[dzakovich000]

Good Evening, Everyone,

Music has always been a part of my life. I have always had a special gift for it. I do not have perfect pitch, however, I have always had the ability to remember entire songs after one or two plays.

All things aside, flamenco is still extremely challenging and it brings me great joy to see an online community of people with similar goals helping one another out.

I am from a suburb of Chicago and I attend Purdue University at the moment. It is a long story, but I ended up meeting someone through my old Spanish teacher that happened to be a well known flamenco singer who coincidentally, lived near me. Although he does not fully occupy his time with the guitar, he is still better than me and understands flamenco theory.

I have played the flute for almost 10 years and will be approaching two years with the flamenco guitar this Christmas. I feel like I am making really good progress with it. I try to practice a few hours a day and listen to different types of flamenco almost exclusively now. I still enjoy many other forms of music, especially some obscure types of avant-garde jazz and progressive rock.

I hope that this forum will be able to help me improve my abilities and at the same time, I want to share all that I have learned with those that share the same thirst, desire, and receptiveness of a flamenco student.

[Payul]

Hi Dzakovich000

Welcome to the falsetaforum!

[dillonpape]

Learn Chinese. An insane amount of Chinese people have perfect pitch simply because of the nature of the language. haha

What are you studying at Purdue? I am starting to look at colleges and think about all of the things that there is to think about concerning colleges, so it would be nice to hear about the college experience and especially a specific college from someone in college, especially if you happen to be in a major which I am potentially interested in.

Oh yeah, progressive rock, woot woot! haha

[Estanislao]

Originally Posted by dzakovich000

Good Evening, Everyone,

Music has always been a part of my life. I have always had a special gift for it. I do not have perfect pitch, however, I have always had the ability to remember entire songs after one or two plays.

All things aside, flamenco is still extremely challenging and it brings me great joy to see an online community of people with similar goals helping one another out.

I am from a suburb of Chicago and I attend Purdue University at the moment. It is a long story, but I ended up meeting someone through my old Spanish teacher that happened to be a well known flamenco singer who coincidentally, lived near me. Although he does not fully occupy his time with the guitar, he is still better than me and understands flamenco theory.

I have played the flute for almost 10 years and will be approaching two years with the flamenco guitar this Christmas. I feel like I am making really good progress with it. I try to practice a few hours a day and listen to different types of flamenco almost exclusively now. I still enjoy many other forms of music, especially some obscure types of avant-garde jazz and progressive rock.

I hope that this forum will be able to help me improve my abilities and at the same time, I want to share all that I have learned with those that share the same thirst, desire, and receptiveness of a flamenco student.

Ah, Chicago.

I may be wrong, but I think that is where John Clarke is. I'm not sure how to characterize him since he seems to do some Latin style work in addition to some Flamenco. His video of Juan Martin's Tempestad went viral and was the reason I bought Juan Martin's book in the first place since I wanted to learn that song after hearing him play it. But my Fave out of his videos is The Most Evolved, which I guess I can call a modern rumba.

Welcome aboard. Pull up a seat and enjoy the conversation. I'm looking forward to it!

[dzakovich000]

Originally Posted by dillonpape

Learn Chinese. An insane amount of Chinese people have perfect pitch simply because of the nature of the language. haha

What are you studying at Purdue? I am starting to look at colleges and think about all of the things that there is to think about concerning colleges, so it would be nice to hear about the college experience and especially a specific college from someone in college, especially if you happen to be in a major which I am potentially interested in.

Oh yeah, progressive rock, woot woot! haha

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

[dzakovich000]

Originally Posted by Payul

Hi Dzakovich000

Welcome to the falsetaforum!

Thank you, Payul. I have read many of your posts and I look forward to gaining your insight.

[dzakovich000]

Originally Posted by Estanislao

Ah, Chicago.

I may be wrong, but I think that is where John Clarke is. I'm not sure how to characterize him since he seems to do some Latin style work in addition to some Flamenco. His video of Juan Martin's Tempestad went viral and was the reason I bought Juan Martin's book in the first place since I wanted to learn that song after hearing him play it. But my Fave out of his videos is The Most Evolved, which I guess I can call a modern rumba.

Welcome aboard. Pull up a seat and enjoy the conversation. I'm looking forward to it!

Thanks, Estanislao

I looked into the artist you mentioned. Interesting music. Not what I would consider "Flamenco,"
but nice to listen to nonetheless.

[Estanislao]

Originally Posted by dzakovich000

Thanks, Estanislao

I looked into the artist you mentioned. Interesting music. Not what I would consider "Flamenco,"
but nice to listen to nonetheless.

You won't get any arguments there.

[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

[Payul]

Hi Conor!

Welcome to the falseta forum!


Payul