Mel Bay's Flamenco Guitar: Basic Techniques (Technicas Basicas) [Spiral-bound]

Juan Serrano (Author), Mel Bay Publications Inc (Author)

Book Description

Series: Technicas Basicas | Publication Date: May 29, 1996

This book, written in both English and Spanish is the most authoritative method available on flamenco guitar technique. Juan Serrano is one of the world's premier flamenco concert soloist and is a seasoned teacher and performer in this vibrant, colorful musical genre. The text describes the history and development of flamenco music; teaches basic music theory; presents developmental studies on flamenco guitar techniques such as rasgueado and tremolo; and offers 14 exciting flamenco guitar solos. Written in notation and tablature.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Juan Serrano's incredible musical execution has been witnessed and enjoyed by millions around the world. Serrano has drawn awe and praise from his audiences, aficionados, critics, and artistic peers. Critics have called him the "best flamenco guitarist living today."

But Juan Serrano is more than just an incredibly gifted guitarist. He is also an exceptional and rare musical resource who can communicate his art on a very personal level unlike other great Spanish guitarists who normally only perform in a strict concert setting where the audience receives little orientation about flamenco from the artist. Serrano speaks both English and Spanish which enables him to give enlightening explanations during his performances that give his audiences a rare insight into flamenco. He has performed on major television and radio programs throughout the world. In addition, Serrano has authored several music books and videos distributed by Mel Bay Publications which instruct guitar players on the origins of flamenco and its techniques. He has also written Flamenco, Body and Soul, a history of flamenco for the aficionado published by the Press at California State University.

Serrano's mastery of flamenco not only comes from his many years of discipline and study of the guitar, but also because he grew up in Cordoba, Spain, the birthplace of this rich and dazzling music. At age nine, Serrano was studying under his father, a professional guitarist, and learning the traditions of flamenco which is a fusion of Jewish, Moorish, Christian and Gypsy musical elements between the 8th and 15th centuries in Andalucia. Juan made his professional debut at age 13 and as a teenage earned a reputation all over Spain and Europe as a gifted musician. He performed and recorded with the top flamenco musical, dance, and theatrical companies. At this time Serrano also started his solo career. His home town of Cordoba was so proud of his accomplishments that they replaced the bell in the town clock with recordings of his guitar playing.

Cordoba also awarded Serrano the Porto de Oro. This prestigious honor is awarded once every ten years and Serrano is the only guitarist ever to be so honored. Serrano received the Page One Ball from the Newspaper Guild of New York for his outstanding performances. He was also awarded the Medalla de Oro from the Spanish Academy of Fine Arts, the Catedra de Flamencologia from Jerez, Spain, and an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut. The city of Fresno bestowed Serrano with the "Fabulous Fresnan" and "Horizon" awards. Serrano is the only flamenco guitarist in the world with a doctorate in humane letters and a tenured faculty position at a major university. He developed the guitar program at California State University and heads the guitar department. In addition to his teaching duties, Serrano is much sought after as a performer, for master classes and as a guest lecturer on the history of flamenco. Serrano's latest recordings are a series of five compact discs, Masters of Flamenco, Volumes 1-5 and The Art of Flamenco Guitar released by Planet Records; Flamenco Festival, a re-release by BMG; Grandes Guitarras by Phillips; and Sabor Flamenco released by Concord Picante.

Product Details

• Spiral-bound: 148 pages
• Publisher: Mel Bay Publications, Inc. (May 29, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786625562
• ISBN-13: 978-0786625567
• Product Dimensions: 0.5 x 9 x 12 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #627,606 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

79 of 80 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great start for Flamenco, April 18, 2002

By 

hamsterdance (TX) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mel Bay's Flamenco Guitar: Basic Techniques (Technicas Basicas) (Spiral-bound)

I am taking flamenco guitar lessons and this is the book my instructor has me use. While I am fortunate to have a gypsy-taught flamenco teacher I have done my share of self-teaching (particularly for classical guitar). Thus, I understand some of the special considerations that need to be addressed when attempting to learn a new style of music on your own. First of all, unlike the 1-star reviewer I think this is a good book to begin learning flamenco, although I do recommend additional aids for the self-taught student which I will detail in a bit.

Strong points about the book -

1) Each exercise, study, song is written in both standard notation and tablature.

2) Introduces rasgeado at the very beginning and the accompanying cd makes if very clear the sound you are aiming for. The down side is that there is very little suggestion of how to GET to the level of playing you hear for the first exercises on the CD. It has taken me 2 months to begin to sound like the first 2 pages of exercises on the cd. My teacher had me start out each exercise - 2 per month (I take 1 hour lessons twice a month). I started out just practicing each single finger-stroke in succession at 40 bpm. Once I could perform each exercise for 3-4 minutes with no flaws I'd move the metronome up 5 notches. Right now I'm at 65 bpm. Using this technique and practicing like this every night a beginner will eventually be able to perform these rasgueado techniques flawlessly at over 300 bpm. My teacher can play such techniques even faster and says eventually I will be able to also as long as I keep practicing with the metronome. The photos, while not the best I've seen on rasgueado, are still understandable. For better pictures on the rasgueado I recommend Flamenco Guitar Method for Beginners (ISBN: 0769261434). In fact, that book is what I recommend for someone who has never ever picked up a guitar and wants to learn flamenco as their first music. In fact, it makes an excellent primer to the Basic Techniques book.

