Analyzing the Movements of Paco de Lucia's Technique

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[nicoangel]

Charles ! In 1970…As a young lad, I traveled to Europe, to Spain, in search of Flamenco.
Walking those mythical streets for hours, I stumbled upon Calle (Street) Ilustracion #7....the home of Paco de Lucia.
I bravely, yet nervously, rang the bell and his lovely mother, Lucia, welcomed me in, escorting me to where Paco was studying in the back sunroom.
With food & drink at hand...a typical Mediterranean custom I knew so very well as a Hellene ( Greek ), we spoke and played what seemed like hours and, at the end, promised that I would arrange a concert for him in the United States at Chicago’s famed Orchestra Hall.
He offered to teach me in Algeciras ( his summer home, foolishly, I became entangled with a beautiful young lady from South Africa...

GRAVE MISTAKE.

Upon his return back to Madrid, he asked what happened to me. Hearing my story, he laughed and said he would have done the very same dame thing!!

OLE !

Before I left Spain, he made me promise a concert in Chicago and I agreed. Years passed, when back in Chicago, I established the Flamenco Guitar Studies at the Guitar Dept. at the famed "Arlington School of Music", in Arlington Heights, IL.
With these credentials, I worked up enough courage to approach famed Impresario Harry Zelzer of Allied Arts Corp at Orchestra Hall in Chicago and, as he quibbled ( money, of course ) with Paco's International Impresario Sol Hurok in New York City, I persuaded both of them to bring Paco de Lucia to Chicago for a gala concert. Zelzer even agreed to bring the fabulous Sabicas (The King of the Flamenco Guitar) also...on the same Guitar Concert Series including Andres Segovia.

This proved to be the greatest "Guitar Series" in Chicago's History!

I called Paco long distance (no cell phones then) and he told me his agent informed him of his Chicago debut.
Paco then asked me to grab my guitar and proceeded in working with me on "Entre Dos Aguas" as I was holding the phone, glued to my chin...for over an hour. No cell phones then....

Ouch!

“Que No... Hombre !”

"NO NO... La Menor 7"...Paco would scream.

“No Maldita Sea”.

“JUGAR CORRECTAMENTE....TU MARICON” !!

( how rude ).
This went on for 30 minutes more until he was satisfied with my results. He arrived in Chicago and, staying at my apartment, we played all night. The next day, we drove to Orchestra Hall on Michigan Ave, and rehearsed there with the sound and lighting engineers. That evening, Paco played flawlessly to the utter shock of the audience...top professional Guitarists from all corners of the United States, Canada and into their seats. They never heard a guitar sound so explosive, so emotional, so flawless technically.... so Espanol...so Gitano! It came time for his last piece..."Entre Dos Aguas" and I walked onto that stage and accompanied him to the never ending screams of the audience... the "Latinos.... y…. Latinas" …. in dance form... drowning out our performance with perpetual "OLE'S !"…yes at Orchestral Hall, no less
That following day, at the airport, Paco asked me to join him on his tour across the Southeastern USA.
This is when I was reborn.
We toured for three weeks, city after city….hotel after hotel This is where my career to know the intimate Paco, his loves and fears, the secrets of his monstrous technique, phrasing and study habits.
Years later, Paco called and informed me of his new affiliation with AL Di Meola and John McLaughlin in their "Friday Night in San Francisco Tour" at Chicago's Auditorium Theatre...a legendary concert hall with perfection in Acoustics.
I arrived at that afternoon's rehearsal and noticed Paco's sound was awful...couldn't hear the guitar.
Without thinking, I ran back home, retrieved my Sennheiser Mic Paco used at Orchestra Hall, years before, to the utter satisfaction of Paco and the sound engineer...…

( try talking your way out of a speeding ticket with an Illinois State Trooper.)

Night came, audience brimming with young eager, guitarists, whether Rockers, Jazz Pros, Country Artists from Nashville or famed Classical and Jazz guitarists from Canada to South America, ….. they were there waiting to get a glimpse of de Lucia".

Lights dimmed to the constant rustling of hungry youth…all asking

“What is this Flamenco ?..
.
then...it

ALL HELL BROKE LOSE!

This "Paco de Lucia" simply exploded with "The Face of An Angel And With The Technique of A Demon"
The audience gasped, going wild with hundreds of cigarette lighters ablaze in hand, to the sound of "The Holy Three".

