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Una guajira es interpretada en el Proyecto Master Flamenco del ESMUC<\/p><\/div>\n
Yet, it\u2019s not true that just because someone has studied in a conservatory, they become a musician the moment they obtain a degree. Titles don\u2019t make artists. A musician is someone who makes music, not someone who just knows how to read and write it. I remember that Enrique Morente used to tell me with some regret:\u00a0I don\u2019t know music<\/i>, meaning of course that he wasn\u2019t able to read or write music, and I would tell him:\u00a0What? You are a giant in music, it\u2019s just that your genre doesn\u2019t require the knowledge of music theory<\/i>. Yet, It\u2019s an established fact that no one loses one ounce of talent for knowing about harmony, counterpoint and fugue. Knowledge about such subjects which can only benefit a musician.<\/p>\n
One of the most serious problems has to do with the design of the study programs. It doesn\u2019t make much sense to demand a flamenco musician to know about certain aspects of academic music. Yet, the worst of it is designing the flamenco guitar program to the image and likeness of classical guitar. Considering that the\u00a0sonanta<\/i>\u00a0is, essentially, an instrument of accompaniment, it doesn\u2019t make sense to focus it all on concert guitar. What happens, then, is that many students finish their courses knowing how to play (read)\u00a0La Barrosa<\/i>, but are unable to accompany\u00a0cante<\/i>\u00a0or\u00a0baile por alegr\u00edas<\/i>. This is something that must be rectified urgently.<\/p>\n
Even so, the main obstacle in the teaching of flamenco in conservatories is the fact that, in most cases, flamenco musicians without formal academic training are not allowed to teach, thus closing the doors of the conservatories to many professionals who are more than qualified to teach flamenco. Preventing them to take up a professorship in a conservatory, for lack of an official degree, makes a disservice to the goal of giving the best possible training to the future professionals of this genre. The result of this is classical guitarists, with their shiny, brand-new degrees, being able to teach flamenco, pushing aside true flamenco artists who are much better qualified. In my opinion, this is the great cancer affecting the teaching of flamenco in academic centers. If someone like Gerardo N\u00fa\u00f1ez, a good example of a great master of guitar, is not allowed to be a professor of flamenco guitar in a conservatory for lacking the corresponding degree, then it\u2019s time to turn off the lights and leave.<\/p>\n
There is still a lot to do, and if it\u2019s true that \u201cse hace camino al andar<\/i>\u201d (\u201cthe road is made by walking<\/i>\u201d) I think that, as it was once solemnly announced by the great master Fosforito in C\u00f3rdoba, in a few years the natural place to learn the flamenco genre will be in the conservatories. It\u2019s about time.<\/p>\n
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Faustino N\u00fa\u00f1ez<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Music has been taught in conservatories for over two centuries. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6761,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[73,258],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","category-signature"],"yoast_head":"\n