How To Flamenco

 

Hello there folks, and welcome back to my monthly blog. Today's blog entry is a very extra special one. So please listen carefully. I was on The Lawrence Kansas Club on Facebook the other day and I found out about Flamenco Dance Classes at The Lawrence Dance Gallery which is in November this year by a friend of Meghan Collar named Melinda Hedgecorth.

My next part of the plan is that when I come back to Lawrence Kansas, maybe I can make plans to learn some flamenco dancing with Melinda. That would be really appreciated for me to do that. Don’t you folks agree with me?

Have you ever heard of flamenco before? If you haven’t yet, here’s the story about it.

Flamenco is an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain, developed within the gitano subculture of the region of Andalusia, and also having historical presence in Extremaduraand Murcia.

I know plenty of dances I learned when I was in high school. I learned how to do the Cha Cha Slide, the Cupid Shuffle, the Electric Slide, many others.

I’ve done plenty of dances in my younger years when I was in Kansas. One time, I was doing the Macarena right here in Cordley. That jam was off the hook son!

And then in P.E., they did the Chicken Dance here during class. That was the time I dances and clapped to it, and then ran around the school gym to the song. Man, do I really keep dancing to the same songs? That was the best jams I’ve heard in my life.

I’ll always remember dancing to those tunes when I was in school. Another thing I remember is when I invited all of my friends from Cordley for a house party. It was awesome, until it was raining outside while it’s dark and the power went out. But at least the dance part was a big hit, and I hope I’ll get to do this again. This time with no power outages and technical difficulties. My dad play the song by blink-182 and the kids from school sang the lyrics to it. They loved it, and so does the song from the Backstreet Boys. It was from the year 2000. I really love have friends over for a dance party, and it was really great! I’ll never forget the day after that when my family and I took my friend Katie with me to a downtown carnival somewhere. I think it was in Baldwin or Leavenworth, I’m not sure yet.

Anyway, about flamenco.

When I learn flamenco, it would be just like when my folks went to Spain for vacation. Luckily for me, I still have Bad Toro with me.

Did you also know that the oldest record of flamenco music dates to 1774 in the book Las Cartas Marruecas by José Cadalso. The development of flamenco over the past two centuries is well documented: "the theatre movement of sainetes (one-act plays) and tonadillas, popular song books and song sheets, customs, studies of dances, and toques, perfection, newspapers, graphic documents in paintings and engravings. ... in continuous evolution together with rhythm, the poetic stanzas, and the ambiance." Here’s the history of how flamenco is originated.

It is believed that the flamenco genre emerged at the end of the 18th century in cities and agrarian towns of Baja Andalusia, highlighting Jerez de la Frontera as the first written vestige of this art, although there is practically no data related to those dates and the manifestations of this time are more typical of the bolero school than of flamenco. There are hypotheses that point to the influence on flamenco of types of dance from the Indian subcontinent – the place of origin of the Romani people.

And now that you know part of the history of flamenco, maybe it’s time you’d learn more about it too.

When I move back to Lawrence, I wanna contact Meghan Collar on Facebook and chat with her about Melinda’s flamenco classes available here in the Lawrence Kansas area. And maybe I can give it a try. It’ll be really cool to check out once in awhile. And who knows, maybe I can invite my friends to learn how to do that too.

In Spain, regulated flamenco studies are officially taught in various music conservatories, dance conservatories and music schools in various autonomous communities. In the conservatives of music, Flamenco guitar studies in official educational centers began in Spain in 1988 at the hands of the great concert performer and teacher from Granada Manuel Cano Tamayo, who obtained a position as emeritus professor at the Superior Conservatory de Música Rafael Orozco from Córdoba. There are specialized flamenco conservatories throughout the country, although mainly in the Andalusia region, such as the aforementioned Córdoba Conservatory, the Murcia Superior Music Conservatory or the Superior Music School of Catalonia, among others. Outside of Spain, a unique case is the Rotterdam Conservatory, in the Netherlands, which offers regulated flamenco guitar studies under the direction of maestro Paco Peña since 1985, a few years before they existed in Spain.

Martinez once said this. There are three fundamental elements which can help define whether or not something really is flameco: A flamenco mode -or musical tonality-; the compás -rhythm- and the performer. .. who should be a Flamenco! All three of these elements: tonality, compás, a flamenco performer and then something less easily identifiable- Flamencura- must be present together if we are to wend up with a piece of music which can be labelled 'flamenco'. By themselves, these elements won't turn a piece of music into flamenco.

