The flamenco Chords and how flamenco guitarists think.

One of the most frequent questions for rock or pop beginners guirtarists when they to sing a song is "What are the chords?". In this kind of musics the combination of tones requires to now all tones and usually this kind o music  uses the I, IV and V Chord f a tone (for excample C F G chrords, or G C D chords, or B E F#, or  A E D, etc. Its the same with minor tones). Rithm is very importat but it became rapidly secondary.

The 4/4 rithm is a confortable rythm and their variatons on the right hand have relatively easy learning.

However, the bulk and main roots of styles of flamenco do not need more than two of these groups of chords. The C tone and the A tone chords, but in most of the cases (and very importat) using a mixture of andalusian cadence and mayor tone.  Then , your tone, in the song accompaniment, is matched whith the singer tone using  the capo. Difficulty relies in what you can do whith those chords and their variations. A (la) tone is called 'por en medio' (on the middle) and C tone is called 'por arriba' (on the upper side)  according to the prevalence of positions of the fingers on the frets.

Therefore,  the most important thing for a begginer in flamenco guitar is not a broad knowledge of chords and scales. Why? Beacause the most important hand at the beginning and then is the right had as well as undertand the the compás.

Ok! I know.When you play rock or pop you know about the importance of right hand. In flamenco it is critial.

And it is not important because of its flanboyant movements as 'rasgueos' or 'abanicos'. As we describe in a previous post of this blog, the rythms (the compás)  in flamenco are more complicate as usually and are the key of all.

How these few basic chords and sounds marking by pressing with the left hand the sitngs fit with the right hand techniques according to complex pathers of rithm is the way how you should think in flamenco guitar. As an example, classical intro of bulerias are performer with this chords, the most importat is the rhythm:

A
0 0 2 2 2 0
A#dim/E
0 0 2 3 2 0
A#b5/E
0 1 0 2 2 0

For beginners  flamenco guitar should be more a drum than a guitar.