Flamenco

History and character

Flamenco is the music, song and dance of Andalusia, born from the meeting of the culture of the Gypsies (calé) and Andalusian folk music, with distant roots in Moorish, Sephardic Jewish, Byzantine and Castilian music. The first written records date from the 18th century (José Cadalso, Cartas marruecas, 1774); the genre developed in the 19th century among Cádiz, Jerez, Seville (Triana) and Utrera, and became professional in the cafés cantantes (c. 1850–1920), where the palos (the forms: soleá, seguiriya, alegrías, bulerías, tangos, fandangos, malagueñas, tarantas…) were defined. In 1922 Manuel de Falla and Federico García Lorca organized the Concurso de Cante Jondo in Granada to save “deep” song from the commercial “ópera flamenca”; among the great historical cantaores: Antonio Chacón, Manuel Torre, La Niña de los Peines, Manolo Caracol, Antonio Mairena.

From the 1960s–70s flamenco was radically renewed: Paco de Lucía (Entre dos aguas, a rumba from 1973; dialogues with jazz, with John McLaughlin and Al Di Meola; the introduction of the Peruvian cajón into flamenco in the late 1970s) and Camarón de la Isla (with Paco between 1968 and 1977; La leyenda del tiempo, 1979, with rock instruments) opened the “nuevo flamenco”; Enrique Morente (Omega, 1996, with the rock group Lagartija Nick), Tomatito, Vicente Amigo, Gerardo Núñez, Diego del Morao, cantaores such as Estrella Morente, Miguel Poveda, Arcángel; fusion groups such as Pata Negra, Ketama, Ojos de Brujo; in the 21st century the urban and pop flamenco of Rosalía (El mal querer, 2018) and C. Tangana. UNESCO inscribed flamenco on the Intangible Cultural Heritage list on November 16, 2010.

Flamenco has three pillars: cante (singing: jondo, intermedio, chico), toque (guitar) and baile (dance), with the compás (rhythmic cycle) and the jaleo (palmas, shouts of encouragement: “¡olé!”, “¡agua!”) as the glue. Key aesthetic concepts: the duende (deep inspiration, the emotion that “burns”), the quejío (the lament of the singing), the difference between gitano and andaluz cantes.

Scales and keys

The flamenco system is the flamenco mode (Phrygian with a major third over the tonic chord) plus major and minor. Roman numerals: for the flamenco mode we use the degrees of Phrygian on the tonic (I = major tonic chord); for minor, relative to natural minor.

Flamenco mode (“Andalusian” Phrygian)

• Scale formula: 1 b2 b3 4 5 b6 b7, with the major 3 used over the tonic chord (and often in the melody too, alongside the b3): in practice 1 b2 (b3/3) 4 5 b6 b7.
• Por arriba (E position on the guitar): E F G (G#) A B C D. Por medio (A position): A Bb C (C#) D E F G.
• Characteristic note: the b2 that falls onto the tonic (F → E; Bb → A) and the clash between the b3 and the major 3 (G and G#).
• Chords (“por arriba” position): I (E), bII (F, often Fmaj7 with the open E), III (G, often G6 or G7 toward C), iv (Am), bVI (C), vii (Dm); Andalusian cadence Am–G–F–E (iv–III–bII–I).
• Use: soleá, seguiriya, bulerías, tangos, fandangos, tarantas and almost all cantes jondos.
• Example: Paco de Lucía — Entre dos aguas (rumba, 1973) and almost all traditional soleares and bulerías revolve around a Phrygian tonic with an Andalusian cadence (the exact chords of the piece should be checked against a transcription).
• Common mistake: treating E as the dominant of A minor: in flamenco E major is the tonic, and the F→E cadence is a final cadence, not a suspended one.

The “positions” and keys of the toque

• The other keys of the flamenco mode are obtained with the capo (cejilla) by shifting the same positions: por arriba (E) and por medio (A) are the main ones; the tarantas use F# (F# G A B C# D E), the granaína B (B C D E F# G A), the minera G#, the rondeña C# with a modified tuning (scordatura), the malagueña E.
• The guitarist moves the capo to suit the cantaor's voice.

