Easy Steps to Flamenco Guitar
Sound like a flamenco guitarist instantly! Aaron Gilmartin has made his introduction to this guitar style so easy that even someone with just a minimal amount of guitar experience can start playing this exciting and passionate music. To get you going, Aaron has chosen Tango Flamenco, one of the great traditional Latin dance forms transformed by flamenco. It s based on a simple, instantly recognizable four-chord progression and a driving rhythmic pulse. (Popular groups such as the Gipsy Kings have made this sound famous in recent years.) The rhythm (compass), with its familiar percussive effect, is key to this style. Aaron teaches you the basic right hand strums (rasgueados) and picking (picados) that conjure up the sounds of Spain. Aiming this DVD at true beginners, Aaron takes each step of his lesson at a very slow and deliberate pace. He builds your flamenco technique in a logical, step-by-step method, providing numerous exercises, play-alongs and great advice about everything from getting good tone to using fake nails. He helps you with each chord, gradually adding grace notes, bass and melody lines, arpeggios and other techniques until you are playing a full-fledged flamenco solo.
Customer Review: great introduction to flamenco
Aaron’s DVD and tab/standard notation DVD booklet is great for the beginning guitarist who is interested in flamenco. He uses simple chord fingering so there’s no need for dreadful barre chords* that usually give beginner’s trouble. I’ll list a breakdown of the DVD:
1. Intro to flamenco. Short history on flamenco terms and what they mean. Less than 3 minutes of your time.
2. Intro to different right hand flamenco movements. Rasguedo, picado, and compas. He goes slowly demonstrating each technique. He also gives practice exercises, tips, and close ups of the movements. The entire DVD expands on the use of the techniques. He doesn’t rush the student to play in time and encourages the student to play at a speed that is comfortable until he/she masters the basic technique until he/she can play in time without stumbling for the next chord or rhythm.
3. Playing different rhythms, chords, and flamenco right hand movements with a few extra tricks of playing chords with subtle note changes on the left hand.
If you know how to play the basic chords and smoothly change chords at a reasonable tempo, this DVD is great for you! You will not be disappointed.
* The only barre chord (”F” chord) used is later in the DVD when you should be able to play a barre easily.