I would like to talk about an aspect of learning that is easily overlooked in today’s fast paced world: Patience and methodology.

In a world of instant everything, mobile texting, email, drive-through, microwaveable mash potatoes, etc, our expectation of the world around and what we believe it should provide us with is ever more immediate. If our computer stalls for 5 extra seconds we start to get annoyed and antsy.

If we carry these emotional attitudes into our learning process we are doomed to suffer frustration and our minds will stall more than 5 seconds, we can enter a cycle of endless impatience and dissatisfaction with our selves and our process.

Is it possible to learn flamenco and not be a Gypsy or a Spaniard? Since I grew up in Malaga, and later in the caves of Sacromonte in Granada spending four long summer months living with the Gypsies as one of them, I can say that the answer to that question is yes. Does that [...]