For me, this palo, together with the siguirilla, seamed always super difficult.
The first solea I had to study was the one from the Solo Compas por Solea, where my favorite dancer, Javier Baron was dancing. I only managed to learn singing it “cuadrada”, more “squared” , faithful to its melodic lines and correct on the compass.
During the years, I tried hard to understand the fluency of the compass, to listen well on the music and imitate the singers I was studying.
In one of my classes, I have been told that normally, there is no compass in the Solea. The guitar needs to follow the singer. But how?? How can we make only 3 or 4 phrases, to last longer?
And then, another maestro comes and tell us that the solea was born from the playful rhythm of the “chuflas” and the bulerias and that they tend to be much more faster.
What a mess in my head….
Trying to understand. Trying to remember. Trying to explain it to others.
After we travelled to the styles of Alcala and Utrera, I decided to teach the amazing solea de Jerez (Frijones). The style is different from the rest of the soleas because first of all, we can a 3 versos letra instead of 4 . I read about this style that :
in general, they are short and emotionally charged cantes featuring characteristic arcs and melodic falls, containing all the expressivity of these specific styles. Although these melodies are brief, great dynamism and rhythmic mastery is needed to give them their expressive character – especially the ends of phrases and the closing parts of songs, which is where they are particularly emphasized.
Read the whole very interesting article about Frijones, here https://www.romarchive.eu/en/flamenco/frijones/
In general, there is allot of information nowadays out there. I wish I could have that access on my beginning. There are free and payed online courses, from different platforms from across the globe, that really worth our attention. For me, the most interesting for someone who wants to get a theoretic base, the best platform is the one of Faustino Nuñez: https://www.cursosflamencopolis.com/
There are also workshops online for free, through the facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/totalflamencoes/ and also a wide range of courses through the Flamenco Institute of New Mexico: https://www.facebook.com/NIFNM
Of course there are dozens of amazing online classes by artists from Spain .
But don’t forget to also have a look on www.iamflamenco.nl for its complete concept of studies.
If you decided to dive into flamenco waters, keep in mind that you need to have fun with this.
The information is always TOO MUCH but there is allot of fun. Try to play here 😊
See you around
Yota