Flamenco
The Andalusian cadence, the Phrygian mode, the twelve-beat cycle and flamenco guitar techniques.
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Content under musical review. It may contain inaccuracies.
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The Andalusian cadence, the Phrygian mode, the twelve-beat cycle and flamenco guitar techniques.
Applied
Flamenco is a musical tradition from southern Spain, above all Andalusia, that brings together song (cante), dance (baile) and guitar (toque). It's organised into palos, forms with their own rhythmic cycle, harmony and character, such as soleá, bulería, alegrías, tangos or fandango. The guitar accompanies song and dance, and it also has a solo repertoire.
The Andalusian cadence steps down through four chords to a major chord that acts as the point of rest:
And the sound of the mode on E, with a minor second and a third that alternates between minor and major:
Playing por arriba, resting on E, and por medio, resting on A, are the two basic positions. Por arriba:
String 6, Open: E2 · 1 · Root
Loop the cadence and play over it with the Phrygian mode and the flamenco scale. Listen to the minor second's tension resolving onto the chord of rest:
Andalusian cadence Flamenco scale on EHarmony. The centre of many palos is a major chord on the first degree of the Phrygian mode. Peter Manuel describes it as a system of its own, the "flamenco mode", distinct from major and minor keys. The Andalusian cadence is its signature gesture.
Compás. Soleá, alegrías and bulería use a twelve-beat cycle with accents on 3, 6, 8, 10 and 12:
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
|---|
Other palos, such as tangos, use a four-beat duple metre.
Picking-hand techniques:
The capo (cejilla) is used constantly to fit the key to the singer's voice without changing positions.
Count aloud from 1 to 12 and clap hard on the accented beats. Then play a rasgueado on the chord of rest on 3 and 10, and change chords on 6 and 8. Juan Martín devotes much of his method to internalising this cycle before adding falsetas.
Flamenco guitarists enrich the chord of rest with added notes: the mode's minor second over the major chord, or an open string that creates a minor ninth. Manuel points out that these dissonances aren't meant to resolve; they're part of the mode's colour. Try letting the open first string ring over the chords of the cadence por medio.