Examples
The Soleares, Alegrias and other palos could be explained as one measure of 6/8 time and one measure of 3/4 time, although changes of harmony tend to accent the third and tenth beat, avoiding the Western Classical idea of downbeat, and therefore further obscure the unfamiliar listener's ability to sense the beginning and middle of the cycle. As this musical tendency would be common for them, their sense of rhythmic emphasis would naturally be obscured.
A palo or cante is the name given in flamenco for the different traditional musical forms.
[12] 1 2 [3] 4 5 [6] 7 [8] 9 [10] 11
The Siguiriyas is the same pattern as the Soleares, but shifted:
Siguiriyas is a form of flamenco music belonging to the cante jondo category. Its deep, expressive style is among the most important in flamenco. The siguiriyas are normally played in the key of A Phrygian with each measure consisting of 12 counts with emphasis on the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 8th and 11th beats as shown here:
[12] 1 [2] 3 [4] 5 6 [7] 8 9 [10] 11
Although many performers will count it as follows:
1 and 2 and 3 and a 4 and a 5 and
The Farrucas, are 2 measures of 4/4 time, the falsetas each having of 8 beats:
Farruca is a form of flamenco music. It is a light form typical of cante chico, and is traditionally danced only by men. It is said to have been invented in the 19th century by guitarist Ramón Montoya and flamenco dancer Faíco; others who stylized and expanded farruca included Antonio de Bilbao. Ramirez, Manolito la Rosa, El Batato and Rafaela Valverde, and La Tanguera. Other sources indicate that Farruca originated in Galicia, a region in northern Spain.
[1] 2 [3] 4 [5] 6 [7] 8
Most other forms follow these two basic rhythms, though there can be considerable variation, such as in the Granaína.
Granaína is a flamenco style of singing and guitar playing from Granada. It is a variant of the Granada fandangos. It was originally danceable, but now has lost its rhythm, is much slower, and is usually only sung or played as a guitar solo, reflecting its Arab-Moorish heritage more strongly than other fandangos.
The time signature is a notational convention used in Western musical notation to specify how many beats (pulses) are contained in each measure (bar), and which note value is equivalent to a beat.
In music, hemiola is the ratio 3:2. The equivalent Latin term is sesquialtera. In pitch, hemiola refers to the interval of a perfect fifth. In rhythm, hemiola refers to three beats of equal value in the time normally occupied by two beats.
In music and music theory, the beat is the basic unit of time, the pulse, of the mensural level. The beat is often defined as the rhythm listeners would tap their toes to when listening to a piece of music, or the numbers a musician counts while performing, though in practice this may be technically incorrect. In popular use, beat can refer to a variety of related concepts, including pulse, tempo, meter, specific rhythms, and groove.
In musical notation, a bar is a segment of time corresponding to a specific number of beats in which each beat is represented by a particular note value and the boundaries of the bar are indicated by vertical bar lines. Dividing music into bars provides regular reference points to pinpoint locations within a musical composition. It also makes written music easier to follow, since each bar of staff symbols can be read and played as a batch. Typically, a piece consists of several bars of the same length, and in modern musical notation the number of beats in each bar is specified at the beginning of the score by the time signature. In simple time,, the top figure indicates the number of beats per bar, while the bottom number indicates the note value of the beat.
The Music of Andalusia encompasses a range of traditional musical genres which originate in the territory of Andalusia in southern Spain. The most famous are copla and flamenco, the latter being sometimes used as a portmanteau term for various regional musical traditions within Andalusia. Andalusia has a rich and thriving musical scene which draws from its own musical traditions as well as from external influences such as salsa and blues rock music.
Bulería is a fast flamenco rhythm in 12 beats with emphasis in two general forms as follows:
Alegrías is a flamenco palo or musical form, which has a rhythm consisting of 12 beats. It is similar to Soleares. Its beat emphasis is as follows: 1 2 [3] 4 5 [6] 7 [8] 9 [10] 11 [12]. Alegrías originated in Cádiz. Alegrías belongs to the group of palos called Cantiñas and it is usually played in a lively rhythm. The livelier speeds are chosen for dancing, while quieter rhythms are preferred for the song alone.