Major

• Formula 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 — E major: E F# G# A B C# D# (alegrías por arriba); A major: A B C# D E F# G# (alegrías in A, guajiras).
• Chords: I, IV, V7 (the I–V7 alternation per compás in alegrías and cantiñas).
• Characteristic note: “Cádiz-style” brightness after the Phrygian darkness; alegrías often have a central section in minor (silencio).
• Use: alegrías, cantiñas, guajiras, sevillanas (also in minor), colombianas.

Minor

• Natural 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7 — A minor: A B C D E F G; harmonic A B C D E F G#.
• Chords: i iv V7 (Am Dm E7), VI and VII for the Andalusian cadence in minor.
• Use: farruca (A minor), garrotín (often in C), some sevillanas, tientos and tangos in minor keys.

Phrygian dominant and double harmonic in the melodies

• In singing the scale takes on color: 1 b2 3 4 5 b6 b7 (Phrygian dominant, E F G# A B C D) and sometimes with the major 7 as a passing tone (D#) toward the tonic.

Microtones and melismas

The cante uses untempered intervals (“neutral” thirds, a rising b2), long melismas on a single syllable, portamenti: these are essential characteristics, not errors.

How to choose

The palo decides the key: flamenco mode for soleá, seguiriya, bulerías, tangos, fandangos; major for alegrías and cantiñas; minor for farruca and some tangos; “de levante” keys (taranta in F#, granaína in B) for the mining and free cantes.

Harmony

The Andalusian cadence and the bII

• The harmonic heart is the Andalusian cadence (in E: Am–G–F–E; in A: Dm–C–Bb–A): a four-chord descent with the bass moving by step, closing on the major tonic chord.
• The bII–I cadence (F–E, Bb–A) is the flamenco closing gesture par excellence (the “remate”).
• Use of G7 → C (in E) or C7 → F (in A) to momentarily “open” toward the relative region (the Phrygian VI), then return to the Andalusian cadence.

Harmonic rhythm in the compás

• In soleá por arriba: tonic E and F alternate on the strong beats of the compás; basic rasgueo scheme: E chord preparing, F on the middle strong beats, return to E on 10 (the exact scheme varies greatly among guitarists).
• In bulerías por medio: A and Bb alternate with a close on 10; the remate and the cierre close the cycle.
• In alegrías in E major: alternation of one compás on I (E) and one on V7 (B7) in the basic cante.
• In tangos: the Andalusian cadence and the I–bII vamp in 4/4.

Harmonic colors of the guitar

• Chords with open strings that ring between one chord and the next: the open high E and B above the F (Fmaj7#11: F A C E + B), above the G (G6), above the A minor (Am(add9)).
• Passing chords with semitone dissonances, “broken” chords with the thumb on the bass and rasgueo above.
• From nuevo flamenco onward: jazz harmonies (ninth, thirteenth, #11 chords, diminished chords and substitute dominants) introduced by Paco de Lucía, Vicente Amigo, Gerardo Núñez.

Density

The toque accompanies the cante with simple harmony and answers in the pauses with falsetas (melodic phrases) and rasgueados; in solo toque the density increases greatly (very fast picados, arpegios, trémolo).

Typical progressions

Rhythm and groove

The compás

• Compás of 12 (the soleá family): accents on 3, 6, 8, 10, 12. Soleá (slow), alegrías and cantiñas (lively), bulerías (fast, accents 12, 3, 6, 8, 10 counting from 12), bulería por soleá (medium).
• Seguiriya (siguiriyas): 12 beats with accents distributed differently, often counted in 5 pulses, two of them long (1–2–3–4–5 = short, short, long, long, short) or as a soleá starting from 8 (source: Wikipedia, Siguiriyas).
• Binary compás (tangos, tientos, farruca, garrotín, rumba, tanguillos): 4/4 or 2/4; tientos are slow, heavy tangos.
• Ternary (fandangos de Huelva, sevillanas): 3/4 or 6/8; sevillanas are in four coplas with a fixed structure.
• Cantes libres (fandango natural, malagueña, granaína, taranta, toná, martinete): no compás, the guitar follows the cantaor.

Rhythmic elements

• Palmas: sordas (cupped hands, muted) and claras/fuertes (fingers on the palm, dry); palmas a tiempo (on the beats) and a contratiempo (on the upbeats).
• Jaleo: rhythmic shouts of encouragement.
• Llamada (the dancer's call), remate and cierre (endings on 10), contratiempos.
• Microtiming: the compás is not a metronome: it “pushes” and “holds back” around the accents; in the bulería the groove sways between 6/8 and 3/4 (hemiola).

