Palmas are the handclaps that serve as the rhythmic backbone of flamenco. You'll want to practice your palmas as much as possible!

Here we look at a bit of technique for palmas and then look at the various patterns we use for some of the more common Palos, including Soleá, Soleá por Buleria, Buleria, Alegrias, Seguirillas and more.

We look at how to feel the compás of Soleá before even picking up a guitar learning some palmas (handclap) patterns. Palmas are the original percussion instrument in flamenco and an essential part of the music and the culture.

Start here for your palmas - this lesson looks at the basic palmas patterns for Soleá. Much of this will be the foundation for all of the 12-beat compases.

Palmas for Solea Por Bulerias are very much like those for Soleá, but they feel a bit different. We look at what you need to know.

The Palmas are the underlying structure of any Palo, so the better you know them the better you’ll feel the compás. We can’t recommend strongly enough that you spend some time with the Palmas as you learn to play compás por Tangos. As you learn to feel the Palmas you will begin to feel more free ...

This is what you've been working towards - palmas patterns for Bulerias. It's a lot like the other 12-count patterns, but a lot faster!

Before we pick up the guitar, we get the basic palmas patterns down to better understand the compás

The hardest part of doing palmas for Seguirillas is really understanding the Seguirillas compás, so here we look at both.

In this lesson we look at how contratiempo works and how to practice playing the contra without getting lost!