Where the Flamenco Goes

Not so dedicated as to lock myself in a room and memorize a Paco de Lucia piece, not so lazy as to play one thing and be satisfied to claim greatness. At some point in a long game I do want to take credit for my progress. There is a delicate balance.

I've played to be able to play basic Sevillanas, Tangos, all the basic palos - I've reached a level where the chords patterns are intuitive, the pinky stretches, bar chords, some picado runs-- the sounds are familiar, and I can play most of this stuff,I mean I can play most of this flamenco at a certain level - perhaps not as fast, strong or dynamic as a pro, but I can play. Executing like the greats is another story. I won't ever execute nor attain such a stage I don't think, unless I quit my day job today.

Even if I did make an attempt to be really flamenco, there is no point in claiming any ancestral or heartfelt link between me and a certain flamenco teacher, as I have had many. Certainly, there have been some teachers that stand out, for their tireless approach to excellence and expression of the form and of course for having their own approach - propio sello - to the flamencos. The heavy cannon leaded thumb should plow through the strings when you want to emphasize the gravity of the strum. I practiced this last night with Fandangos, exploring the harmonic A minor scale and why these notes played in a traditional Fandangos de Huelva way have such an excellent grounding, solid effect - it has a sort of gallop or trot. Where does its trot take us flamenco players? Where does it take people who have never heard this? I would like to find out, and experiment with the compás. What does it sound like when filtered, slowed down, played with a tres and a flamenco guitar.

Here in NoiseBridge I'm asking this question. There is supposed to be some tech-music mashup night, but I hear nothing but video game music bubbling out of the speaker behind my head, it's soothing, but artificial, reminding us of a world we used to find solace in, the video game console connected to a second string television in our parent's guest room or living room. Can we find solace through flamenco, filtered through computers - how quickly does its relevance to its origins get lost when you mess with it? When does it stop becoming flamenco or has it stopped becoming that already, from merely subtracting the place from the form of Fandangos, or any ​palo.