Juan Serrano - Flamenco Guitar Basic Techniques

Excellent Flamenco tutorial.

Great book that helps you improve on your study. I'm using this along with an instructor and I'm really improving my techniques.

Although it says so nowhere, this is not aimed at the absolute beginner; the student is assumed to be able to tune the instrument, play the basic chords and scales, etc. After an introduction, some potted music theory, and exercises for rasgueado, scales, tremolo and thumb, the book contains Sevillanas, Farrucas, Soleares, Alegrías (2), Fandangos de Huelva, Rumbas (2), Bulerías and Malagueñas. Each piece is in staff notation and cifra (tablature) with time-values, prefaced by remarks about its provenance, structure and compás (rhythmic constraints). The text is in good English, and Spanish. (Since I grumbled about this duplication elsewhere, I suppose I ought to grumble here, but I can't feel the price is excessive.) The book is well written, clearly printed and exhaustively fingered, a very painstaking work indeed. I did find three trivial typos in the staff notation, easily cross-checked against the cifra: page 65, system 2, bar 2; page 119, system 7, bar 4; page 140, system 5, bar 4. This, then, is a very good book. In particular, it is one I would recommend to any classical guitarist with a year or more's experience, who knows nothing about flamenco forms but would like to find out. The reason is simple: there is little student material that conveys the true flamenco "aire"; and the pieces in this book (apart from a rather Mickey Mouse "flamenco" version of "Romance de Amor") achieve that, while remaining as simple as they can be and still retain that quality. They are suitable for near-beginners; but if you *can* play them crisply and rhythmically at even moderate speed (particularly the Bulería), you will amaze your friends with no trouble at all. There is now a new edition that includes a CD, which I haven't heard and so can't comment on.