Spanish/flamenco style

[The Fury]

How do you get something to sound spanish, what scales are more commonly used and what are some good techniques to get 'that' sound?

I only know of one thing that sounds remotely spanish, an E F G F chord progression (very cliched).

Thanks.

[Broken Insanity]

Sorry man, I don't know any spanish sounding tunes. But I too am interested in it.

[Pezcore]

Try the major Phrygian mode, i use that for spanishy style soles.

Very santana-ish

-Pez

[smfulla]

I'm not sure about the name, but the rasgudo (spelling??????) technique gets that spanish strumming sound. Like a continuous strum.

[eische]

yep, rasgueado is a good idea. Use the last three fingers in following down-perling-stroke (because I don't now what a continuous strum is) together or or combined with an upstroke by all or seperate fingers inbetween.
Also these strange beats give a good spanish feel, like a 7/10 for a fandango. And I guess a blues scale will do for any sort of rumba if you ad the right speed, too.

[smfulla]

with the continuous strum... you have to use your thumb on the way back up. And your wrist should have a rotating motion. Btw you should really get a book or go to lessons to REALLY get it.

[eische]

....eh, why because I don't know the english vocabulary??????? - see, I kow this strumming method and use it, but I don't call it that way, that's all.........btw, in all the books I have it's called rasgueado......

[The Fury]

eische, are you refering to this?
Btw you should really get a book or go to lessons to REALLY get it.

I think that was directed towards me and in no way an insult to your langauge skills.

Any way, thanks for the help guys, I've not been feeling very creative lately so when ever I tried to come up with anything it just turned out to be going up and down the scales.

[eische]

eeh well, what should I say, just a misunderstanding, well that would explain a lot ;) I was a bit confused though, not insulted.....

and a hint (whispers): there are some great guitar-dictionaries, because I don't like to read a whoooool book to know one thing neither, and a dictionary is great for spontanuos questions and shortly read explanations.......

[smfulla]

hehe, I wasn't aiming the comment towards you eische =]
It's just to fully understand the technique... you gotta know how to do it. And it's that conitnuous strum that I've seen played heaps by spanish guitarists.

[Andrew]

You could try the major phrygian scale, as pezcore says and use major bI chords in a major key eg Fmajor chord in the key of Emajor.

[cyberfret]

Here is one to try.

|Dm / / / | / / / / | C / / / | / / / / | Bb / / / | / / / / | A7 / / / | / / / / |

Use barre chords and a straight 8th notes strum lifting up your left hand fingers on beat 2 and 4 to get a clicking sound.

d u d u d u d u - strumming direction
/ / X / / / X /
1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &


I learned this chord progression and strum from a tune on an album called
Friday Night in San Francisco" by John McLaughlin, Al DiMeola, Paco De Lucia (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000002AHM/cyberfcomonlinec)

Try improvising with a D natural minor scale intermixed with a D harmonic minor....especially over the A7 chord.

Basic natural minor scale forms
http://www.cyberfret.com/scales/reference/minor.php

Basic harmonic minor scale forms
http://www.cyberfret.com/scales/reference/harmonic-minor.php

--Shawn

[The Fury]

Thanks, I'll give it a go.

[Andrew]

That sounds like 'Sultans of Swing'.

[ryker37]

Fury,

I was out surfing around and found a web site that has scales for the spanish/flamenco style. It looks impressive so I thought I would pass it on to you.

http://www.netspace.net.au/~tonyross/fretboard1-71.html

Give it a try and let me know what you think.

ryker

[cyberfret]

Originally posted by Andrew
That sounds like 'Sultans of Swing'.

Sultans of Swing does use the same chord progression.

--Shawn

[smfulla]

hey, I know the author of that programme thingee. Tony J Ross, aka the fish. He's a maniac (from guitar mania)

[The Fury]

Hey ryker, thanks, that's a good little program. The layout is a little complicated to start with (the fretboard was a bit too clutered) but I managed to get to grips with it.