SotA Anthology 2015-16 | Page 19

MUSI242 song (as heard in the intro and after the first two choruses) was difficult to transpose into 12/8. I addressed this issue by adding a short, four-beat long phrase to the end of the riff. It also uses the raised sixth note of the scale, alluding to the dorian nature of the solo. I made sure that the tempo was as fast as possible, as it is one of the main features of flamenco music. the start and end of the melodic phrases were suspensions on the beat, or notes belonging to the tonic chord but off the beat. The majority of the song is based around the A harmonic minor scale, whereas the original song alternates between A major and mixolydian. As most flamenco music is minor in tonality (or modal in a similar fashion), I altered the chord structure accordingly. The chorus chord structure is also altered greatly. I took inspiration from the tradition of modulation in flamenco often pieces change the mode or scale they are using. My tonality modulates to the subdominant of D minor, using the raised third of A minor. The chorus chord structure also implies another modulation to the subdominant, beginning with a transition from Dm-D7-Gm. However, it resolves the phrase on A7, clearly bringing the chorus back to D minor. On the repeat of the chorus, the phrase ends with Bb-E7, clearly signifying a modulation back to A minor for the verse. I attempted to use typical instrumentation. Flamenco as a genre tends not to use a wide variety of instruments, with percussion normally being provided by clapping, and instrumentation never straying too far from a group of Spanish/classical guitars. Unfortunately, as I was unable to acquire one of these I had to use a steel-stringed acoustic guitar. I attempted to use EQ in Logic to bring out the warmer tones to fix this problem, as nylon-stringed guitars sound wider and less bright than my acoustic guitar. The clapping was also sequenced in Logic using one of the percussion presets. I used two different tracks to do the two separate palmas, to make sure that the parts sounded clearly separate. I also changed the velocity of the clapping parts to make them sound as human as possible. I then opted to use the dorian mode for the bridge, a common mode used in flamenco music. I cut back the presence of the rhythm guitar in the bridge, changing the playing style to finger picking rather than full chords. The tonality is also fixed around the tonic note of A, with variations upon the chord belonging to the dorian mode. I replaced the bridge of the song with a variation on the verses, to have an instrumental song, as is common in flamenco songs; many focus entirely on the instrumental virtuosity of the performers, so I considered it important to have a section in which the main guitar part was the focus of the music. I was limited at this point, however, by my lack of training in the flamenco guitar style. I was able to make up for this by using the relevant modes and stylistic features to make my playing sound as close to the style as possible. I decided to do the solo improvised as well, in keeping with the tradition of flamenco guitar style - this worked well overall, aside from some occasional chromatic mistakes. I attempted to take inspiration from flamenco guitarists such as Rodrigo y Gabriela and Paco de Lucia, which inspired me to use a variety of upwards and downwards scalic passages, and ornamentations such as trills and mordents. I also found that often I found the vocal technique quite difficult to emulate, especially seeing as I was somewhat ill at the time of recording. However, I noted that the most important stylistic features were similar to the guitar’s. This meant during scalic phrases I would endeavour to use mordents and turns. I also attempted to use vibrato on longer notes. My main sources of inspiration for the vocal style was the Gypsy Kings, whom I have listened to from a young age, so I am familiar with the vocal qualities of flamenco singing. I think the vocals would have worked better in Spanish, which I endeavoured to do. However, as a nonSpanish speaker, I found it difficult to figure out where to place the syllables and also how to accurately pronounce some words. 19