Flamenco Palos/Styles

You are learning flamenco (guitar, dance, singing …), right? And you come across a huge variety of different styles and maybe somehow you feel lost, because you don’t understand the basic rhythm and for the advanced learners everything seems to be so obvious …

Of course, you will find lots of content about flamenco theory in the www. Hundreds of YouTube Tutorials and so on … but maybe, you want to be more intentional. In short terms: You want to focus on the main aspects and move on quickly. Great! Here we go:

„BIG FIVE“

At the moment, these are the five most frequent styles in dance classes, music releases and concerts:

TANGOS

  • 4-beat ryhthm:  1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + (underlined= foot/main accents, bold = palmas)
  • Usually accentuated on 2 and 4, tempo 110 – 150 bpm (medium)
  • Mostly phrygian melodies but also tunes in major/minor/mixed tonality
  • Typical chords „por medio“ (phrygian chords around A, B …) and „por arriba“ (phrygian around E, F …)
  • Used in choreographies usually at the end of slow 4-beat palos like „Taranto“ or „Tientos“
  • Existing lots of different types of Tangos („de Triana“, „de Granada“, „de la Repompa“ …), musically it is definitely one of the most diverse styles.

SOLEÁ

  • 12-beat rhythm: 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12 + (3+3+2+2+2)
  • Tempo 70 – 100 bpm (slow)
  • Considered as the „queen“ and one of the most ancient palos, great variety of mostly phrygian melodies („de Triana“, „de los Puertos“, „apolá“ …)
  • The verses usually consist of 4 or 3 („corta“) lines
  • Typical chords por arriba
  • In choreographies, it is very common to end up in Bulería.

BULERÍA

  • double time 3-beat rhythm: 1 + 2 + 3 +  (often stressed on 1+ and 2+) sometimes set as a 12-beat rhythm like the „Soleá“. Both ways of understanding might help sometimes: 12-beat counting for analytic view vs. 3-beat feeling for making music/dancing without thinking too much
  • Tempo 180 – 240 bpm (fast)
  • Most popular style among aficionados and a lot of flamencos
  • Countless different verses and styles
  • Often used as well as a rhythmical base for „canciones“, „cuplés“ (songs)
  • Most typical guitar sound is por medio, but there are numerous ways of playing por Bulería nowadays.
  • In choreographies usually the final of slower 12-beat palos like Soleá, Alegría, Guajira, Petenera, Soleá por Bulería …
  • Almost every concert or juerga (session) ends with a fin de fiesta por Bulería, which means having fun together, so you might see even guitarists and singers dancing or at least trying to do so

FANDANGO

  • 3-beat rhythm,  4 3-beat sections. 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3
  • Tempo 130 – 150 (medium)
  • Being a link between spanish folk music and flamenco and being mentioned in many occasions  as THE spanish expression of music, the „Fandango“ is perhaps the most famous palo in the world
  • The family of Fandangos is divided in „Fandangos de Huelva“, „Fandangos personales“ and other groups as for example „Fandangos mineros“, „Fandangos abandolaos“ …
  • The accompaniment of the guitar depends on the respective style of Fandango
  • Usually the melodies start in phrygian, pass to major/minor and turn back to phrygian at the end of the verse
  • In most cases the verses/lyrics consist of 4 or 5 lines with 6 melodic phrases/lines repeating 1 or 2 lines of the lyrics

ALEGRÍA/CANTIÑAS

  • 12-beat rhythm: 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12 + (3+3+2+2+2)
  • Tempo 120 – 160 bpm
  • Melody and Chords usually in major
  • The Alegría is the most popular style of the „Cantiñas“-family, which includes a great variety of similar palos like „Romera“ or „Mirabrás“
  • Singers often like to be accompanied in C-major. Choreographies: E-major
  • A lot of very typical elements like the „Tirititran“ of the singer, the folk like melody in the „Escobilla“ (foot part of the dancer), the „Silencio-Falseta“ (a typical part of the guitar in minor chords in the middle of a choreography structure
  • Ends up with „Bulería de Cádiz“
  • The verse is mostly structured by this order of lyric lines: babcdcd often followed by a „Coletilla“ Verse with abcd or abcdddab

