Gipsy Guitar: Rumbas Flamencas ... Rumba Styles of the Flamenco Guitar

I've wanted to learn to play rumba style guitar for a while and I was glad when I got my hands on this book, plus the dvd.All i can say is I love this book.

OVERVIEWThe popularity that's been attained by the rumba flamenca, even among people who know nothing of Flamenco and care less, is nothing short of phenomenal (indeed, to judge by the live music presented around San José's up-scale restaurant area, Santana Row, some people make a living playing nothing else). Perhaps this should not be so surprising: the rumba is far more easily intelligible than the deeper forms of Flamenco, it's fast, and it's exciting. To be able to play a rumba well, then, will get you invited to far more parties than the ability to play a seguiriya.Gipsy Guitar is an addendum to the author's two-volume  Flamenco Guitar Method , and is devoted entirely to further material on the rumba flamenca. It consists of a book, two CDs, and a CD-ROM.PRESENTATIONThe CDs are bound with the book, in paper sleeves; and the CD-ROM comes in a separate DVD case. The book is not spiral-bound, but is relatively slim and opens flat fairly easily. The printing and photographs are both very clear. The book (with its two CDs) and the CD-ROM are available  together  or as separate products. The CD-ROM has the same content as the book.CONTENTThe text of the book is in German and (good) English throughout. After the standard Preface and About the Author, we have a section on terminology, with the parts of the guitar and the fingers of the hands clearly labelled (in this case, in Spanish as well). This is followed by a brief history of the rumba.The musical material, which (quite reasonably) assumes absorption of the material in the previous volumes, or at least of flamenco guitar technique generally, consists of five different rumbas, each of which is written out in its entirety in staff notation and cifra. Second guitar parts are also given, sometimes as chord symbols (and associated fretboard diagrams) with rhythms, and sometimes written out like the first guitar part. Each piece is prefaced by a detailed explanation, with photographs, of the techniques it introduces. The fingering is thorough.CDsThe first CD consists of the five rumbas played at normal speed, and the second of exactly the same thing, but more slowly. Each rumba is presented with all instruments, then without the rhythm guitar, then without the solo guitar, making fifteen tracks in all. The two last-named versions have clear rhythmic lead-ins enabling you to play along with no trouble. The total times for the two CDs are 58'04" and 73'51" respectively.The pieces are idiomatic and quite attractive, and not technically demanding (although neither are they beginner's pieces — but this is not a beginner's book). In fact, if you program the five full-instrumentation, full-speed versions, they make decent listening music. The playing is solid, rhythmic, and professional.WEBSITEI availed myself of the author's invitation to visit his website. A trifle to my surprise, in view of the immaculate English and Spanish in his publications, I found it to be in German only. It was only by accident I found there was a separate English-language site.The details of his various publications were nicely laid out, with links to vendors in different countries, but I found navigation a bit of a problem, requiring frequent use of the Back button. Also, the site does not distinguish clearly between links and other graphics. There is, however, an extremely good demo of the video from the CD-ROM, so you can see exactly what you're getting.The website also details a work-around for a potential problem (which I didn't experience) wherein the sound-track is audible but the score is invisible. This is due to Flash being disabled by default; the Advanced tab on QuickTime Settings must be used to change this.SUMMARYGipsy Guitar is an extremely thorough job, confirming the impression made by the author's earlier opus. In fact, I find it hard to imagine a better one. I found the three (as I write) negative reviews on amazon.com totally incomprehensible. If you can master the material here, you should easily be able to go on to pieces such as "La Lola", (recorded on Paco Peña's second flamenco album, on CD as  Philips 826 904-2 ), photocopied transcriptions of which have been floating about for years.The only reservation I have is about the CD-ROM, which would be better as a DVD (as with the Method)*. Unless you're really, really stuck with the mechanics, though, I don't think the video's essential, although of course it would be nice to have.The book/CD combo can be recommended, then, even to Mac users; and the CD-ROM also (at least for now) to those on the Dark Side.*Update 2009: A  version with a DVD instead of a CD-ROM  is now apparently available.DISCLOSUREI received a free copy of this item for review.

Maybe I was expecting something unique. I thought this book was expensive and uninspired. It has a brief history of Flamenco for which is always helpful but, the examples are repetitive and not very "hip" melodically and there's not much variety. I would recommend Juan Martin's Solo Flamenco book volume 1. There are a wealth of ideas and some history behind some of the Soleas, Alegrias, Rumbas, Sevillanas etc. It also includes CD/DVD package for $20 here on Amazon, The Juan Martin is challenging, but if you want to learn this style it's going to be. You may want to skip this method

The product I am reviewing came with 2 cds (identical except tempo), and a DVD to watch on your TV (not a computer CD-ROM).For someone new to flamenco, but NOT new to guitar or fingerpicking, it is an ideal first step. You do need basic guitar skills first.The brilliance of this set as a learning product is that the songs are fairly straightfoward in terms of flamenco, while still being songs. Each song has both a lead part and rhythm part, both fully included in the music notation and tabs. The CDs are ideal for play-along, with each song presented in three versions: all together, no lead, no rhythm. Start with the slower tempo (80% speed), then move up to the full speed version as you progress.The real jewel though is the DVD. It is extremely interactive and very comprehensive. There are very good demos of the techniques including explanations. For each song you can watch a close up of either part played separately, at either of the two tempos, with the music or current chord also displayed on the screen (both chord name and diagram). Or you can watch the two guitars playing together. I have never see a music learning DVD that was so well made. And you can watch it on your TV.Now, the songs are not solos, nor are they concert pieces. Remember, they were written as learning material. But they would make great recital pieces for a duet.Also, this is specifically Rumba style. Something like Juan Martin's "solos" volume one has more styles, although in a very superficial treatment, and they are intended to be played solo, but they don't even scratch the surface of Rumba like this set does. I threw my Juan Martin book out after I got a good look at this one.

Love it

I don't understand why people are complaining about this bookPaul Magnussen made a nice comment on the book so I won't tell anything betterI just realize that some people are expecting a flamenco method with buleria, solea, tangos etc....But this is just a book on Rumbas and that's all !If you want to learn real flamenco, you can buy the two other books from Mr Graf-Martinez, the examples sound VERY GOOD and VERY SPANISH !This book is not for beginners but with patience you can learn a lotI like the examples who sound goodAnd 20$ for all this stuff that will keep you busy for monthes, that's not very expensive as some people argueThis is the price of one hour with a teacher !!!!!!Thanks you again Mr Graf-Martinez for this nice release

Obviously is a guitar music book so I used it to learn songs from. It is written in slandered notation and separately in tablature.

Bon livre pour s exercer à la rumba en solos ou en accompagnements avec 2 CD, un pour les versions rapides et un autre avec les versions lentes.

Ein absolutes Muss für jeden der mit Rumba Flamenca beginnen möchte. Natürlich wird eine gewisse Fingerfertigkeit, speziell der linken Hand , vorausgesetzt. Das mit der rechten Hand muss dann geübt werden. Ist alles super gut beschrieben und mit der CD kann man sich das alles schön anhören. Auch für die, die gerne nach dem Gehör spielen. Eben typisch Graf-Martinez.

Die Software ist zu alt, auf meinem Rechner wollte sie nicht laufen. Die Flamenco-Schule von Graf-Martinez finde ich sehr gut. Diese ist mir der hohe Preis nicht wert!