Play Solo Flamenco Guitar with Juan Martín, Vol. 2

Beautiful for listening. If you were on a road trip and this is the only cd you had you wouldn't get bored. Takes all the simple tunes in book one and uses parts of them in every solo. If you hear something you like and want to learn, you'll already be there if you started with book one and worked your way here. So the whole complete set, book one and two start with the very basics and then each progressive grade layers on another technique or approach to what down below is just a simple song with a melody or just a rhythm to dance to. If you've ever listened to a great guitarist and wish he would just do a simpler version to help you understand, that's what these books do. You may have to give up improvising while you work your way through these books, but you'll come out the other side much improved.

They are really impressive compositions and the standard music notation includes position markings. So you don't have to look at the tab if you don't want to.The CD has almost all the compositions on it (there are two or three not included). And, they are presented in order of ascending difficulty: grades 6 through to 8. That might not mean anything to you. So, grade 6 is the beginning of the professional performance pieces and grade 8 is getting right up there. There are two grades above grade 8. And once you reach them you can play everything. Grade 6 to 7 is what is usually required to get into the better university music programs. So these pieces are hard.You might want to try the other book first if you are not a good player. This is his second book of solo flamenco guitar tunes.

I have spent a lot of time with this book, learningto play most of the pieces. I learned a lot fromit and my relationship with the material hasprogressed from enthusiastic to ambivalent -I have played it so much I am sick of what itsounds like.A superb bargain and quite technically challengingfor an intermediate to advancing guitarist.These days you can find free falseta collectionson the net. A collection I paid $80 for over a decadeago is now given freely by its author. Still, thepieces in this book mix falsetas with compassequences in such a way that a decent vocabularycan be built. It has a lot of different forms in itso it can't be considered a thorough treatmentof falseta ideas for any of the forms.

I'd already purchased Juan Martin's Flamenco tutor volume 1, and was thoroughly delighted by it : it is well-graded, with a logical progression, the music is great and Juan's smiling explanations and remarks are crystal-clear. I could not wish for a better introduction to playing flamenco guitar, and I have recommended it to all my classical guitar students.The second volume is a logical continuation of the first. I've yet to get to work at it, but after scanning through it rapidly, I am convinced it will yield hours of enjoyment (and hard work) to enthusiastic players. And as always, Juan's sensitive and brillant playing really wants you to get at it !Alan Bennett

The back cover of the book was torn when I received it. Otherwise, everything was good

Super explanation.

As always, Juan Martin's instructional book and DVD/CD is exactly what I would recommend to anybody interested in learning flamenco guitar. Like the first book, this second book is taught in a "graded" manner and as you progress through the book you advance to the next level--however, nothing is written in stone and you can skip around and advance at your own pace. A great series and I love the instructional DVD!

Finally, a book devoted to playing solo flamenco. Most sheet music requires two guitars, this book is devoted to playing solo. The book is very easy to use and starts out with simple, playable songs and works it's way to more complicated songs. The dvd shows the techniques necessary to play the music.

