporate into my music these include new concepts in harmony pattern rhythmic elements a general vibe or any other aspect of music with flamenco I was really influenced by the traditional way of counting the unique ways of accenting the types of patterns I hear a lot with acoustic guitar in particular I took note of the extreme level of virtuosity rhythmic energy and the fast Roman cutters so when I first started out on this journey I got help from my friend Jeremy who was classmate of mine at premièred he's incredibly talented and versatile and since graduating he's been freelancing in New York City while learning all kinds of new genres one of them being flamenco [Music] [Applause] [Music] so I asked them to give me a lesson on some of the basics of flamenco and that put me off to a great start the super backbone of the Celaya is like that so there's two halves 1 2 1 2 3 first half what it's causes the Kompas that's another term the compass is the compass it's also like think of like the ruler the compass it's the same thing it's the structure it's the backbone so there's two halves so let poor bull area is only changing bop bop-bop-bop you just changed you just shift now I guess the next thing is and don't freak out but they won't count it like that they count it one two one two three four five six seven eight nine ten no no no it's just what they call it it would be it would be accent no no no think of the numbers it sounds how about that think of the numbers it sounds not actual numbers okay so a lot of this confuse me in the beginning but two things really help me understand this form of counting much better the first was actually to count in Spanish rather than to count in English no no dos dos três três Kogan uno dos tres cuatro Cinco Cinco seis seis siete [Music] service after getting used to it there was a certain rhythm to the language itself that allowed for beats and accenting to feel a little more natural to me these numbers rhyme well dos tres cuatro Cinco seis yes a little bit not completely but they rhyme enough to me that make them stand out the second was to start visualizing the rhythm with what is commonly known as the flamenco clock which instead of being a linear is circular you substitute mundo for 11 and 12 with you so with this layout the basic DNA of flamenco rhythm involves embassies on 3 and 10 and sometimes also six and eight with this in place depending on where you start and stop your cycles you can accommodate the rhythmic changes of the different styles within the genre so this sort of reminds me of how modes work in harmony say that we have C major all white keys starting on C now instead of starting on C we start on D still the same notes just in a different order different starting point it has a different sound now it's D Dorian [Music] if we start on e we have efj Ridge in which is a commonly used mode in flamenco so that's how I'm understanding the different shifts in rhythm where you have the same clock the same format with the accents and a numbering but you just shift around the starting point so that it becomes a different form of the original rhythm the most important thing is to decide on which speed of the crop you need to begin so when using the flamenco clock you don't shift the accents within the 12 bit pattern but at the beginning Selia Konya salir poeple area as well as Alegria and related genres such as continued mirepoix roam era and categories start on beat one double area Guajira paedon era and Fandango De Wever start on beat 12 the sigiriya and related genres such as Cavalli Libby Ana Serena and Martina they start on beat 8 because you look what is bolivia rhythm they would say then I would look at the videos and there we go they would count in and then there we go what where's the beat or there we go all right that just sounds like it's in like six eight or something you know like okay well what's that sometimes they would good oh I don't get it but the song says it's in phylidia what's going up it's still always happening and that's how people get new prizes there's like these little gears that you can choose from so much stuff happens these crazy like wild syncopations happen all these off beats so like the guitar will do this - before the Ramat day like when it's really getting like about - close enough like that you know like and then the Cajon Claro but deep but it up you know it's like a little game for a second and then it's like yeah yeah and that's what makes it so exciting because everybody's like [Music] now talking more about harmony I got really familiar with firstly that Andalusia and Kayden's and the Phrygian mode in flamenco the harmony often shifts away from the main key on the three so with these ingredients in mind I started to write my piece for the mini keyboard and throughout this process I continue to listen to various flamenco artists [Music] AppAssure Linda and I would improvise often using the Andalucian cadence and the Phrygian mode [Music] [Applause] [Music] by the way I really recommend checking out David Bruce's video on flamenco so flamenco was born in this region of Spain known as Andalusia because he goes more in-depth about the history and origins of flamenco which is a crucial part in understanding the nature of this music listen to the listen how they raise it listen how they you know because there is a swing - we didn't talk about this I'll try and play as robotic as possible right what got ba ba ba check out that guy that guy that there guys I get that right but now with a little more feeling the swing so I'm also playing accents which help but I'm also it's not quite even yeah if I was to grid it this is also how I think of it which is helpful and a lot of people talk about it if I'm going the rest are also swung the grid is just or something you know that's how I think of it at least the grid itself a grid is different it's the whole grid is different it's not just that rhythm when it's being played a song the whole grid is everything that I'm going for a major F major back to E major [Music] [Music] so before I went out to record the piece I went onto Instagram and did a live stream where I asked you all where I should go film and I got a suggestion to do it at a public library and so I did [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you [Music] [Music] [Music] so like I said in the beginning of the video I focused mostly on the overall rhythmic qualities of flamenco and that's because that's only how far I've been able to get into this it's been taking me a while and plus I'm a little slow but there are plenty of more things to learn about including what happens with Palmas which is the clapping what happens with singing and dancing which are actually the most important parts more in terms of harmony and rhythm I understand there are some styles that actually don't count in 12 but in four and just more in general so hopefully I can spend more time on that in the future if you haven't seen my other genre exploring videos do check them out in the playlists and let me know in the comments which John Roos you think I should explore in the future

Channel: Nahre Sol

Views: 564,551

Rating: 4.9633594 out of 5

Keywords: flamenco, flamenco music, flamenco analysis, flamenco rhythm, flamenco guitar, flamenco pattern, flamenco palmas, flamenco style, flamenco classical music, music theory, music history, modal harmony

Id: yliXnfftN50

Length: 17min 20sec (1040 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 29 2019