Talk:Flamenco guitar

On Flamenco Guitars
Several "facts" about flamenco guitars sound quite dubious and lack external citation. For example, the claim that "less than 3 mm action at 12-th fret is common" seems quite exaggerated. Depends very much on the luthier and how much volume he was shooting for! Lower action is good for the left hand but reduces volume, and some flamenco guitars can be quite loud. Also very exaggerated is the claim that even with the protective plate, tapping almost always destroys the instrument. What nonsense! This may have been the case when flamenco guitarists played without sound reinforcement and needed to get the tapping across the noise, but today good instruments can last for 20 - 30 years and more. For example, Roberto Castellon owns a flamenco guitar made in the 60's which is still in playable shape, and without the golpaedor. How many years is that - around 50! Also very important is the tapping technique. There is of course a way to generate pretty loud taps without even scratching the instrument, but these are typically unknown to dilettantes. So please refrain from sweeping generalizations, that way it is very easy to write something that is not correct.

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I couldn't find this page. Please help expand it.

02:37, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

I'll give it a shot ;P Lovok 16:42, 12 July 2006 (UTC) When I get home, I'll probably try and mirror the classical guitar page for the flamenco, but only what needs changing. I'll also poke around the 'net see if I can find more technical information than just me and my flamenco instructor ^^ Lovok 17:37, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

Here's a picture of a flamenco guitar I'll try and upload later. http://img3.musiciansfriend.com/dbase/pics/products/4/2/7/269427.jpg Lovok 11:08, 13 July 2006 (UTC)

improvisational musical form
As an Andalusian who has played flamenco guitar and piano in several flamenco groups I have to indicate that flamenco is not an improvisational musical form when it comes to play the so-called falsetas, which are the most relevant part of the flamenco guitar music. (Moises Martinez / moimart)

Music Sample?
Can someone post a sample of the Flamenco Guitar music? Anything without vocals is fine. It would go great with this article.i --AOL Alex 16:11, 21 December 2006 (UTC)

Yes, I can contribute some images and sound files of flamenco guitars. I'm a flamenco guitar luthier and was also wondering if an external link to my site (flamencoguitarmaker.com) may also enhance this page ? Guitarrero 18:30, 2 March 2007 (UTC)
 * It seems to me that your site is basically for a business that you run that sells custom-made guitars, am I correct? If so, then I don't think it'd be a good idea; the external link guidelines caution against linking to "sites that primarily exist to sell products or services.". If the site is for some other purpose that I wasn't able to find, feel free to correct me. Veinor (talk to me) 18:33, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

How Cavalier
"Those outside the Flamenco community often use it to mean vaguely Spanish-sounding guitar playing which utilises some of the techniques listed below, especially rasgueado. To gain some understanding of the stricter definition of flamenco, read the main article."

To me this sounds kinda cavalier (in simpler terms "douchey") —Preceding unsigned comment added by VegSXEBassist (talk • contribs) 22:48, 6 October 2007 (UTC)


 * Not sure I understand your comment. Are you saying it sounds elitist?  I wrote that, and I regard myself as being outside the Flamenco community; it's based on what I picked up from the Internet (which admittedly is not always a good source).  I'll alter it so that it says "In English-speaking countries..."
 * -- TimNelson 03:14, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

General Revision
I made a few changes on the tremolo section to improve information and I took out some nonsense. Why mention that they don't use the 'pinky' (which I think, by the way IS a childish term) in Flamenco tremolo when it is never used in classical or flamenco tremolo. Really there is a lot of either unecessary and often misleading material here. The whole article needs to be heavily revised / altered but I don't think I have the time or the inclination. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Khasab (talk • contribs) 23:37, 26 February 2011 (UTC)


 * You may think Pinky to be a childish term for the little finger, but that does not change the fact that pinky is the correct and accurate term for that finger.:Allenwc (talk) 19:24, 16 November 2012 (UTC)
 * It seems that "pinky" no longer appears in the article, which I think is good. On the other hand, in the "tremolo" section, I see that "p-i-a-m-i" and "p-a-m-i" appear without a definition of the abbreviations. The usage is correct, but somewhere the definitions "pulgar" (thumb), "indicio" (index finger), "medio" (middle finger), and "anular" (ring finger) should appear, it seems to me. They would also be useful for any discussion of arpeggio and rasgueado patterns. I should add that Sabicas (and possibly others, but I'm only sure about Sabicas) was known on occasion to use a p-i-m-a-m-i tremolo, which amounts to what in my circle was called a "roundhouse arpeggio" except applied to a single string. He did this when the tempo was slow but he needed a full tremolo. For an example of this finger sequence applied to a true arpeggiation of a chord, I can think of no better example than the opening of his Fandangos de Huelva "Por los Olivares" on the "Flamenco Puro" album. I would have to search for an example of his use of this for tremolo, and it would not be easy, but I recall hearing it on a record player operating at reduced speed. Regarding the use of the "pinky", which I have seen abbreviated only as "l" (presumably "little", since "p" for the Spanish pequeño is already in use), it does seem worth defining for use in rasgueado discussion. But I bring it up because I have indeed seen a p-l-a-m-i four-finger tremolo executed by Jorge Strunz, who mastered flamenco technique on his way to creating his own school, although he no longer performs flamenco in public. He could do four-finger tremolo with perfect smoothness either way, and something remarkable about his p-i-a-m-i tremolo was that the "l" finger was completely motionless throughout the process. I have never seen anyone else's "l" finger remain completely relaxed and stationary during any kind of tremolo, not even Sabicas or Mario Escudero. -- John Fowler  71.107.56.124 (talk) 21:55, 13 September 2015 (UTC)

Rasgueado
It is beyond dubious that Sabicas developed a three finger rasqueado technique in the 19th century as he wasn't born, per his wikipedia entry, until 1912. He's not mentioned in the rasqueado entry and the mistake in century gives me reason to remove the mention. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.190.190.220 (talk) 00:58, 7 April 2011 (UTC)