Customer Reviews

Guitar Atlas: Flamenco (Book & CD)

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was fortunate to have studied with Dennis in NYC in the early 80's. Back then he was an amazing guitarist. I recently visited him in NYC again and was amazed at how much his playing has
sweetened. Dennis is not only a great player but his explanations of the techniques are among the best out there. I recommend this book for any student who has played at least one year of classical guitar.

I would recommend this book to anyone with a passion for classical guitar and for any world enthusiast. The whole Guitar Atlas series is so informative in terms of guitar techniques, rhythms, and melodies. I enjoy reading about the history of the regions such as Spain. Many of the famous flamenco artists are listed so you can look them up on the internet or buy a CD to learn more about them. Any guitarist with an interest in other cultural music or interest in finding new ways to play the guitar should buy at least one in this series. Overall, I would give high marks on these books and they are not too difficult for an intermediate guitar player.

Koster has really distilled flamenco technique down to several essentials and offers very impressive and enjoyable material to play. He quickly introduces three main flamenco forms--soleares, alegrias and buler1as--offering several good basic rhythmic phrases (compas) for each, plus some good basic solo material. He also gives a taste of several additional flamenco forms. For each main form, he teaches basic flamenco techniques--strumming (rasgueado), thumb use (apoyando and alzapua), tremelo, arpeggios. (He doesn't cover picado (scale and individual note playing) very much, which is a little surprising, though he works a little into the solos. Speaking of solos, at the back of the book are some really terrific solos--not easy, but playable if one works through them diligently. The CD is helpful, actually essential. Like many if not all flamenco books, this one assumes that the student can play the guitar decently already and wants to learn some authentic flamenco in a quick and straightforward manner. If you fit that bill, I wouldn't leave this book out of your library.

Excellent book. Very easy to follow, good breakdown of basic components and then application of basic concepts. CD is a must--no more wondering if you're playing the right thing.

This is an attempt to teach flamenco the way it was before Camaron and Paco revololutionized it, but even then it's completely wrong. Flamenco was never played like this - ever.
This is a classical guitar player faking it.

For real Flamenco, only the didactic videos made by the Swiss company Encuentro exist. Some of these are good and others are mediocre, but at least they contain real flamenco played by real flamencos. No one in flamenco ever heard of any of these other people who have written flamenco guitar books.

The Paco Pena Toques Flamenco book is the only thing showing the old way that's even close. It's a source of trditional falsetas but the compas patterns are obsolete. PIP falsetas are also obsolete.

Don't take my word for anything, go to Spain and find out for yourself.