"Musical History Had Been Made !"

The next morning, ( Hey.. contact me and I’ll tell you all the story of “Fancy Boots” that morning)…..

I drove Paco and John to the airport...(Al left on an earlier flight)
…said our goodbyes in Hellenic-Hispanic Style
...and promised that we would attend each other's funeral

…”he who would die first”….a Mediterranean Custom
.
That was the last time I saw Paco. Sadly, he died first and I angrily realized that my passport had expired, at the last minute.

It was too late for me to go.

I was incarcerated in my home, shocked and immobile upon hearing of his death.

... my life with Paco flashing before my eyes.

After all this time, and after these many, many years looking back.... I can only

"Paco!"

"Hermano"

"Escuchame

"When it is my time to enter the Pearly Gates of Heaven (if I get there, that is) ...I'm bringing that Sennheiser Mic with

.we"ll jam all night”.

Yeah with Sabicas & Mario Escudero

“The entire Universe will hear you again....live! “

"Esperame, mi Amigo!"

“Wait for me, My friend"

Memories!

(This is my true story)

Call the Arlington School of Music, a Div. of the Arlington Institute of Music & The Performing Arts, circa 1930

847-830-0471

( we’ll chat all night)

[felipebianchi]

Paco on his scale runs used to rest the thumb very lightly on the basses, and that was the result of a superlative work on tecnique. Not to mention the transition to lean the thumb sidewise on the top of the instrument. Paco worked his tecnique like a maniac. Gotta love this man

[Rainbient]

I have studied pacos technique for years and I have come to the conclusion that he is an alien and when he died he went back to his planet that is the reason why he is a perfect player

[TruthSurge]

No, he's moving his thumb off the top E string because his scale pattern is going up the strings toward the big E string so he just puts his thumb ON the guitar as a stabilizer for his hand height just light he had his thumb on the big E to sort of anchor his hand during the picking. Every time he moves up toward the big E string and his index and ring are beginning to pick the G and D strings, he moves his thumb sideways onto the top of the guitar. It is definitely touching the guitar.

[duxnihilo]

The "buzz" also comes from the fact that flamenco guitars have high frets. They're meant to sound more metallic (and louder). The guitar is also thinner and has a slightly different construction in order to sound strident and raspy.

Also, his "apoyando" is called "picado" in flamenco. Your right hand is supposed to be parallel to the guitar body. Whilst practicing, one's supposed to not rest the thumb on the low E string and keep one's hand parallel to the guitar top. Classical "apoyando" allows for the wrist to bend, forming a triangle with the hand, wrist and top of the guitar.

On his guitar holding: he is responsible for changing how a guitar is held in flamenco. You'll notice that later in life, his guitar rests on his right leg. On this video, he was still resting the guitar on his left leg which he changed because he said it made his right hand on a more comfortable position, let alone not having to constantly readjust the guitar. Nowadays, most flamenco guitarists copy his style.

It's also worth noting the contribution he made to flamenco harmony. When introduced to jazz, he got really interested and started incorporating that into his music. Now, after his contribution, flamenco makes use of what is traditionally called "Western music theory" in addition to traditional flamenco theory which is vastly different in terms of how it interprets things we call "modes", "key" and so forth. He incorporated functional harmony into his playing and composition because he was impressed with how jazz musicians could improvise. He taught himself to improvise (jazz style) in order to keep up with McLaughlin and di Miola.

[vancekoenig]

Wow, thanks for taking the time to make these videos, I especially appreciate the repetitive slow motion segments that you have taken the time to organize an edit.

[Rainbient]

The rasgueado he was doing in the concerto is called: abanico(fan). He stricks down with his pinky followed by indice, and up stroke with pulgar and the movement is all in the wrist like if turning a door knob.

[Fledermausman]

One thing that is remarkable in his picado is how motionless the back of his hand is, apart from the up-down travel necessitated by string crossing. Another important point is that the tip joint actually yields as he goes through the string, something I've seen in most really good players with good sound in both classical and flamenco playing. This translates to free strokes as well.

[GodsStoryteller]

Thanks for making this video.

I subscribed.

Been studying him.

