Flamenco and the Compás

Well, in Flamenco it is slightly more difficult not to get out of sync, or compás, but it is roughly comparable with the example of the waltz. Dancers who can’t dance in compás, singers who can’t sing in compás and guitarists who can’t play in compás are avoided by other artists because it is impossible to work with them. Even if you play Flamenco in private and just for yourself, you should keep in compás or should at least know about compás because otherwise, what you are playing is not Flamenco. I always hear guitarists, in many countries, who play difficult falsetas by famous virtuosos, but you can’t tap your feet in time to the music, not to mention discern a compás. This is not Flamenco!

The problem is that outside of Spain the cart is often put before the horse. What I mean is that a guitarist who wants to learn Flamenco will hardly reach his aim if he starts out practising compositions by, say, Paco de Lucía by playing from music or a CD. This is totally inconsistent with the way of learning the toque in Spain or, more exactly, in Andalusia. Everybody, from Ramón Monoya to Vincente Amigo, had accompanied cante and baile and worked as a professional accompanist for a long time before starting to play solo guitar. A guitarist who cannot play in compás and at the same time claims that it is not the end of the world for a solo guitarist to be fuera de compás, shows his ignorance, at best - but this isn’t Flamenco!