If you decide to teach yourself flamenco as you try to learn how to play acoustic guitar, then be aware that you’re choosing one of the most difficult forms of guitar playing to learn without an actual instructor. The various music styles will differ in how easy or hard they are to self-teach, with folk music being relatively easy and classical and flamenco styles being much more complex. Learning guitar in a flamenco style will be a whole different kettle of fish.

Learning how to play a flamenco guitar will feel different from most other guitars. For example, you’ll notice you get a different type of sound from the instrument. These guitars are made from a kind of wood that doesn’t allow musical notes to sustain for long. This is because the style involves consecutive flurries of notes that would create an unbearable cacophony if they all held. Each guitar string is closer to the fret board than on a standard guitar, which can sometimes create a buzz in the sound. And the staccato taps on the guitar itself are as much a part of the music as the notes played.

Your best bet in trying to teach yourself how to play acoustic guitar in flamenco style will be a combination of books and videos. You can’t learn from books alone, because this musical style is complex enough that you’ll have to see it demonstrated as you go. So if, for example, you’re going through the acoustic guitar lessons of one of Mel Bay Publications’ “Teach Yourself Flamenco” books, you could watch the “How to Play the Flamenco Guitar” videos from expertvillage on YouTube. These are short and not sufficient as lessons in themselves, but can demonstrate the techniques you’re trying to learn from your book.

A website you might want to check out is www.graf-martinez.com. Gerhard Graf-Martinez is a proficient flamenco guitarist who has created a whole course of study combining books, CDs and DVDs. Available in two volumes, these packages contain ninety-one flamenco acoustic lessons in total, starting with posture, working up through the flamenco-specific tremolo, picado and other picking and strumming styles, and ending with the history of flamenco music itself.

You can learn how to play acoustic guitar in a flamenco style, even without an instructor physically in the room. You just need to have a realistic understanding of the difficulty. Even with all the books, videos and CDs, you might still learn to play much better if you work one-on-one with a trained teacher. But if you’re not aiming for the most professional levels of expertise, you can likely use all those resources and still become quite good at this most complicated of guitar styles.

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Filed under: Acoustic Guitar

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