Kai,

First and foremost, I'm loving all the new material you're providing on the website and Friday falsetas are fantastic. My flamenco instructor and I are using your book and associated materials as the core of my instruction. He's an accomplished, formally trained classical with a passion for flamenco and he highly approves of your Flamenco Explained program.

I know you have the opportunity to play some of the finest guitars in the world at Guitar Salon. You recently picked up a new Stephen Hill flamenco 1a with a Benjamin scoop. I'd be interested to get your feedback on the scoop (and the guitar, if you're so inclined...). One of Stephen's apprentices, Evan Kingma, is building a guitar for me right now and he offers the Benjamin scoop as an option. Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

Fred

Hey Fred!

So glad you like the new material! We’ve got a lot more in the works, too, in addition to the falsetas. And if you have any requests just let us know!

As for my new guitar, it’s actually a 2a, which means that Evan was quite involved in the building of it. He’s an extremely talented young maker. One of my students bought the 2nd guitar he ever made and I would never have guessed it had been made by such a young and inexperienced luthier. His current work is even better, of course. I do have one of Stephen's 1a guitars as well.

As for the scoop, it’s great! I hate cutaways for some reason. Always have. But I need it sometimes when teaching my students at the university (mostly jazzy stuff when they play electric), so when I saw the scoop I decided to go for it and I’m very pleased. It feels like a ‘normal’ guitar but then there’s that extra room for the left hand when you need it. And I don’t see that it’s impacted the guitar in any negative way at all. I say go for it!

Also, I'd love to talk to your teacher and get his point of view as someone who is teaching out of the book. We've had some really good feedback already, but more is always appreciated. If you feel comfortable doing so, maybe you could send me a private email ([email protected]) with his info?

Cheers,
Kai