Flamenco Improvisation Volume 3 - Modal Improvisation and Melodic Construction in the Flamenco Environment

The definitive, comprehensive explanation of both the harmonic and melodic aspects of flamenco! - FLAMENCO IMPROVISATION - Modal Improvisation and Melodic Construction in the Flamenco Environment by famed guitarist Enrique Vargas.

Published in three volumes of over 1,000 pages, it’s a monumental musical achievement! Flamenco is based on a combination of an Eastern modal system (known in Arabic as Maqam) and Western harmony. These volumes give you an understanding of the intricacies of Maqam and the harmony its complex tetrachordal combinations generate.

Every scale, arpeggio, and melodic pattern in these books comes with a corresponding guitar fingering, since the guitar is the primary instrument of flamenco. However, the material can be applied to any instrument. In addition, this series if a theoretical and practical manual for composers, improvisers, performers, arrangers, and musicologists interested in modal music in general, and/or flamenco modalities in particular.

”Enrique Vargas is a real expert when it comes to all these complex scales we use in flamenco today.” - José Fernandez Torres Tomatito

VOLUME 3 - Modern Pentatonic, Hexatonic, Heptatonic, and Octatonic Scales in the Flamenco Modal Language

• This volume deals with new scales in the flamenco modal language. Some of these scales, such as the diminished, wholetone, overtone or hexatonic symmetrical, come from modern classical or jazz. Others come from ethnic modalities which are external to flamenco.
• The harmonic implications of these scales are analyzed and their application in the flamenco environment is explained, and these explanations are illustrated by numerous melodic examples, both original and by renowned flamenco artists.
• The concept of modal substitutions is introduced and modal polytonality is explained, and the notion of replicating dominant scales by minor thirds and tritones is introduced and various ways to resolve a tritone are explained.
• Appendix I contains a collection of 110 licks in modern pentatonic, hexatonic, heptatonic and octatonic scales. Each lick is harmonized and comes with detailed guitar fingerings.
• Appendix II is a complete thesaurus of vertical and horizontal guitar fingerings for every modern pentatonic, hexatonic, heptatonic and octatonic scales in flamenco, in every flamenco tonality.
• Each lick is recorded with harmonic accompaniment and bass.
• Spiral-bound, 513 pages!

Enrique Vargas, PhD in music, is one of the most respected educators of flamenco currently in Madrid . He is the author of both the transcription and the texts included in the Great Guitars of Flamenco Library: He is also the author of the transcription of the famous CD "Almoraima" - Paco de Lucia. With thorough training and wide experience both in flamenco and in music in general, Mr. Vargas is committed to preserving the work of today's most important flamenco artists in the form of professional quality sheet music. As part of his intense teaching activity, he, along with José Jimenez "El Viejín", is in the process of founding the Caño Roto school of flamenco guitar. In addition, he is also preparing a complete flamenco guitar method, again with the participation of El Viejín.