[alkharif]

13:59 In the recording it looks like he is using his pinky as well but actually it doesnt't touch the string, it just moves naturally along with the ringfinger. He is playing rasgueo AMII

[cognoscenticycles]

An excellent analyse of Paco's right hand technique. As you pointed out, his right hand technique is very different from most classical players. I think Paco's technique provided a lot of power to execute that very vigorous attack that passionate flamenco players seem to possess. I am a steel string fingerstylist and my own technique is very similar to Paco's for the same reason. Medium gauge steel strings require an immense amount of strength to conjure the best tones from your guitar. Many years ago I saw a live performance of Paco de Lucia and his playing just absolutely floored me. His passion, his complete freedom and total mastery was outstanding to witness. I can say he may very well have been the finest guitarist I have ever seen of any genre. The only other guitarist with technique that challenged Paco was the great Lenny Breau. Lenny blended many styles and his improvising and chordal knowledge was mind blowing. He also spent some of his practise time learning flamenco techniques and it was obvious in his playing.

[davida.]

You mentioned you wish you had been able to meet him....I was lucky enough to interview Paco after a concert he gave in Hawaii.That interview was published in the now defunct Jaleo magazine. What I primarily remember was that Paco was
very friendly, happy, and quick to laugh...no arrogance at all...and also that he was really living the the guitar life for real full out although I know he had a home in Yucatan, Mexico where he enjoyed cooking fish he or his friends had spearfished. But even so I've seen video where he had guitars all around and would be doing editing on his computer. He died there but is buried in Spain very close to the sea...
What a life!

[sangiorz]

Great video and analysis! My most sincere thanks!

[jonathanwebb]

I have always loved Paco De Lucia's talent and music. Thank you for doing this video. I'm a big flamenco guitar fan.

[rspawn]

It's probably the hardest rasgueado to master for non-natives.

[anhthiensaigon]

been a Paco fan for roughly 10 years, I believe you totally captured many important aspects of Paco's playing.
What I would add, per my personal experience, is that in Flamenco tradition they put the guitar on the right thigh. This posture isn't optimal for the left hand comparing to classical, but it allows the right hand to do many interesting things, therefor it became the standard for flamenco. And since it puts more challenge on the left hand, flamenco guitarists occasionally tend to adjust the guitar a bit to compensate for their left hand, so they generally don't really treat the guitar as an unmovable object like in classical.
Moreover you observed very well that Paco rested his thumb on the E string. Yes it's a standard practice not only for Paco but for every flamenco guitarist when playing picado.
I also got fixated on Paco's plucking fingers during picado (or apoyando as you say it). I'd say it's all about angular velocity vs. tangential velocity. Suppose the path of movement of the fingertip (when it plucks a string) has a fixed length, if you use the small joint as the center, the radius is shorter as it consists of only 2 finger phalanges, but if you use the big joint, the radius is almost double. Suppose the speed of muscle retraction is biologically limited (i.e. angular velocity can't be improved), for a faster pluck you would want to maximize the radius by employing the big joint. That's why you see the big part of his finger move very little, it just lies right next to the big joint. That's even a further push to the efficiency of Paco.

[edcolins]

When you listen to guitar music, you place Paco with other Guitar Gods, , but when you study flamenco guitar, then Paco is above them all !

[tedcabana]

"Know the rules before you break them." I'm sure Paco knew the proper classical techniques. But to shape his music, and playing style to become as amazing as he was. He needed to go a bit outside the box. And sometimes, way, outside! And his results were absolutely amazing.

[Rainbient]

In my opinion, the Concierto de aranjuez is his greatest accomplishment. Not only does he not know how to read music, he studied the hell out of that piece for 12 hours a day for months and absolutely crushed it in front of thousands of guitarist on live TV and in front of the Maestro Rodrigo who was in the audience and risking the criticism of classical guitarist against Flamenco Guitarist. Talk about the nerves of steel.

[thelonious-dxvi]

Great. Excellent, very glad to have found this. I play bebop on heavy gauge flatwounds with a flat pick. And for me, he's the greatest guitar player ever to have lived. The magical rasgueado near the end of that Impetu clip with the circling camera, I've looked at that a million times too. For the dopamine hit. It's great how you broke it down.

I'm excited to see your David Russell vid in my feed, I'm headed directly there from here. I'm a relative tourist re classical guitar, but to me, his playing sounds really very special.