The great flamenco virtuoso Paco de Luc\u00eda learned all that he knew from watching and listening to other performers and then practicing with a strong focus on what he was trying to achieve in his own playing. At home, he was surrounded by flamenco performers\u2014his father, Antonio S\u00e1nchez, and his older brother, Ram\u00f3n de Algeciras, were guitarists, and his brother, Pepe de Luc\u00eda, is a flamenco singer. And many other musicians would visit the family home, returning with his father and brother after gigs and\u00a0playing together for pleasure. Antonio S\u00e1nchez himself had been taught by the legendary flamenco master guitarist Melchor de Marchena.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This passing on of knowledge from one generation to the next is a tradition that continues in flamenco to this day. Of course, it is not only that guitarists teach guitarists; there are so many examples of guitarists learning to perfect the art of flamenco guitar by accompanying singers. Flamenco guitarist Tomatito still refers to flamenco singer Camar\u00f3n de la Isla as his \u201cguiding light\u201d (luz de gu\u00eda<\/i>) for all that he taught him in the many years that he was Camar\u00f3n\u2019s accompanist. Flamenco has set forms\u2014such as the soleares<\/i>, seguiryas <\/i>and alegr\u00edas\u2014<\/i>that have particular rhythmic patterns and chord progressions. However, it is in the accompaniment of the singing that the guitarist really learns to develop these set structures creatively, as they must harmonically and rhythmically follow the nuances of the singer. This is no easy task, as the singers artfully and dramatically weave around the melody with long melismas\u2014singing a single syllable with multiple changes of notes to ornament it. Choosing chords that will enhance these melodic lines is a large part of the art of accompaniment for flamenco guitarists. There is also much to be learned when a guitarist is accompanying flamenco dance, although then the demands of rhythmic precision take precedence over the subtle harmonic choices.<\/p>\n Not all of today\u2019s leading flamenco guitarists have been born into flamenco families. Gerardo N\u00fa\u00f1ez from Jerez de la Frontera began his early studies in a local flamenco school, where his old teacher would show the group of young students a strumming pattern or a falseta<\/i>\u2014a melodic phrase\u2014and the guitarists would be expected to sit and repeat it. But it wasn\u2019t long before N\u00fa\u00f1ez\u2019s talent became evident to everyone and he was able to move into the professional performing circuit, where he continued to learn as he played. N\u00fa\u00f1ez began his career at the age of 14, accompanying such renowned singers as\u00a0Terremoto, El Borrico, La Paquera, and Jos\u00e9 el de la Tomasa; that provided another level of training for the young guitarist.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n With the arrival of the first flamenco recordings in the 20th century, musicians were suddenly able to listen over and over again to the recordings of their heroes in an attempt to emulate their style; a new way to learn that did not require sitting at the knee of a master musician or watching a live performance. For example, before developing his own sound, Paco de Luc\u00eda was a great admirer of flamenco guitarist Ni\u00f1o Ricardo (1904\u20131972) and listened for countless hours to Ricardo\u2019s recordings (many made in the 1950s and \u201960s) and attempted to copy his style. Like so many of the flamenco artists of his time and before, Paco did not learn to read music. That came much later in life, when his international career had already been established, and only for the sake of collaborating with non-flamenco musicians. Thus, the oral tradition requires intensive listening and highly developed memory skills.<\/p>\n Many of the current generation of flamenco performers still speak about the help they received from Paco (who died in 2014); he really did do so much to raise the level of performance and maintain high standards in flamenco. Another equally important flamenco guitarist who has mentored many of the next generation of flamenco performers is Manolo Sanl\u00facar. Flamenco guitarist Vicente Amigo played his first concert when he was just 12 or 13 years old at a Paco Pe\u00f1a guitar course in C\u00f3rdoba. He then studied with Sanl\u00facar and later became part of his flamenco group, touring throughout the world for six years.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Although the oral tradition has been the most typical way to learn flamenco guitar, there have also been popular method books. One of the earliest, specifically aimed at flamenco guitarists, was created by Rafael Mar\u00edn\u2014his M\u00e9todo de Guitarra (flamenco) por m\u00fasica y cifra<\/i> was published in Madrid <\/b>in 1902. Mar\u00edn had studied both flamenco guitar and classical guitar with great maestros of his time\u2014flamenco with Paco Lucena (1855\u20131930) and classical with Francisco T\u00e1rrega (1852\u20131909). An earlier guitar method, Nuevo m\u00e9todo elemental de cifra, para aprender \u00e1 tocar por si solo la guitarra<\/i>, published in Madrid in 1860 by Mat\u00edas de Jorge Rubio, also has a few pieces in a flamenco style and offers some guidance on playing rasgueados<\/i> and golpes <\/i>(percussive tapping on the front of the guitar with the \u201ca\u201d finger of the right hand) on certain accents in the style of flamenco guitarists. (Rubio is better-known for his methods penned for the mandolin-like bandurria<\/i>, also popular in Spain.)
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