Drums

The flamenco rhythm section

There is no drum set: the rhythm is made by palmas, jaleo, zapateado (the bailaor's feet), nudillos (knuckles) and pitos (finger snaps), golpes on the guitar and, since the 1970s, the cajón.

Cajón

• Introduced into flamenco by Paco de Lucía in the late 1970s after a trip to Peru (the instrument is Afro-Peruvian; in Paco's group it was played by the Brazilian percussionist Rubem Dantas).
• Sounds: bass (stroke in the center of the playing surface, 60–120 Hz) and slap (upper edge, with internal snare wires giving a snare-like sound), plus ghost notes with the fingers.
• Role: reinforcing the accents of the compás (in the bulería bass on 12 and 6, slap on 3, 8, 10 as a basic scheme), filling with off-beat ghost notes, playing remates together with the guitar and baile.

Palmas

• Two or more palmeros: one a tiempo on the accents, one a contratiempo on the subdivisions (the “and”s).
• Dynamics: sordas during the cante (so as not to cover it), fuertes in the interludes and endings.

Zapateado

The dancer is a percussionist: tacón (heel), planta (ball of the foot), punta (toe), golpe (whole foot). In the escobillas (zapateado sections) the rhythm of the feet becomes the protagonist.

How they interact

The cante leads: when the cantaor sings, guitar, palmas and cajón thin out; in the pauses (“respuestas”) the guitar answers with falsetas, and the cajón and palmas return at full strength. The endings (remates) are decided together with glances and llamadas.

Typical mistakes of programmers

Putting a kick on every beat, using 16-step loops for a compás of 12, quantizing the palmas, using electronic claps in place of real palmas, ignoring the difference between sordas and claras.

Bass

• The bass is the guitarist's thumb on the low strings (E, A, D): tonics, fifths, descents of the Andalusian cadence (A–G–F–E), tonic pedals under the falsetas.
• In nuevo flamenco the fretless electric bass is added (Carles Benavent with Paco de Lucía, from about 1981): melodic lines, slides, harmonics, doublings of the falsetas.
• In flamenco-pop and urban flamenco: sub and 808 (Rosalía) playing the tonic and the Andalusian descent; the cajón bass must then be lightened to leave room for the sub.
• Relationship with the cajón: the cajón bass and the bass line must land on the same accents of the compás.

Harmonic instruments

• Flamenco guitar: lighter than the classical guitar, with strings lower over the fingerboard (low action), a golpeador (transparent pickguard for strikes), traditional tonewoods: blanca (cypress, bright, dry, percussive sound) and negra (rosewood, deeper and more sustained, preferred for concert).
• Techniques: rasgueado (chords with the fingers fanning out, in three, four, five beats), picado (scales with alternating index and middle fingers, very fast), alzapúa (thumb up and down, chords and melody), arpegio, trémolo (p-a-m-i: one bass note and three repeated notes), golpe (strike on the golpeador), ligado (slurs).
• Capo (cejilla) to suit the voice: the positions stay the same, the key changes.
• Second guitar and accompaniment guitar in modern groups; piano (Dorantes, Chano Domínguez), flute and sax (Jorge Pardo with Paco de Lucía), violin, electric bass, keyboards in nuevo flamenco.
• Voicing: open chords with open strings, second dissonances, fixed positions shifted along the neck (e.g. the F position with open E and B shifted to G and Ab).

Melody and vocals

• Cante: the singing is the center. Mid-high register even for men (natural tenors with a “broken” chest voice and afilla, the hoarse, raspy voice), very long melismas on a single vowel, quejío (the opening lament “ay…”), microtonal ornaments, portamenti, dramatic accents, rubato over the compás.
• Types of cante: jondo (deep: toná, martinete, seguiriya, soleá), intermedio (fandangos, malagueñas, tarantas), chico (light, festive: alegrías, bulerías, tangos, sevillanas).
• Vocal structure: the letra (verse) of 3–5 lines, with repetitions of words and lines, and the macho (final verse at a livelier tempo in some palos).
• Chorus: in tangos and festive bulerías and in sevillanas the chorus answers in unison; in flamenco pop, harmonies in thirds and backing vocals, often with the “jaleo” recorded in stereo.
• Melodic instruments: the guitar in the falsetas, flute and violin in nuevo flamenco.
• Effects in modern flamenco: dry, close voice in the traditional style; creative Auto-Tune, harmonizations and vocoder in urban flamenco (Rosalía).

