"Sólo Compás en Vivo. Volume II"
Desde Morón de la Frontera. Tangos, Soleares y Alegrías

Ref.: FV-002-98

In any Flamenco Fiesta it is the hand-clapping and cheering that is the basis of the performance or get-together. This is the most fun and at the same time the most difficult to perform.

The Fiestas are often spontaneous and may be performed standing, sitting, whenever or wherever the moment dictates.

These days not everyone knows how to mark time well when it comes to song or dance, it might be that in any get-together with a number of people that there are only one or two who know how to carry the rhythm and mark time correctly.

It is extremely difficult to sing or dance without the aid of the guitar but it can also be much more entertaining for the performers. For example the singers don't have the restriction of having to sing in the key dictated by the guitar, making it possible to enter in song one after the other, each in their own preferred key. However, as a many of the singers and dancers are accustomed to being guided by the guitar, giving them cues to enter and cues out again, then this sort of performance without guitar becomes all the more difficult.

Really the performers should not be guided by the guitar but by the rhythms.

This is the main difference, in fact the most important factor that differentiates Flamenco from other musical genres. "The rhythm is actually more important than the melody". This is why you have here the Fiesta recorded with only hand-clapping in a variety of Flamenco forms: Pure and true to the tradition of the Fiesta.