Learning spanish music

[FirasKordi]

Hello everyone , so I mainly play metal (progressive , such as AAL , BOO and periphery....etc). But I had a 5 months off guitar where I practised piano and fell in love with the spanish repertoire such as Albeniz , lecuona and others. Now when I returned to guitar I had a deep interest to compose with such energetic and exotic melodies and progressions but to incorporate it to progressive metal ( which is very very similar to what Javier Reyes did on AAL and Mestis), so its like how players incorporate jazz to metal , but this time incorporating Spanish elements.
Anyway my question is , where can I start learning about the progressions , theory or timings used for spanish or flamenco influenced music. I searched alot on the internet and couldnt find anything , any book recommendations or videos or anything that can help me with this genre ?
Sry for the long post

 

[Mr. Big Noodles]

Tore Østby from ARK incorporates a lot of flamenco into his playing and writing.

ARK - Just A Little


ARK - The Hunchback of Notre Dame


For the stereotype, compose around the Andalusian cadence: i ♭VII ♭VI V
For example, in E minor: Em D C B

You can alternatively analyze that as iv ♭III ♭II I in B phrygian (utilizing the phrygian dominant scale). Depends on how you hear it.

I think the rhythm is more important than the notes. Harmony is important, but you'll want to pour a lot of consideration into metric organization and the relation of downbeat and syncopation. Get used to the idea of hemiola, and compose music that exists simultaneously in simple and compound meter.

There is some mock Spanish wanking at the beginning of this piece:

Rush - La Villa Strangiato

 

[Given To Fly]

Asturias (Leyanda) - Isaac Albeniz (1860 - 1909)
Sevilla

These two pieces are responsible for a lot of the success I had in my undergraduate degree. They helped me win a competition as well as a guitar...and money. Whats more interesting though is these two pieces are the only ones I can think of that sound better on guitar than they do on the piano, the instrument they were composed for. I know that is just an opinion, but no has really refuted it either. Anyways, learn these two pieces.

 

[FirasKordi]

thanks alot for the replies guys , but lol i meant composition and learning music theory that involves spanish music , not the repertoire ^^

 

[Given To Fly]

thanks alot for the replies guys , but lol i meant composition and learning music theory that involves spanish music , not the repertoire ^^

They are one in the same.

 

[Mr. Big Noodles]

thanks alot for the replies guys , but lol i meant composition and learning music theory that involves spanish music , not the repertoire ^^

I gave that to you, in addition to examples of what some rock guitarists have done to incorporate Spanish music into their own. And imitation requires a model.

 

[jimwratt]

Do to forget to check out some of the music throughout the Spanish speaking world (especially music for the cuatro and tres). It'll help round out a few things. You might also want to check out Ramon Ortiz's solo work as well as his stuff with Puya and Ankla.

 

[decrepittom]

thanks alot for the replies guys , but lol i meant composition and learning music theory that involves spanish music , not the repertoire ^^

Like Mr. Big Noodles And Given To Fly said, it's really the only way to fully understand, especially theoretically

Learning common chord progressions in songs like Leyanda will sufficiently train your ear and ability to recognize and write pieces that follow their harmonic rhythm/chord usage and inversions ect..

Just try it out man! Plus chicks eat that flamenco/classical shit up

 

[alvo]

Break down, absorb and steal from this one. You might already know this one though.

 

[metalmonster]

A good way to play flamenco on guitar ...

... well, basically, i did that because of a student who wanted to learn blues basics while he was a supergood flamenco guitarist.
He gave me the basics. I think you may enjoy looking for "buleria" "alegria" "solea" and "taranta" in youtube, and to meet the music of Al Di Meola, Paco de Lucia (often called simply "paco" ), all the guitarists who play with Camaron de la isla, and don't overlook the great Sabicas.

Basically flamenco is a simple genre, there are a few rythmic patterns called "compas" which are basically as simple as saying :
"PE ta lo PE ta lo Ro sa Ro sa Ro sa" (and that's it for all the traditional forms of all the 12/8 styles, other styles are often in 4/4 variants AFAIK).

Practise clapping this small rythm and soon enough you'll get into it. Basically it's more of a feel thing than actual technique, once you mastered the rasgueo (watch videos on it, and work on it on your leg all the time, for a few weeks, and it'll start appearing).

I won't write anything about my town and the people from it who really worn the flamenco out of me. Now i really can barely stand it.


And remember about this scale :

----------------------------1-4--1-3-1-0-
-----------------------1-4- --------------3--1
-------------------1-2---------------------------2-1--
--------------023-------------------------------------3-2-1-
-------1---4-------------------------------------------------3-1-0-
-1--4---------------------------------------------------------------3--1-0-

MANY falsetas are based on this.

These chords should help too :

---------0-------- ---------------------------------------
-2-------3-------------------------------------------------------
-3-------2------------------------------------------------------
-2-- --3----------------------------------------------------
-0---- --0-------------- to the 1----------- then 3 -------- 1 again ----
---- --1--------- move your finger one string up ---

then

------1-
------3-
------3-
--------
--------
--------

repeat these chords and try to incorporate a "flamenco vibe" into it. They sound great distorted, and this sequence is a basic rhythm in bulerias, which is considered, with taranta, one of the "darkest" forms of flamenco. Everybody plays this style, so be creative and learn as many falsetas as you can.

Enjoy !

 

[metalmonster]

Oh, and if you want to fall in love, you should check the music of ana vidovic. I used to be a lot into "super hot girls playing burnin' classical guitar" (and still am, kinda, although my core musical influences are more around jazz and "from weather report to dream theater, all the way to between the buried and me"-stuff.