[passion4blue]

My name is Eddie Villanueva Reyes and although I am from Puerto Rico, I am presently living in Farmington Hills, Michigan. I have been playing guitar for 40 years now and and have only made the transition to Flamenco in the past year. Presently just focusing on the techniques very slowly and diligently. As a Jazz musician I find that although I have the theory under my belt as far as modes, scales, chords and all that good stuff, Flamenco is a different beast altogether.

As someone who loves to continuously challenge myself musically I feel that Flamenco is what I want to work on to take my playing to the next level. At the moment I am a subscriber to Jason McGuires Flamenco_Lessons.com website and I am also working with the Gerhard Gref-Martinez books. Two wonderful resources in my opinion to learn this wonderful art.

The years I lived in Puerto Rico exposed me to different types of Spanish music, but it was basically through Jose Feliciano that I became involved in guitar. His early bolero songs during the 60's and 70's opened up my eyes and ears to his eclectic Latin style that mixed Bossa Nova, Jazz, Classical and bits of Flamenco into what constituted his style.

Once I began to study his guitar playing, I've never looked back.

Flamenco is just a beautiful style of music and as I've gotten older have come to relaize that it touches me at a level that other forms cannot. It could be due to the music my mother and father were always playing around our home and the fact that all my grandparents were of Spanish descent, but somewhere deep in my soul there is a longing for this music that almost feels visceral. Why it took me so long to finally get here, I have no idea, but here I am.

I hope to be able to share and learn from all the users on this forum who also share this same passion, and that we can help each other grow, and encourage each other on the way to mastering this beautiful art form.

[Clement]

Hi Eddie

I can empathise with your journey to playing flamenco guitar. I more or less took the same path. As to why I left it so late, I'm not 100% sure but maybe it's a fact that flamenco, due to it's depth and challenge, appeals more to a mature person (outside Spain).

I wish you all the luck and may you find the fullfillment which you are looking for in flamenco.

Clement Kotze
Cape Town
South Africa

[mwheeler]

Hi Eddie,

Like you, I began to play the guitar a little around 1968, at about the time that Jose Feliciano came seemingly out of nowhere with his hit cover version of Light My Fire. Needless to say, Feliciano's music made me aware of the heavy guitar tradition in Latin music, and I began acquiring records by Segovia and also a few flamenco guitarists -- but I was too intimidated to attempt to learn the flamenco form at that time.

Also, like you, I spent the first 27 years of my guitar-playing life as an electric guitar player, beginning with pop music, then teaching myself jazz and improvisation. Learning the flamenco was out of reach for me then -- the music was played only by players who were clearly supermen, and there were scarcely any learning resources available.

In 1995, I decided that it was now or never: I was now 42 years old, and I would begin a study of the flamenco, which was the form that had struck me so deeply years before. So, I have not used a guitar pick in 16 years. I'm still not what I would consider a flamenco player, but I can fake a solea! And I have listened to a lot of flamenco recordings and videos and can discriminate good from bad.

Soon I will be 58, and my goal is to continue improving as a guitarist for as long as I can. At the moment, I'm trying to get as much as I can from transcriptions of music by Sabicas, Paco Pena, Ramon Montoya and Manolo Sanlucar.

I saw one of your videos on Youtube -- you have a lot of promise as a flamenco! And by the way, Viva Puerto Rico for giving us Jose Feliciano -- he is a giant!

[Clement]

Hi again guys

While we're on the topic of learing to play flamenco guitar, it struck me a while back that outside Spain, guitarists tend to take the opposite direction, compared to flamenco players in Spain. Mostly we start with jazz or classical, notation, techniques, etc. and then gravitate to flamenco. The real flamenco players experience the opposite.

What I've found out as well (I'm by no means an authority) is that one ought to learn the compas (basic rhythms) and then join to accompany a dance class as soon as possible. Then/or simultaneously learn to accompany cante. This will lead you to developing your own authentic flamenco guitar style and you can then learn to compose your own falsetas as well! Learning other people's falsetas from notation is the most excruciating experience ever!

I hope sharing my experiences will shed some light on this "dark" art!