[dzakovich000]

Originally Posted by conor

Hello dzakovich00!

I also attend Purdue University! Needless to say, there are few flamenco guitar fans up here and I am elated to learn that someone else around here shares my passion!

I would like to introduce myself to the community and share my story as well.

My name is Conor, and music has always been a large part of my life as well. My father owns several guitars and a keyboard, and I have owned a bass guitar for several years. I never took enough interest in the bass to iron out a solid practice schedule in the first few years I owned it, but I would often sit down for hours at a time and play on it to learn some of my favorite songs.

One day when I was visiting home I saw in my father's instrument setup (sitting next to his keyboard, 12-string guitar, and 6-string steel guitar) an Ibanez classical cutaway. I was immediately drawn to the guitar and picked it up and started playing around with it . While the guitar was by no means a brazilian rosewood masterpiece, it was very well made and sounded great. Being a bass player, I was especially drawn to the fact that the strings were wider apart than a regular steel string guitar.

I told my father I wanted to borrow the guitar for awhile. He agreed. That was months ago. He hasn't gotten the chance to touch it since.

After a week or so of learning scales and chords I watched a video of the legendary Sabicas playing his Malaguena. I have been in love with the flamenco guitar and tradition ever since. I recently purchased my own guitar, a Guild GAD-4N acoustic cutaway and now devote at least 2 hours of practice daily, 7 days a week to honing my skills.




A bit more about me: I grew up in Texas where flamenco dance is very common in clubs. I moved to Indiana to attend college at Purdue University. During my first year at Purdue, I was a tournament level Guitar Hero player. Although many guitar purists may say that GH does nothing to contribute to actual guitar skills, I have found quite the opposite to be true in my experience. The blazing fast passages in GH require development of twitch reflexes that have been instrumental in helping me learn certain techniques quickly. After only a few months of playing, I can already play a relatively clean and very fast continuous rasguedo! However, I still have a long way to go before I can perform anything for others that is up to my expectations.

In regards to music; I find enjoyment from almost anything. Indie, Jazz, Blues, Alternative, Trance, House, Rap, some Country (none of that top 40 crap), good ol' Classic Rock, Hardcore, Post-Hardcore, Metal, Soul, and of course Spanish Guitar and Flamenco are just a few of my favorite genres.

My favorite Flamenco and Spanish guitar artists right now are Sabicas, Paco de Lucia, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Tomatito and Jesse Cook.

In summary (since I can be long winded at times) its a pleasure to meet you all and I am excited to be a part of the community. dzakovich00, I am glad that a fellow budding flamenco guitarist lives near to me. I would definitely like someone to practice with and share knowledge occasionally if you are interested! Also, is your friend interested in giving private lessons? I have been searching for awhile for a flamenco guitar teacher, but the closest teacher I have found to the Lafayette area is in Bloomington.

Conor

Conor, I am absolutely astounded in finding someone at Purdue who is interested in Flamenco. 99% of people I have talked to do not even know what it is. We definitely have to meet up sometime to practice. My teacher does give lessons, but he only stays at his house which is in Chicago. If you want, I can pass on a lot of stuff he taught me onto you.

[conor]

Hello Payul! Thank you for the warm welcome!


dzakovich000,

That would be fantastic! Right now I am focusing on keeping time in different compas forms. If you were to teach me how to play some of these correctly I would most definitely compensate you for your time.

My e-mail address is cbarber@purdue.edu. Shoot me an e-mail whenever you would like to schedule something. Anytime on weekends is good for me, as I am living and working right by Chicago on weekdays until mid-August, but I usually travel down to Purdue on weekends to visit friends.

Conor

[dillonpape]

Originally Posted by dzakovich000

Hi Dillonpape,

Well, I don't know if I can learn Chinese, at least at this time. With flamenco and school, I have enough things flying into my brain. (The trick seems to be keeping them from flying back out).

Anyways, I am currently studying "Horticultural Science." This basically means that I am studying plants with respect to their genetics, pathology, propagation, physiology, etc. Now I could be wrong, but I have a feeling that you are not interested in this. It is a pretty rare calling, but then again, so is flamenco, so I'll leave the answer to chance.

Purdue has a really, really (did I say really?) great Horticulture program. There are many professors who each study something particular about the plant world and how humans can better utilize plants. We get a whole building to ourselves and you almost feel as if you are in your own world when you are within this department. Most people are in landscape architecture, but only a few are actually doing the science aspect.

I can tell you more about selecting colleges if you like. Otherwise, let me know if you have any other specific questions.

-Dzakovich000

I was going to take some Chinese classes at this Buddhist temple right by my house, but they were on Friday mornings right up in my school schedule, but I understand the things-flying-in-my-brain-and-flying-right-back-out thing.

haha horticultural science seems fascinating enough (as is pretty much everything in the world, in my opinion), but not quite enough to be potentially significant in my near future. Until probably a month-and-a-half ago, my calling was into the audio engineering field in order to be a music producer. Now, though, I am trying to sort out the logistics of what the heck I could do with a philosophy degree, and a minor in music. It is currently looking like it will most probably turn into a teaching position of some description at some point in time.

Hm, horticulture does sound quite good there. Feeling like one is in one's own world sounds good. Well, I can't think of any specific questions right now, but perhaps I will think of something to ask you while we're on Skype or at some other point in the future. That is, unless you have any insights into the world of philosophy that might inspire me to some preferable course of action...