Mel Bay Play Solo Flamenco Guitar with Juan Martin Book, CD, and DVD: Vol. 1 [Spiral-bound]

Juan Martin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2002

Designed as a comprehensive multimedia teaching set, this book, CD, and DVD present 42 solos, progressively graded in 6 levels from absolute beginners to more advanced, to suit players of all levels. It contains examples of eighteen different palos (rhythmic forms) of flamenco, with a wealth of melodic falsetas and rhythms. The music for all these is accurately written in notation and flamenco tab (cifra) in the book, and is also recorded on the companion CD. The DVD video contains over 57 minutes of solo music, and also includes introduction by Juan Martín and brief scenes of Andalucia today, which help to place this profoundly exciting and deeply felt music in the landscape of its origins. Juan Martín has succeeded here is showing how even music which is simple and very easy to start with can express the essential sound and emotion of flamenco, to build step by step the skills necessary for the performance of concert solos. Written in English and Spanish.

Product Details

• Spiral-bound: 160 pages
• Publisher: Mel Bay Publications (March 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786664584
• ISBN-13: 978-0786664580
• Product Dimensions: 11.7 x 9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #89,575 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible solos, but very difficult to learn, October 13, 2003

By 

Christopher M. Kirby - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Mel Bay Play Solo Flamenco Guitar with Juan Martin Book, CD, and DVD: Vol. 1 (Spiral-bound)

Flamenco is not for the beginning guitarist/novice. Flamenco has many very difficult techniques (rasgueos, golpes, picados). If you have a basic understanding of guitar tab and a dedication to following it the pieces in the first couple of grade levels aren't too difficult to learn. Granted you've had some guitar experience already (prefererbly classical as some fingerpicking techniques are identical).

To play even at grade 0 you must have the following basic skills: ability to read tab, hammer-ons, pull-offs, and slides.

The following basic skills are a must have to be able to play grade level 3 through 6: picado(alternating index and middle fingers rapidly on the same string), full bar chords, repeating 5-stroke rasgueos, frequent use of hammer-ons and pull-offs, slides, and slurs.

The solos are simply great, even grade 0. Some of the best pieces in the book don't require too much use of rasgueos (they're the identifying techiniques of flamenco), which makes them easier to pick up.

Flamenco is one of the most unique styles of music on the planet, learning this style will take a lot of practice; but having some flamenco pieces in your repetoire will definitely make other players envious.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars great resource but not perfect, September 22, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Mel Bay Play Solo Flamenco Guitar with Juan Martin Book, CD, and DVD: Vol. 1 (Spiral-bound)

I use this book and the accompanying CD a lot, and also have watched the DVD. This book fills a gap in flamenco guitar teaching. The pieces are nice too. I recommend it highly if you do not mind the mutiple minor issues that you may want to know:
(1) The book is not intended to teach you play Flamenco technique; it is a compilation of Flamenco pieces from easy to difficult
(2) the book is filled up with his pictures (and even his son), playing or posing with flamenco 'legends' etc.--- not a humble looking book!
(3) in the CD, 3 songs are repeated (one slow tempo, one fast) while the others are not, I could not figure out why those arbitrary pieces were repeated. Also I thing two pieces are recorded with the metronome on while the rest without metronome.
(4) The DVD quality is poor and cheap looking, with low resolution.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Lot of Fun/A Little Help, January 27, 2005

By 

J. McCook "READAX" (Southeastern US) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mel Bay Play Solo Flamenco Guitar with Juan Martin Book, CD, and DVD: Vol. 1 (Spiral-bound)

Although I thoroughly enjoyed this product, the degree to which it helped me learn flamenco guitar was minimal. I'm a self-taught player who's been plucking away at the instrument for an astounding 25 years (astounding because I just realized how long it's been) and who, within the past few years, has finally learned to read music, abandon contemporary styles for "classical" and was ready to take on a new form of playing. And I think that I could have taken on -- and will eventually take on -- flamenco with an instructional piece that offers more details in terms of technique.

The DVD is a pleasure to watch. With his calm and friendly delivery Juan Martin seems like a "really nice guy." Also, the information/history he provides about flamenco is interesting and informative (not to mention the pleasant visual accompaniments: footage from Spain between lessons). Foremost, however, his playing is spectacular. If you're like me, you find yourself thinking that, though surely a daunting task, you'll be able to handle this impressive style in time and be able to play some of these beautiful pieces with some degree of accuracy. But that wasn't the case with me. Namely because he/the DVD provides no instruction and the book provided only a modicum more -- brief, bulleted blurbs. And clearly there's more going on than that; clearly this style and its techniques -- it would seem to someone unfamiliar with flamenco -- are more complicated than a one- or two-sentence description can actually detail (especially if a guitarist is to play correctly). Yes, there are symbols in the songs' notations that indicate how the right hand fingers should fall, but they become so intricate at times that one needs a bit more assistance in order to feel confident that they're following them correctly. I found myself a few inches away from my monitor and slowing down the DVD's speed in an attempt to study his right hand. And I realized that was a bit absurd... not to mention ultimately unhelpful.

The point being, if someone is stepping into this style cold, green and completely void of flamenco technique, this may not be the learning tool for them. Personally, I'm going to try to find a more basic book on the topic. Even if it may be more tedious and even if the songs are less interesting, I think I'll get more out of it. And then I go back to Juan Martin.