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I have a tendency to include references, appositions, and other errata in my text as I write. As I realize that not everyone cares for such digressions, however, I generally "hide" them in scripts. To access this "additional information," just click on the boldfaced text. To expand all errata at once (brave soul!), click here.

 

 

 

Free Flamenco Tab and the Internet

24 September 2008

I’m occasionally asked about where a person might go to find free flamenco tab on the internet. While I of course hope that you find the tabs I have posted here at Ravenna Flamenco useful, I’m also well aware of the fact that this collection is—for the moment at least—still in its infant stages and will hardly provide the kind of breadth many flamenco internauts are after.

So, in the interest of spreading the word on free internet flamenco resources, here is a rundown of some of what I have been able to find on the web in the years that I’ve been searching (which are quite a few). As I come across new (or previously missed) resources, I may update this article. The criteria I’ve used to determine what I list here is simple; sources must:

  1. Concern primarily flamenco,
  2. Be content rich (i.e. link to more than one or two isolated tabs), and
  3. Be free and easily accessible (i.e. not make people join a club or mailing list.)

Before going on to the specifics of which sites I’ve found that best fit these criteria (which section you should feel free to skip to—it’s under the heading “Internet Resources”), it may save you a great deal of eventual frustration to review the following ”basic state of tab and the internet,“ which is summed up in the “Format” and “Content” headings below.


Format
There are five common tab formats to be found among the free offerings out there. Each has its pros and cons. Here they are (in no particular order):

 


Content
So much for “form.” Now you know what to expect as you search for music. No matter how (or with which application) a tab is transcribed, however, a particular piece can only be as accurate as its author. Here we come upon the question of content. Individuals create and post tabs for all sorts of reasons. I can’t begin to guess what even a fraction of these reasons might be. I can infer, however, that some of these reasons lead a tab author to precision and fidelity to the source recording, while others lead the tab author to extreme flights of fancy, error, and outright omission. In short: just because a thing is written down, don’t believe that this means it’s necessarily accurate.

To make matters worse, because of the nature of how tabs are circulated on the internet (i.e. with abandon), errors tend to attach themselves to a given tab—sometimes even when it has been worked over or "polished" in a new post. From what I've seen, the most extensive collections of flamenco tab on the internet are just that: collections. There’s no curator; there's no quality control. In general, a free tab collection is perceived as more "impressive" the more tabs it contains and the more various its artists and palos are. In order to build these libraries, compilers very often simply recycle what is already out there. The upshot of this is that accuracy often takes a back seat (or is left behind altogether). Either way, once an error has been made there is little motivation to correct it. As Sal Bonavita (of “Sal’s Flamenco Soapbox”) puts it: it’s “a matter of you get what you pay for. In this case, you paid nothing.”

I say this not to denigrate the substantial body of tab available on the internet. Much of it is very useful—or is at the very least a great starting point. If you read or hear something that just doesn’t sound right to you, however, it might very well be because it isn’t "right." Use free tabs as a starting place and as a tool, but don't ignore your ear if it tells you something is out of whack.


Internet Resources
In spite of all of its iffiness (see above), the internet is still a great place to learn about and explore flamenco and to expand on one’s repertoire. As with individual tabs, however, not all sources are created equal. Though I don’t in any way wish to present the following collection as in any way definitive, here is a list of the sites of which I have found useful in my search for free flamenco tabs (again, in no particular order):

A note, and one which will certainly not come as a surprise: as much as I enjoy scouring the internet for transcriptions, I also have a healthy collection of professionally produced sheet music for which I’ve paid hard currency. Free is good, of course, but it only gets you to a certain point. Professional sheet music, too, however—particularly as regards flamenco—also only takes you so far. Once you’ve begun to acquire the flamenco idiom, whether via written tab and standard notation or with a teacher, you may well find that your ear is the best final judge of how a thing should sound and how it should be played.


And . . . Ravenna Flamenco
Here is the section where I unabashedly plug what’s going on at Ravenna Flamenco. You’re quite right to ask, “Andy, with all this tab out there already, why on earth are you transcribing stuff yourself?” Well, as I’ve already covered (perhaps ad nauseam), I’m not entirely satisfied with what is out there. Sometimes I think it could be better. And better is what I’m trying to make it. The tabs that I post here have been transcribed, checked over, and played by yours truly. If you see something that looks amiss, I want to hear about it.

The Ravenna Flamenco “philosophy” is that tab is one of several tools that a guitarist has at his or her disposal in order to advance his or her pursuit of the art form. As a guitarist learns the idiom of flamenco, how it moves and breathes, tab becomes less and less important. But, just like learning any other language, the more you read and speak (or play) of flamenco, the more at ease you will be with its intricacies. In this sense, tab is an invaluable tool: it spells out in detail the steps that you will eventually breeze through without a second thought.

It is furthermore with the goal of “the flamenco idiom” in mind that I omit the MIDI renderings of the tabs included here. Look to the videos—or better yet, look to the maestros’ recordings and videos of the songs these tabs represent. This is where the numbers and lines will come together and make sense not simply as a string of notes but as music—which is, I hope, what brings you here to begin with.

 

 

 

 

 

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