1.4 How can I get a taste of what flamenco accompaniment feels like before going to all this effort?
Description
This article is from the Flamenco for Classical Guitarists FAQ, by Joshua Weage (jpweage@mtu.edu) with numerous contributions by others.
1.4 How can I get a taste of what flamenco accompaniment feels like before going to all this effort?
If you play ensemble stuff, or jazz, or accompany another musician, you
know, and can stop here. If you play mostly alone, it's harder to convey. I
hit on an idea which I wish someone would try and give me feedback on. I
play some classical pieces, and I know that that experience is qualitatively
different from what I do in flamenco. How to convey it?
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. Say Sor's first Study. Set a metronome if necessary (you'll
soon see if it's necessary) at a comfortable setting. 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, sometimes letting several measures go by,
until you've finished the piece. You may find this very easy, or extremely
difficult, depending on how you work. 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 exercise illustrates several things: a) that the music keeps going
even when you don't; b) that the piece is still whatever it is (e.g. Sor's
first study) even if the exact notes you leave out are different each time,
and that in a sense the notes are still there whether you play them or not;
c) that there isn't that much mystery about how people "stay together" --
they're all internally hearing the same thing. It also sidesteps the
misconception that accompaniment = "just playing chords in rhythm".
Accompanying in flamenco is somewhere between this exercise and following a
chord chart.
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