Verdiales are a Flamenco music style, and song form belonging to cante chico.
Francisco Gustavo Sánchez Gomes, known as Paco de Lucía, was a Spanish virtuoso flamenco guitarist, composer, and record producer. A leading proponent of the new flamenco style, he was one of the first flamenco guitarists to branch into classical and jazz. Richard Chapman and Eric Clapton, authors of Guitar: Music, History, Players, describe de Lucía as a "titanic figure in the world of flamenco guitar", and Dennis Koster, author of Guitar Atlas, Flamenco, has referred to de Lucía as "one of history's greatest guitarists".
Bulgarian folk dances are intimately related to the music of Bulgaria. This distinctive feature of Balkan folk music is the asymmetrical meter, built up around various combinations of 'quick' and 'slow' beats. The music, in Western musical notation, is often described using compound meter notation, where the notational meter accents, i.e., the heard beats, can be of different lengths, usually 1, 2, 3, or 4. Many Bulgarian dances are line dances, in which the dancers dance in a straight or curved line, holding hands.
Malagueñas is one of the traditional styles of Andalusian music (flamenco), derived from earlier types of fandango from the area of Málaga, classified among the Cantes de Levante. Originally a folk-song type, it became a flamenco style in the 19th century. It is not normally used for dance, as it is generally interpreted with no regular rhythmic pattern, as a "cante libre". It has a very rich melody with virtuous flourishes and use of microtones. Its guitar accompaniment is normally played in open position first inversion giving E for the tonic, which can be transposed by using a capo.
The Nashville Number System is a method of transcribing music by denoting the scale degree on which a chord is built. It was developed by Neal Matthews in the late 1950s as a simplified system for The Jordanaires to use in the studio and further developed by Charlie McCoy. It resembles the Roman numeral and figured bass systems traditionally used to transcribe a chord progression since as early as the 1700s. The Nashville Number System was compiled and published in a book by Chas Williams in 1988.
The Nashville Number System is a trick that musicians use to figure out chord progressions on the fly. It is an easy tool to use if you understand how music works. It has been around for about four hundred years but sometime during the past fifty years [approximately 1953-2003] Nashville got the credit.
The Nashville numbering system provided us the shorthand that we needed so that we could depend on our ears rather than a written arrangement. It took far less time to jot the chords, and once you had the chart written, it applied to any key. The beauty of the system is that we don't have to read. We don't get locked into an arrangement that we may feel is not as good as one we can improvise.
In popular music, half-time is a type of meter and tempo that alters the rhythmic feel by essentially doubling the tempo resolution or metric division/level in comparison to common-time. Thus, two measures of 4
4 approximate a single measure of 8
8, while a single measure of 4/4 emulates 2/2. Half-time is not to be confused with alla breve or odd time. Though notes usually get the same value relative to the tempo, the way the beats are divided is altered. While much music typically has a backbeat on quarter note (crotchet) beats two and four, half time would increase the interval between backbeats to double, thus making it hit on beats three and seven, or the third beat of each measure :
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4
Soleares is one of the most basic forms or palos of Flamenco music, probably originated around Cádiz or Seville in Andalusia, the most southern region of Spain. It is usually accompanied by one guitar only, in phrygian mode "por arriba" ; "Bulerías por soleá" is usually played "por medio". Soleares is sometimes called "mother of palos" although it is not the oldest one and not even related to every other palo
Soleá (Soleares) por Buleriás is a flamenco palo. This dance is the product of the intensification of the Soleá rhythm or the deceleration of the Bulería. This cante is an intermediate step between the Soleá and the Bulería but responds to the same rhythm of both.
Guajira (Flamenco) is a palo based on the Cuban Punto Guajira Cubana. It is in 12 beats and feels like it starts on 12. Guajíras is a prime example of so-called Cantes de Ida y Vuelta. The flamenco guajira is the adaptation to Melos flamenco of the Cuban point, the peasant point, a genre that brings together a series of songs called Guajiros that are grown in the rural areas of the island of Cuba. Guajíras is simply a song for voice and guitar with a series of similar letras.