I bought both Vol 1 & 2 a long time ago. It took me quite some time before I started working through volume 2. On an initial listen through of all the tracks, the best I could describe the overall melody content was "ok". There were very few pieces that grabbed my attention and enticed me to play them. I have been trying to work out why this book + CD + DVD package leaves me so uninspired.So here is why:CD sound: the first problem is the quality of the recording. There is no improvement to the patchy and at times, poor recording quality first produced in volume 1. I don't know if they used the sound recorded from the video microphones and simply transferred that to the CD recordings or whether the sound engineer was just not competent. But at times the recordings have far too much reverb (probably a poor choice of studio), erratically different volume levels for different tracks and some where it sounds like the microphone has been placed too far from the instrument. Some recordings sound like the microphone was placed at the end of a long drainpipe and the guitar at the other (listen to the Garrotin compared to the relatively better Solea that follows). There has been no compensation or adjustment made for the different instruments played either.DVD Video: The bizarre and erratic lighting and editing continues from volume 1. Whilst it does not look quite like it was filmed on a cheap camcorder used in Guitarra Flamenca, and it was too early for HD, there is no excuse for poor lighting and stupidly erratic editing that changes the view just when you need to see how some difficult passages are played. Again, poor sound recording suggesting the use of cheap and poorly positioned microphone(s).Book: This is my greatest concern. The pieces continue to "graded" in a contrived way. By this I mean that I can't help feeling that certain tricky elements have been included deliberately to then justify their "grade". But the video suggests that even Juan Martin himself is not that comfortable with them which begs a question whether some of these are actually "real world" and would ever actually be played - not from the many other players I have heard or from Juan Martin himself when performing live. There are lots of examples in the pieces where these elements appear to have been thrown in but then sound musically incoherent. Bars 61-68 of the grade 7 Solea was an attempt to throw in some "modern" chords according to Martin. The result is a stumbling discordant mess with these bars standing out as atrocious and not fitting the more traditional overall sound of the piece. In bars 70-71, what should be a dramatic ascending scale crescendo is another stumbling mess that I have also had to re-write. The Milonga is one of the few outstanding melodic pieces only marred by bars 83-98 which, whilst not as bad as the musical carbuncle in the Solea, still stands out as a clumsy attempt to make it sound "modern". In the only Tangos in the book, the first 15 bars are another clumsy attempt to make it sound modern - and failing. The Tangos proper starts at bar 16. But the Tangos offered here is so pedestrian with little of melodic interest and nothing to inspire. This can be said of many of the pieces. It is this deep disappointment that has led me to look elsewhere for pieces with musical interest. The results of that search have been startling and made me realise that a lot of the content of this book is just exercises to prove a point: "graded difficulty" which does actually exist anywhere in the Flamenco world anyway, remembering that it is a folk art and not formal music.I have great respect for Juan Martin's efforts - he has probably done more than most to get flamenco guitar learning material out there. However looking at the content of many of these pieces here and in his other books (his first book being the exception), it has become clear to me that a/ he is most comfortable as an accompanist (see his live performances for that) and many of these pieces feel like accompaniments at times b/ in conjunction with this, he has a strong preference for rhythm and an almost disproportionate predilection for variant rasgueo patterns instead of melodic picking (compared with other players). I have wondered whether he feels musically insecure compared to his peers and being known (perhaps unfairly) as not being as musically as adept or articulate, so he uses rasgueado as his speciality to compensate? If you look at his earlier Guitarra Flamenca video, some of this insecurity creeps out when he cannot help revealing his need to impress you with (for example) his ability to spontaneously improvise or the explanations of the deep impenetrable mysticism of his art. They were almost comically embarrassing. Again, in both of these volumes, he has lots of pictures in an attempt to impress you with his musical provenance and pedigree. I have just not seen it done to this extent in other player's books. Insecurity? Overall, 3 stars - as several pieces I won't bother to learn because there are more interesting and melodic examples elsewhere.

An excellent follow-up to volume one.The grading system continues, though I think it gets a little more relaxed, it is possible to browse amongst the different grades more than you could with volume one, and there are some lovely pieces to play. I'm still way off from being able to play those brutal slides in some of the Sevillanas though !I would say that these two books on their own don't teach you everything you need to know in order to play though - they don't really teach you compás which is absolutely essential (case in point, you're not going to learn bulerias from these books alone, mine was little more than random strumming) and they are lacking in detailed description of techniques so it is easy to pick up bad habits. However, Juan's old book, 'El arte flamenco de la guitarra' is the absolute bible of flamenco books, and together these three books will give you an excellent study course. Try and track down that book if at all possible, even though I think it is out of print. (I'm not convinced by his 'La Guitarra Flamenca' though)

excellent , detailed instructions into performing the excellent repertoire contained therein. I have this as a followup to the first volume which is also brilliant and really broadened my spectrum of playing. Highly reccomended

Really great flamenco tutorial book. Guides the user through the pieces which build up in complexity. Maybe not a book for complete beginners. CD is helpful.

Play Solo Flamenco Guitar with Juan Martin: Volume 2 . As with Volume 1 absolutly excellent. Want to play Flemenco then buy this.