Instruments

Flamenco guitar (blanca and negra), second guitar, cajón, palmas, zapateado, nudillos and pitos, castanets (castañuelas, mainly in classical Spanish dance and in sevillanas), voice (cantaor/cantaora), chorus and jaleo; in nuevo flamenco fretless electric bass, flute, soprano sax, violin, piano, Latin percussion (bongo, congas), keyboards; in urban flamenco synths, 808, samplers.

Drum patterns

Synths and sounds

• Augmented Strings — Strings for orchestral and pop flamenco: Cinematic pads and strings under guitar and voice (Spanish soundtrack and flamenco-pop style); slow attack, filter at 6–8 kHz so as not to compete with the guitar's open strings.
• Augmented Voices — Ethereal choirs (urban flamenco): Vocal layers and Rosalía-style textures: voices held behind the cante, with long reverb.
• Prophet-5 V — Pads and basses for fusion: Warm pads and synth basses under the Andalusian cadence in electronic flamenco; follow the bass descent A–G–F–E.
• Stage-73 V — Electric piano (jazz-flamenco): Ninth and thirteenth chords in the style of jazzy nuevo flamenco; light tremolo, middle register.
• Jun-6 V — 1980s pads and arpeggios (Pata Negra, Ketama): Pads with chorus and arpeggios for flamenco-pop and Andalusian rock.

Song structure

Structure of a sung palo (e.g. soleá, bulerías)

Structure of the baile (e.g. alegrías)

Salida – letras – silencio (slow section, in minor) – castellana – escobilla (zapateado) – final bulerías (fast ending).

Sevillanas

Four coplas (sevillanas primera, segunda, tercera, cuarta), each with an introduction, three sung parts and an ending; a couples' dance with fixed steps.

Solo toque (concert)

A piece built on a palo: introduction, falsetas alternating with rasgueados, tremolo or picado sections, collective remates with palmas and cajón, finale por bulerías.

Modern arrangement (nuevo flamenco, pop)

Pop structure (verse, chorus) with a basic flamenco compás (tangos and rumba in 4/4 are the easiest to use), guitar interludes, palmas and cajón as the “drums,” basses and keyboards.

Mixing and mastering

Sonic goal

Closeness and truth: voice and guitar at the center, with palmas, jaleo and cajón creating the space of a juerga (the party) or a tablao (small venue: short reverb, 0.6–1.2 s). In modern flamenco (Paco de Lucía, Vicente Amigo) very defined guitars, rich in transients and body; in urban flamenco (Rosalía) a very intimate voice and electronic production with sub.

Voice (cante)

• Large-diaphragm condenser mic at 20–40 cm (the cante has an enormous dynamic range: from whisper to shout); live, dynamic (SM58) for the monitor return.
• EQ: high-pass at 80–100 Hz; −2/−3 dB at 250–400 Hz if the raspy voice becomes muddy; presence +2 dB at 3–4 kHz; watch for harshness at 2–3 kHz on shouted high notes (−1/−3 dB dynamic with a dynamic EQ or a wideband de-esser).
• Compression: opto 3:1, attack 10–20 ms, release 100–200 ms, 3–6 dB; in traditional material less (2:1, 2–3 dB) to preserve the quejío.
• Space: room/tablao 0.8–1.2 s, pre-delay 20–30 ms; in modern material plate 1.5–2 s and light tempo-synced delay.
• No pitch correction in traditional flamenco (the microtones are style); in urban flamenco, Auto-Tune only as a deliberate creative effect.