And Akombo once said: Three fundamental elements that help define whether or not a dance belongs to the Flamenco genre are the presence of a Flamenco mode (musical tonality), compas, and a Flamenco performer (Martinez, 2003). These three elements contribute to the authenticity of a Flamenco performance also known as flamencura (Martinez, 2003). There is also no such thing as a passive audience during Flamenco performances [participatory music]. The audience joins in the performance by clapping their hands and even sometimes singing along (Totton, 2003).

The structure of this dance is that a typical flamenco recital with voice and guitar accompaniment comprises a series of pieces (not exactly "songs") in different palos. Each song is a set of verses (called copla, tercio, or letras), punctuated by guitar interludes (falsetas). The guitarist also provides a short introduction setting the tonality, compás (see below) and tempo of the cante (Manuel 2006, 98). In some palos, these falsetas are played with a specific structure too; for example, the typical sevillanas is played in an AAB pattern, where A and B are the same falseta with only a slight difference in the ending (Martin 2002, 48).

And there’s a lot more to it than that.

Flamenco uses the flamenco mode (which can also be described as the modern Phrygian mode (modo frigio), or a harmonic version of that scale with a major 3rd degree), in addition to the major and minor scales commonly used in modern Western music. The Phrygian mode occurs in palos such as soleá, most bulerías, siguiriyas, tangos and tientos. A typical chord sequence, usually called the "Andalusian cadence" may be viewed as in a modified Phrygian: in E the sequence is Am–G–F–E (Manuel 2006, 96). According to Manolo Sanlúcar E is here the tonic, F has the harmonic function of dominant while Am and G assume the functions of subdominant and mediantrespectively.

Guitarists use only two basic inversions or chord shapes for a tonic chord by using a capo. Modern guitarists such as Ramón Montoya, have introduced other positions: Montoya himself started to use other chords for the tonic in the modern Dorian sections of several palos; F♯ for tarantas, B for granaínas and A♭for the minera. Montoya also created a new palo as a solo for guitar, the rondeña in C♯ with scordatura. Later guitarists have further extended the repertoire of tonalities, chord positions and scordatura.

Now that you know a lot more about flamenco, you can teach me how to do that with a little help from Melinda. Maybe someday when I come back, I’ll get to meet her.

In the meantime if you like my new blog entry, let me know on the comments below and on ‘The Lawrence Kansas Club’ on Facebook where you can find me.

And now, another Lawrence Kansas update.

Here’s some music that I remember listening to in my younger years in Lawrence Kansas. So if you’d like, I’ll tell you something more about when I’m in.

1. The Commitments

2. James Brown

3. The Beach Boys

4. The B-52s

5. Danny Gatton

6. Lyle Lovett

7. Pretenders

8. Little Village

9. Don Henley

10. Glen Campbell

11. Paul Simon

12. The Notting Hillbillies

13. Ramones

14. Texas Tornados

15. The Beatles

16. The Wonders

17. Patti Scialfa

18. The Monkees

19. Donald Fagen

20. Cyndi Lauper

21. Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble

22. The Vaughan Brothers

23. The Byrds

24. The Mavericks

25. Los Lobos

26. Joanie Bartels

27. Greg & Steve

28. Otis Redding

29. Bobby McFerrin

30. The Sunscreen Song

31. Tom Waits

32. The Mamas And The Papas

33. Nick Lowe

34. Hoodoo Gurus

35. R.E.M.

36. Marvin Gaye

37. Pie by Steve Mason

38. Elvis Presley

39. O Brother, Where Art Thou?

40. Steely Dan

Etc.

Now here’s what I want you to do before I decide to move back to Lawrence Kansas.

If you read this very carefully, I would like you to make a special ‘Welcome Back’ CD for me featuring music from my favorite artists past and present.

And to all the folks at Americana Music Academy, I would like you to make me another Americana Music Academy Sampler Mix CD including new stuff I haven’t heard yet, even featuring the songs I love listening to from Michael Paull’s songs to Sissy & Earl and many more. Surprise me on what you came up with.

Okay folks, that’s all for now. Check back later for more on what Lawrence Kansas has to offer. And remember, please keep on dancing to the rhythm.

Other mixes will be announced soon. So I’ll keep you guys updated.

In the meantime, this has been my next blog update. Keep looking out for yet more blog entries on what the town has to offer.

P.S.   How about a little Zumba?