 

„SECOND FIVE“

 

SOLEÁ POR BULERÍA

  • 12-beat rhythm: 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 + 12 + (3+3+2+2+2)
  • Velocity 120 – 160 pm
  • Comparing „Alegrías/Cantiñas“ and „Soleá por Bulería“ you will notice that rhythm and velocity are the same. Being melodically and harmonically totally different, the basic rhythm is the same.
  • The term „Soleá por Bulería“ brings up a lot of misunderstandings. Singing „por Bulería“ or „por Soleá“ means ’singing in the way and velocity of this particular style‘. To make it short, this is neither a „Bulería“ nor is it a „Soleá“ – it is a style that originates from singing „Bulería“ verses in the style of „Soleá“ but transformed into something melodically new and independent from both styles. We just forgot to give the new born „palo“ a specific name – it’s like saying the baby is called ‚Daughter of Jane and Bob‘ – not very helpful in terms of simplicity. In addition, there are often used „Soleá“ verses in „Soleá por Bulería“ as well, which makes it even more complicated to distinguish one from the other. Nevertheless the characteristics of this style are more similar to the Soleá.
  • Traditionally accompanied preferably ‚por medio‘ to get the most authentic „Soleá por Bulería“ feeling, it can be of course also be played ‚por arriba‘ according to the singer’s register or the guitarist’s taste
  • This style often ends with a few verses of „Bulería“

FARRUCA

  • Slow 4-beat rhythm
  • Tempo at 50 – 70 bpm, nevertheless it can be much faster during choreographies, some parts are often played in double-speed to give it contrast and emotional impact
  • Melody and chords in minor with slight changes to the major mode in some parts of the traditional melody
  • Coming from the north of Spain, it is not part of a larger „palo-family“ and stands for itself
  • Having a somehow straight and severe character, it used to be one of the typical „palos“ of the male dancers. Although today, of course, it is performed both by women and men.
  • The style does not provide great variety of lyrics and traditional melodies
  • Most singers prefer the traditional „Tran, tran, treiro“ to warm up their voice, check tonality and prepare the mood of the „Farruca“
  • Guitarists often choose A-Minor as the tonality to accompany this style
  • It is often ended by increasing speed and high intensity of all musicians and the dancer

TIENTOS

  • Slow 4-beat rhythm
  • There are two common variations of rhythm: A straight, slow one, and a triplet-like rhythm, usually a bit faster – this one is considered to be more „traditional/authentic“.
  • The melodic/harmonic structure in many cases of letras is very similar to the typical Tangos letras. Mostly phrygian mode with occasional changes to the respective major mode

Ok. Let’s consider this a „work in progress“. The description is going to be continued very soon:

SIGUIRIYA

TARANTOS

 

„ALSO IMPORTANT“

In this „chapter“ you will find some more palos which are still very important but less common as the ones above.

GUAJIRA

COLOMBIANA

JALEOS EXTREMEÑOS

SEVILLANAS

RUMBA

TANGUILLO

PETENERA

CAÑA/POLO

GARROTÍN

MALAGUEÑA, GRANAINA, MEDIA GRANAINA

 

„RARE“

You may listen to dozens of albums and concerts without coming across these – also very beautiful – styles:

MARIANA

ZAMBRA

MILONGA

VIDALITA

BAMBERA

TONÁ

MARTINETE, CARCELERA

SERRANA, LIVIANA, DEBLA, CABALES …

 

„THE INVISIBLE ONES“

LEVANTICA, MURCIANA, CARTAGENERA, MINERA, TARANTA …

ROMERA, MIRABRAS, CARACOLES, ALEGRÍA DE CÓRDOBA, CANTIÑAS DE PININI etc.

RONDEÑA

VERDIALES, JABERA

GILIANA, CHUFLA

ALBOREÁ

ROMANCE

SAETA

VILLANCICO

NANA

ZÁNGANO

ZORONGO

FANDANGOS DE XXX

JABEGOTE

ROSAS

PREGÓN