John Fillmore's Soleares Flamenco Guidebook

Essential Techniques & Approaches for Solo Flamenco Guitar

Flamenco celebrates the folklore and music traditions of Southern Spain and while the style embraces singing (cante), dance (baile), vocalizations (jaleo), and hand clapping (palmas) — it's the guitar playing (toque) that seems to grab everybody’s attention!

Bulerias, Tientos, and Tangos are just a few of the many styles of Flamenco music but Soleares is considered by many to be the “mother of all flamenco forms” because so many of the other important forms were derived from it.

John Fillmore’s Soleares Flamenco Guidebook is much more than just an introduction to the form; it's a fast track to developing some of the most essential techniques, which you can and should incorporate into your playing whatever your preferred styles happens to be.

”Flamenco, with its sometimes spectacular techniques and emotional content, has had a huge influence on guitar players of all styles worldwide.
Contrary to popular belief, you really don’t need to possess flashy techniques to play Flamenco guitar and here, in this Guidebook, I’ll show you how to build a traditional Soleares Flamenco solo piece, using some basic techniques along with some of the more intricate ones.”

John studied in Spain at the Centro Flamenco in Cordoba and then at the Rotterdam conservatoire with Paco Peña for six years, becoming the first graduate teacher and performer of Flamenco guitar. He has performed all over the world with notable Flamenco companies, duos, trios, and as a soloist at concerts and international guitar, jazz and world-music festivals.

John has five 5 albums to his credit, all of which have received critical acclaim in the international press. We’re very proud to welcome John to the family with his first TrueFire course, the Soleares Flamenco Guidebook.

John’s unique curricular approach has you constructing a complete solo guitar piece of Soleares using both original and traditional variations. As you work through the piece, you’ll learn key techniques including Pulgar, Arpegio, Rasgueado, Golpe, Picado and Tremolo; all of which can also enrich your country, bluegrass and fingerstyle playing.

You’ll also be studying different elements of the Soleares: the Llamada, the Falsetas, the Escobillas, Compas, Cierre and Remate.

LLamada - "The LLamada is an important part of all danced Flamenco Palos. This is the moment where the accentuated beats of the Compas are demonstrated. The dancer signals to the guitarist that a particular part of the dance has finished or that a new part is about to start. In Soleares we can accompany this in several ways.”

Falsetas - "When accompanying singers, it is common practice to play short compositions in between the verses (Letras) of the singer. This gives the singer time to rest and hopefully for us, to inspire him to even greater singing!”
Escobillas - "This is a really important part of the Solea and indeed in all styles of Flamenco dance. As in all danced Flamenco styles, footwork is an essential part of the dance and is accompanied in particular ways according to each Baile.”

Compas - "In playing solo Flamenco guitar music, we draw from the other elements in Flamenco, the Baile, dance, and the Cante, singing. When accompanying dance the important thing is to play the rhythm, marking out the 5 accents in the Compas, 3 6 8 10 12.”

Cierra - "To finish our Solea we are going to play the traditional Andalusian chord progression of Am - G - F - E, adding a flat 9th, to make it sound more Flamenco. We are going to use the double Rasgueado and Golpe.”

Remate - "This is the very end of a falseta, rhythmical variation etc. It is the "summing up" and finishing off of a variation.”

All of the Performance Studies are tabbed and notated for your practice, reference and study purposes. You’ll also get Guitar Pro files so that you can play, loop and/or slow down the tab and notation as you work through the lessons.

Grab your guitar and let’s get a grip on Soleares Flamenco with John Fillmore. Vamosnos!