I began to fall for flamenco music after going on a couple of trips to Spain two years ago. For those who don’t know, flamenco is a traditional Spanish music/dance which is accompanied by guitars. To me flamenco music always sounds extremely emotive, melancholic, mysterious and makes me wish I could understand Spanish.
I built my first flamenco guitar years ago almost by accident, before I really knew what flamenco was, by following a plan for a Santos Hernandez instrument (a renowned builder of both flamenco and classical guitars). It had a spruce soundboard with cypress back and sides, and was built alongside three other guitars. When I presented them to a classical guitarist, to my surprise after playing them he handed the cypress one back saying “this is a flamenco guitar”. The biggest difference is that flamenco and classical guitarists have different sound requirements. The different sounds are brought about by adjusting the thicknesses of the wood and bracing. Cypress is usually used for the back and sides, and a tap plate glued onto the soundboard.
My first proper exposure to flamenco music was at a guitar building competition, where there were flamenco guitars being judged, and I heard the same pieces being performed on each guitar. The guitarist was Alberto Lopez and the song that stuck with me was ‘Balcón de los Sueños’, on his album ‘Detras de la Verdad’, which I really enjoyed and still revisit often.
The next experience came visiting a particular wood dealership in Valencia called EAG International. It was a brilliant visit, and I’ll have to devote an entire blog post to it at some point. I was able to speak extensively to the truly lovely owner, Eve Armenteros. He comes from the south of Spain where flamenco music originated and is most alive. He gave me a list of flamenco guitarists and singers to check out which I’ve written out below. And he told me that the reason people truly love flamenco is because the words really speak to the soul, with the guitar usually taking a relatively backseat role, and that solo guitar flamenco music is actually quite niche. From the list he gave me, I found Vicente Amigo immediately accessible and it turns out he is indeed extremely well loved by everyone. The flamenco list: CAMARON, VICENTE AMIGO, MIGUEL POVEDA, DIEGO EL CIGALA, NIÑO JOSELE, TOMATITO, ENRIQUE MORENTE.
I’ve added a couple of examples of flamenco music. Hopefully this has given some context to my building of flamenco guitars. At some point I’ll write more about my trips to Spain and other flamenco related ventures.
A close up of the latest flamenco guitar.
