Learning Bulerías Palmas: Listening and Finding the Foundation
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Learning Palmas for Bulerías
This time, I learned about palmas, or rhythmic handclapping, for bulerías. We began with simple palmas while listening to the person in front of us. As I tried to listen to the other person's palmas, my own clapping naturally became quieter. This helped everyone's palmas come together into one pleasing sound. I would not have noticed this if I had focused only on my own clapping, so I was glad to experience that sense of unity.
Next, we did palmas while listening to music. I was having trouble recognizing the moment when the rhythm changed, so we practiced marking the rhythm on the table with a closed fist to understand the sound better. That made it easier to listen to the music and hear changes in the guitar. When I realized that those changes in the guitar were the cue for changing the rhythm, it felt as though one piece of a puzzle had clicked into place, and I enjoyed that feeling.
I also learned how to recognize what the guitar does before entering a falseta, a melodic guitar passage. We were shown two patterns. In one, the guitar cuts the sound short. The people around the guitarist then sense that 'the guitar is about to do something!' and anticipation begins to build. I really liked the comparison teacher Beni used to describe that feeling. When you are waiting for food in a restaurant, you can see it being brought over, so you think, 'Oh, here comes the food,' without much surprise. But when you are waiting for food in a hotel room, you cannot see it approaching and keep wondering when it will arrive. When the doorbell rings, you think, 'Ah, it's here!' and feel excited. He explained that it was that kind of anticipation.
The other pattern to listen for was when the melody kept going.
As it was explained to us in class, when the melody kept going, it left no opening for the cante, or flamenco singing, to enter. The comparison with someone standing in a doorway, preventing the person behind them from getting through even though they wanted to, was also very clear and helped me understand.
We were also taught how to do palmas during a falseta. Since each guitarist has their own falseta melodies, I could not expect to memorize them all in order to accompany them. But we were told that they share an underlying rhythm, so it is helpful to learn that foundation first. Some guitarists move away from it, but they can do so because they have internalized the basic rhythm in their bodies. We were told that the same applies to dancers: having that foundation allows them to play with the rhythm. This made me think that today's flamenco can also develop and change because it has that foundation. I want to keep the importance of learning it in mind. 'Having a foundation allows you to play with the rhythm' was the phrase that stayed with me most from this class.
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