It is Halloween, and I just returned home from the peña. I am in Jerez.
On the way I saw a family dressed up in zombie-style Halloween costumes. Their two dogs were dressed as jack-o-lanters.
At the peña
We saw Manuel Agujetas Hijo sing with Domingo Rubichi accompanying on guitar.
Below is a letra por fandangos that he sang.
(You can hear El Chocolate singing it here.)
Fandangos
No me quites la botella
que yo me quiero emborrachar
no me quites la botella
voy a beber de verdad
y a ver si no pienso en ella
y yo la consigo olvidar
You've read my thoughts on avoiding castanets burn-out, and you've read about what made castanets finally doable for me. Today I'll share with you five important technique tips. But first, a castanets confession.
It has to do with my moving thumb.
My right thumb, that is. My right thumb that moves when I am doing the roll with my four fingers, well, and when doing postiseo, but it's supposed to move then, so that's a good thing.
It's a bad habit that I formed in my alone practicing.
I don't know if I could have avoided it had I spent more time studying under someone else's guidance in the beginning. I don't know if the teacher would have noticed it happening and helped me to prevent it from continuing and developing into a habit. These are things I wonder about.
Most people tell me it's almost impossible to "fix" at this point.
Most people except for Emilio.
Soleá
Dicen que no siento nada
y las carnes de mis huesos
a pedazos se me van
They say that I don't feel anything
and the skin from my bones
falls off in pieces
Yesterday I told you we’d talk about what to do when castanets frustration hits. Because it will.
Below are some ideas:
1. Don’t worry that you’re not producing the right (or any) sound.
This is part of the castanets learning process.
The movements are AWKWARD. Please give your sweet fingers some time to assimilate new movements they’re not used to making.
Sometimes remembering you’re not alone helps a lot. (You're not alone!)
2. Keep trying.
When I would tell Mercedes I can’t do it, she would always say the same thing,
As you know I stayed away from castanets for quite some time. I had my reasons.
Which I’ll share with you today along with the best thing you can do for yourself when starting out.
Let’s begin with my reasons for having avoided castanets for so long
Reason #1: Rebellion.
In part I was rebelling, at least that’s what I told myself.
Rebelling because when I would mention that I danced flamenco it seemed just about every other person would assume I played castanets,
"Ohhhhhh, so you play those things,” making motions with their fingers, “that make the clacking sounds?”
“No, I do not play those things, and actually you don’t need to play those things to do flamenco,” I’d say.
It’s true, one does not have to play castanets to do flamenco, but there was certainly a little bit of defensive me who-didn’t-know-how-to-play-so-don't-ask-me-that talking.
And then there was Reason #2,
Here’s another estribillo on love.
Es el amor,
que sale del corazón…
An estribillo por bulerías for today:
Estoy sufriendo,
de no tenerte a mi vera…
Ricardo is here, and I’m already disappointing him. He arrived on Tuesday, and it didn’t take long.
I’ll tell you about the desilusión and share three dance tips (Ricardo López) from his class last night. Three tips that are important to keep in mind at all times.
First, the disappointment
There’s really a lot of me feeling disappointed with myself going on.
Why didn’t I study before he came?
Why didn’t I make it a point to remember things he’d taught me in the past?
Why don’t I just pick things up quickly and do them well right away?
Why haven’t I been working on my technique more?
It started on Tuesday when he arrived.
The MGA (Mystery Guest Artist) supplied me with today's letra.
It’s tangos:
Last night at Manuel Liñan’s show, I heard this letra and had to write it down.
So I took out my little book and scribbled the first line down.
Ricardo looked at me and laughed.
I'm in the mood for tangos.
Tangos
Popular
Amparo
El enfermo busca el alivio
yo lo busco y no lo hallo
Protection
The sick one looks for relief
I look for it and I don't find it
You can hear La Paquera sing this letra in the video below at 1 minute 59 seconds:
Here’s a must-listen tientos sung by Juan Cantero.
Enjoy,
My biggest issue with bulerías when I got to Jerez was transitions. Well, ok, that’s not really true, my biggest issue after fear. But the transitions.
It was like all of a sudden I couldn’t see them.
And I didn’t know what to do.
I've since learned how to approach difficult transitions more gracefully. (I'll tell you how in just a moment.) I'll also explain to you in detail the transition that almost gave me a nervous breakdown along with some things you might like to know about "counting" bulerías de Jerez.
But first, allow me to give you some background ...
Melinda brought me a little book of letras from Spain. In it I came across an abbreviated version of the first letra written below. When I researched it online, I found some additional letras in a version by Juan Cantero.
Learning to play castanets can be frustrating, especially in the beginning.
But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it.
In the coming days I’ll be sharing some tips on how to deal with some potential frustrations that come with learning this (completely and totally worth it to learn) technique.
For today, let's look at the toque for thefourth copla por sevillanas.
As usual, you'll find it written in two different ways. Use whichever makes the most sense to you. And remember, there are different variations of the toques, and this is one of many!
Me and the bata de cola.
You could say that there’s really no excuse for me not being able to dance well with the bata.
Because I’ve had several experiences, various opportunities to learn.
I'll tell you about a one of my favorites today, and after the story, I'll tell you why you should study the bata even if you don't ever want to dance with it, and I'll share with you another bata need-to-know.
A [very] brief history of my bata experiences
You know about the first,
A fandangos letra and a video of Paco Toronjo...
Parece mentira
que un sueño quite otro sueño,
People are often asking me about my how I got started dancing flamenco, so I’m going to tell you a story from that time today. At the end of the story you’ll find a tip on dancing with the bata de cola, it's an essential, and you can work on it anywhere, in the bathroom, in the bedroom ...
But first, Spain
This will make your day.
TRUST me.
It's a video of David Lagos live por alegrías accompanied by his brother, Alfredo Lagos.
You should know, if you don't already, that David is nice.
You should also know, if you don't already, that he writes beautiful letras.
And you might as well know that one of my favorite things ever is listening to David Lagos sing por alegrías and that when I hear him sing alegrías live I cry every time ...
A letra por bulerías
Yo quisiera ser Sanson
para quererte
y que tú fuera Dalila
para aborrecerte