3) Strict finger alternation, scales, tremelo studies and thumb studies rounding out the first chapter. Believe me...to get really accurate and sound like the cd (all the exercises,studies and songs - if it's in the book it'll be on the cd) will take several months of dedicated daily practice with a metronome using the technique I described above. Once you've done that it's time to move on to the first flamenco solos and the first introduced is the Sevillanas I,II,III,IV (track 23 on the cd) - one song with 4 movements that seque into each other. And it will sound great - very simple actually - all the notes are within the first four frets - but wow! EVERYBODY will know you are playing FLAMENCO when you play it! And when you finally do it's going to be a great moment. All those months of diligent practice on rasgueado, compas (rhythm) and tremelo will suddenly have been worthwhile. Also, the speed at which these beginning songs are played are slow enough for a beginner without sacrificing sounding like flamenco.

The remainder of the book introduces songs of each of flamenco type - Soleares, Alegrias, Fandangos, Rumbas, Bulerias. Each form having chapters with songs of each type. The back of the book introduces 2 regional flamenco versions of the Malaguena and a beautiful flamenco version of the classical guitar standard Romance de Amor.

Weak points -

1) This book does assume you have some knowlege about playing the guitar. If you are truly a rank beginner - have never picked up a guitar before and don't know how to play open chords or standard notation get the Anita Sheer/Harry Berlow Flamenco Guitar Method for Beginners primer (ISBN: 0769261434) first or any other beginning guitar book.

2) It does not give any instruction on how to properly hold your hands in relation to the strings, the angle of the attack of the strings by the fingers and arm, nor proper thumb rest-stroke technique (it is used almost exclusively in flamenco) or strum techniques. There is enough difference between proper flamenco right hand and arm techniques that using classical guitar techniques will be the wrong way to play flamenco and will effect the over-all "flamenco-ness" of a piece you are practicing. Neither does the Basic Techniques book go into detail the variety of rasgueado styles that have evolved over the centuries. For self-teachers to learn all of the things I mentioned above please be sure to pick up Oscar Hererra's 3 video set (I just found they're also available on DVD! Unfortunately I don't yet know the ISBN for the DVD set but will soon be ordering them. Email me if you are interested in the DVD ISBN) "How to Play Flamenco Guitar Step-by-Step" (video 1 ISBN: 0786646705, video 2 ISBN: 0786646721, video 3 ISNB: 0786646705) and Ioannis Anastassakis's The Art of Rasgueado (ISBN: 0786649224). Each of Herrero's videos come with a booklet of all the exercises and instrumentals in tablature. There is also a book which is purchased seperately that goes with the above video set (ISBN: 0786659416). Herrero's video series and book along with Anastassakis' Rasgueado book are superb complements to go with Serrano's Basic Techniques book for those trying to learn flamenco but have no access to a teacher.

All in all, this is a great book for a beginning flamenco player and is filled with historical commentary about each flamenco form. Definitely 2 thumbs up.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Mel Bay's Flamenco Guitar : Basic Techniques (Technicas Basi, August 8, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Mel Bay's Flamenco Guitar: Basic Techniques (Technicas Basicas) (Spiral-bound)

The exercises are a good supplement if you are using another method book. It does not include enough explanatory material if you are using it as your sole method. The section on tremelo, for example, could use explanation. The photographs and exercises for rasgueo are very good. The included pieces are not for complete beginners, though the exercises seem like they would be useful to master or practice for all levels - some of the exercises are not easy but make a notable difference in your ability to play once they are mastered. All the exercises and pieces are on the CD. The CD has only the music with no explanations or verbal text which is advantagous when you just need to hear the music example. This is a book which could be useful to a player for a long time I think.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a solid flamenco book, July 12, 2005

By 

J. A. Papaioannou "John the Greek" (Ithaca, New York USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mel Bay's Flamenco Guitar: Basic Techniques (Technicas Basicas) (Spiral-bound)

This book is nice in a way because not only does it feature everything in music notation, but also in tablature, atleast in a rather... more complicated type of tablature, so the rhythm is clear.
I believe that everyone who wants to learn flamenco should, no HAS to learn how to read music notation. So I don't know if I truly welcome the author's decision to waste half of the book on tabs.
Anyway, it gives a modest amount of study exercises for the various techniques you will need to practice for flamenco guitar. There's scales, legatos, thumb exercises, tremolos, RASGUEADO(the definitive FLAMENCO technique, BUY The Art of Rasgueado if you want to learn this technique) and some arpeggio exercises.
What is nice about this book is that it showcases different styles and forms of flamenco music with a one page description of the origin and rhythm, and a sample piece, which is of a rather beginner's difficulty, not too bad. This is what this book is really helpful for, not the exercises supplied in the first 20 or so pages. If you're just starting off with a nylon string guitar and need to learn proper stature, positioning, music notation, tone, etc... I highly recommend Christopher Parkening's Classical Guitar Theory Volumes 1 and 2. Everything taught as classical theory will crossover for flamenco.
In conclusion, this isn't the book to get if you're just now picking up a flamenco guitar, but once you get comfortable with it and have learned some theory, pick it up for its introduction to varied flamenco forms and styles.