Hi Kai et al,

I have a question that might be helpful to all of us beginner flamenco students!

I've been following the Flamenco Explained program (book & videos) for about one year now. I've made it through the basic Solea tutorials and performance Solo piece. I realize each player is different, but is there a recommended progression for beginners, e.g., start with Solea > Tango > Alegrias, etc.? Of course I'd love to fast forward to Bulerias, but I need to make sure I can walk before I run!. Maybe follow the table of contents in the FE book....

Any recommendations? Thanks.

Hi Fred, well done! I am just about a month into that same journey. So when I get to where you are I will be curious about the same thing.

I haven’t got the book yet. Hope to get it soon. Working through the Solea Compas tutorial, the solo, and trying to learn the Campanilleros Falseta. I am using the various bits of the solo as exercises for now. I will be really happy if I can play that well by the end of the year!

Hey guys - not sure how I missed this thread...
Beyond getting Soleá under your belt first, I don't know that the order matters so much (I used to feel differently). I like Soleá then Tangos because Tangos gives you a bit of a breather on the compas and lets you focus on technique, groove, etc.., but lately I've sort of reversed myself and don't necessarily think there's anything wrong with going straight to Bulerias. Some people hear the compás better at the faster clip, and I'm over this whole 'you have to earn it thing', which I totally embraced for many years. So my advice is to go with whatever inspires you the most. That'll make you want to play and practice even more, and you're going to have to learn all of it as some point anyway!
Let me know what works for you guys - always interested to hear!
Cheers,
Kai

Thanks Kai. I appreciate your philosophy! One reason I am studying Flamenco instead of a classical technique is motivation. Flamenco is more compelling to me, so the desire level is overcoming the inertia of being older and busy.?I love classical guitar too, but apparently not quite enough! ;)

I am happy to learn Solea, and am enjoying my slow progress. Thanks for the F chord video by the way!

For me , Alegrias is the form that grabs me the most. But I hope to live long enough to learn most of the Palos.

Thanks again!

I'm weird, in that I started with Tangos. Before discovering Flamenco Explained, I had a hard time finding good resources, and just kind of stumbled onto Tangos. It's a strange way to start, but it means one of the first things I did was get very comfortable with rasgueados, which has helped a lot.
After discovering Flamenco Explained, I latched onto Solea, then Alegrias, Sevillanas, Seguirilla, and Guajira- focusing heavily on compas, escobilla and llamadas for each palo, then slowly adding simple falsetas and getting slowly more complicated. Probably 85% of my material has come from Flamenco Explained at this point.
I had just started working on Bulerias when Kai released the Fandangos de Huelva videos... which distracted me away from Bulerias. I'm a little intimidated by Bulerias, and tend to prioritize other palos, from a resource management perspective... (I can lean one Bulerias falstea or compas pattern, or, in the same amount of time, learn two or three for other palos... makes it hard to justify the Bulerias stuff until I have more material for all the others under my belt).

I'm feeling pretty good about my Fandangos, and am excited to jump back into Alegrias to pick up more of the cante and balie accompaniment with the new series on Saturday!

Hey folks....the OP chiming in once again. Thanks so much for all your input. I think we all learn differently and have unique objectives. When I started learning flamenco guitar, I combined working with a great instructor with the FE program and it was a great combination. The instructor helped me with basic technique issues and gave me a great set of exercises that I still work on to this day. I'm now solely focusing on FE with some occasional help from my instructor. For me, it's a good (and fun!) combination.

As I mentioned in my original thread, I've made my way through the solea performance tutorial, but I'm finding I still don't have it as "clean" as I would like. Some days are better than others...lol. Anyway...While continuing to work on the solea, I'm starting to watch the Tangos tutorial video. As Kai has mentioned, there's plenty of overlap among the palos and I think the tangos groove seems a bit more natural to me, as it's in 4/4. I just love both the rumba and tangos palos for some reason.

Bulerias is definitely on my goal list...what an amazing and powerful palo it can be.

Thanks again! Fred

I'm thinking maybe a 'Don't be intimidated by Bulerias' video is in order!