Flamenco guitar

• Miking: two condensers, one at the 12th–14th fret at 20–30 cm (picado definition), one toward the soundboard under the bridge or in the room (body and rasgueado); or an XY/ORTF stereo pair at 40–60 cm.
• EQ: high-pass at 70–80 Hz; −2/−3 dB at 180–250 Hz (body boominess); +1/+2 dB at 3–5 kHz for the attack; watch for golpes and rasgueados, which can exceed the rest by 10–15 dB: fast limiter or soft clipper for the peaks only.
• Compression: 2–3:1, attack 15–30 ms (to leave the fingernail attack), release 100–150 ms, 2–4 dB.
• Space: short room 0.8–1 s; on solo guitar records, soft hall 1.6–2 s.
• Panning: main guitar at center or slightly off to one side (L/R 10–20) if there is a voice; second guitar on the opposite side (L/R 40–60).

Cajón

• Mic for the bass (inside the rear port or in front at 10–15 cm: a dynamic like a Beta 91/52 or a condenser) and one for the slap in front at 20–30 cm.
• EQ: bass 70–100 Hz (+2/+3 dB), −3 dB at 300–500 Hz (cardboard), slap +2 dB at 3–5 kHz; high-pass at 40 Hz.
• Compression: 4:1, attack 10–20 ms, release 80–120 ms, 3–5 dB.
• Panning: center or slightly off to one side (L/R 10–20).

Palmas and jaleo

• Stereo pair at 1–2 m (palmeros arranged in a semicircle), or two separate mics for palmas a tiempo and a contratiempo panned L/R 40–60.
• EQ: high-pass at 200–300 Hz, −2 dB at 1–2 kHz if they “slap,” no boosting of the highs (they are already bright).
• Compression: light or none; room reverb to make the party feel real.
• Jaleo (shouts): ambient mics, wide panning, low level.

Zapateado

Condenser mics aimed at the wooden stage at 50–100 cm or contact mics under the boards; EQ: high-pass at 80 Hz, +2 dB at 2–5 kHz for the heel attack; compression 3:1.

Bass and nuevo flamenco instruments

• Fretless bass: DI + mic on the amp; high-pass at 35 Hz, −2 dB at 250 Hz, compression 3:1.
• Flute, sax: mic at 30–50 cm; plate 1.5 s.

Urban flamenco (Rosalía, C. Tangana)

• Very close, intimate voice (compression 4:1 + opto, 8–10 dB total), wide reverbs and delays, sampled and real palmas layered, 808 on the tonic and on the Andalusian cadence (sidechain from the kick 3–5 dB), sampled and processed guitars.

Buses and groups

Voice, guitars, percussion (cajón + palmas + zapateado), choir/jaleo, other instruments; a shared “tablao” reverb and a plate for the voice.

Sidechain

Only in electronic flamenco (kick → 808/bass); not in the traditional style.

Master

• Traditional and solo guitar: −16/−12 LUFS integrated, true peak −1 dBTP, LRA 6–12 LU; the guitar has strong transients: limiter with short release and long lookahead, no more than 1–2 dB of reduction.
• Urban/pop flamenco: −10/−8 LUFS integrated, true peak −1 dBTP.

Common mistakes

• Over-compressing the guitar (the attack of the picado and rasgueado is lost).
• Sampled, quantized palmas in an acoustic context.
• Cajón with too much bass clashing with the guitar and bass.
• Pitch correction on the cante.
• Long cathedral reverb (flamenco lives in small spaces).

Reference tracks for the mix

• Paco de Lucía — Entre dos aguas (1973) and Almoraima (album, 1976).
• Camarón de la Isla — La leyenda del tiempo (1979).
• Vicente Amigo — Ciudad de las ideas (album, 2000).
• Enrique Morente and Lagartija Nick — Omega (1996).
• Rosalía — Malamente (2018).

Reference listening

• La Niña de los Peines — Bulerías (registrazioni anni '10–'20)
• Manolo Caracol — Soleares (anni '50)
• Paco de Lucía — Entre dos aguas (1973)
• Paco de Lucía — Almoraima (1976)
• Camarón de la Isla — La leyenda del tiempo (1979)
• Paco de Lucía, Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin — Mediterranean Sundance / Río Ancho (Friday Night in San Francisco, 1981)
• Pata Negra — Blues de la frontera (1987)
• Enrique Morente e Lagartija Nick — Omega (1996)
• Vicente Amigo — Ciudad de las ideas (2000)
• Estrella Morente — Mi cante y un poema (2001)
• Rosalía — Malamente (2018)
• Rosalía — Pienso en tu mirá (2018)