World Flamenco

Vahagn Vahagni Turgutyan was born in Yerevan, Armenia in 1985 and was raised in a family of Artists; Vahagnis father Sarkis Turgutyan was a guitar soloist for the National Philharmonic of Armenia, mother Satenik ShahNazaryan, a theatrical actress, and Uncle Artur Shahnazaryan, an Ethno Musicologist and National Artistic Director of Armenia. All influenced and nourished Vahagnis musical development. Vahagni (pronounced vah hog knee) began playing guitar at the age of nine under the instruction of his father. At a very young age, he showed a great interest in fla menco music. After several years of studies with his father, Vahagni embarked on the first of his numerous trips to Andalusia, Spain. Under the guidance of world famous flamenco guitarist Paco Serrano, he spent over two years mastering his craft, and participating in numerous Festivals in Andalusia. During the Cursos Superior del Guitarra Flamenca held in Malaga, Vahagni got the opportunity to play for his childhood idol and legendary flamenco guitarist, Manolo Sanlucar. It was Vahagnis original and unique sound that impressed the maestro, which led to a rare offer to study as a disciple of Sanlucar. Vahagnis guitar playing has taken him on several World Tours, Festivals, Clinics and appearances on TV and Radio shows. He has been featured by the California Philharmonic and was the feature soloist for the Pacific Shores Philharmonic. Aside from performing, Vahagni also writes a column for Fingerstyle 360 guitar magazine entitled Flamenco ology, and is currently a Teaching Assistant for the guitar depart ment at California Institute of the Arts where he has earned his MFA degree. Vahagni is proudly endorsed by La Bella strings, Godin guitars and German Vazquez Rubio guitars.
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I have many influences I listen to jazz, classical, and just about anything you can imagine. The way I hear flamenco music is a little dif ferent than some others. Im not Spanish and I did not grow up in

As a composer, you have to feel free to express yourself, just like other forms of music. The only difference is that in flamen co you have to stay true to certain forms and structures.

Yes, of course. Many peo ple think of flamenco music as folk music, but its not. Like jazz, its a genre that comes from a specific culture in Andalusia.

I hear the flamenco tradition and techniques, but I also hear harmonic elements that I do not hear in traditional flamenco. Would this be accurate?

Most of the music is influenced by the fla menco tradition, but Ive lived in Los Angeles since I was six years old so I have been exposed to a lot of other influences. We rehearsed for about three days before the session. When we went in, we just knocked it out it was a lot of fun!

We recorded the album in April of 2011, and I wrote the material about a year before that. We went into the studio and tracked everything live in three or four days. It was myself on guitar, Tigran Hamasyan on piano, Jimmy Branly on drums, Hamilton Price on bass, Artyom Manukyan on cello, and Gerardo Morales on percussion.

Im very impressed by your new recording. Please tell me about the writing and recording of this new project.

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Spain.
Also, my own Armenian culture influences me greatly. Ive always had a flirtation with jazz, rock, and classical music but I would never call myself any of these. My technique and approach is definitely flamenco but

not. Some of it is more deliberate. Ive analyzed and studied Armenian music. There are many interesting ways you can melodically approach the music and feel the music. I also arranged an Armenian folk song that I recorded on the album. There are some unusual clusters of sounds in the recording. As far as notating the music, did you use chord symbols or just write out all the notes and voicings?

Both. When you are trying to notate flamenco music, it becomes very diffi cult. Flamenco has always been an aural culture, not a scholastic culture. Its very unique and you just run out of ways to notate something or its just unclear. I use standard chord notation when its clear, but when it is not I write out all the notes. Even certain bass lines will be written out. Its very difficult to write a lead sheet for flamenco. Im still trying to per fect that, its an art. Thank God, we have time to rehearse!

Well, I grew up listening to Armenian music and its always been part of my life. Part of it is just an uncon scious process. Its in your blood whether you like it or
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the way I hear music is more open. You say your Armenian culture has had an influence on your music, will you expand on that thought?

After listening to your recording, I watched a few YouTube videos on the art of palmas. One had a graph indicating the beats as the examples were demonstrated, very impressive! Please tell us about that tradition and how you learned the art.

The track De construction is a tra ditional bulerias and was improvised. The transcription Orion is a shorter example of a traditional bulerias. On the CD Gerardo Morales played fla menco cajon and palmas, Tigran Hamasyan played piano. Tigran learned the entire piece by ear! We just spent hours playing and talking through it. This track just had to have a traditional bulerias approach.

In Spain, there are certain people who specialize in pal mas, thats what they get called for. Its definitely an art and not just clapping! (Laughter). Its literally like

treating your hands like an instrument. There are two separate sounds Sordas is the more bass sound that you do with the palm of your hand. Claras is the more treble sound where you use your fingers to clap into the palm. To master the art and get it consistent is very difficult. You have to really understand the metric cycle and the form. In Spain where I studied, I sat in on dance class to learn how to play accompaniment and at first they did not want me to play guitar, they just wanted me to clap. You try to feel the metric cycle and the rhythm before actually playing the guitar. Once you have that going, theyll let you play (laughter). Its an important art that should be taken seriously. Lets talk about your study in Spain. I started playing when I was nine years old. For as long as I can remember, Ive had the guitar in my hands. My father is a great classical guitarist and interpreter of flamenco music. He started teaching me seriously when I was nine. I started playing flamenco right away, thats what attracted me. I stuck to it and only wanted to play anything and everything that had to do with flamenco music. When I was eighteen I went to Andalusia, Spain to study with the great flamenco guitarist Paco Serrano. Even though I had been playing flamenco for years, once I was exposed to the culture, it was like learning how to play flamenco all over again. It was a very vital experience for me. I spent hours upon hours playing and taking lessons, thats all I did. I also had the privi lege of studying with Manolo Sanlucar who was one of my idols growing up and still is. He taught me a lot about composition and being an artist. When I came home, I had all this information to digest. Eventually it all started to blend in with my own experiences my own approach started to form. I go back as often as possible to stay in touch and feed that flamenco soul. You said the culture affected your flamenco playing. Please expand on that thought.

My music has so many influences I think of myself just as a guitar player and not a flamenco guitarist. Even though flamenco is my foundation, I am always careful of calling my music flamenco. I have a lot of respect for that culture and I would not want to distort it in anyway. With regard to marketing, it must make it difficult to describe the music. It really is because it cannot be put in a box. You cannot say this is what it is and put a label on it. Unless you are playing a straight up style that has a long history it makes it hard to define. Most of the time, I do not know what to call it. I guess the closest term would be world music. One of the things thats exciting about flamenco is the rapid-fire scale technique. Not many classical guitarists ever reach that kind of speed. Will you address this? Its part of the game. You develop these techniques because thats what the music calls for. Its never mis cellaneous or just for the sake of playing fast and loud. A lot of the flamenco repertoire is just built that way. From a very young age when you start working on these techniques, you start to develop these skills because its a big part of the music. Youre using your hands in almost every possible way, youre using your extensor muscles from playing all the rasqueados.

Ive heard that a big part of why flamenco players can play fast, machine gun like lines, is because their extensor muscles are so developed from playing rasqueados. Is that a big factor?

Its not just about the playing aspect. You have to understand that flamenco is a culture. When you go to Andalusia and walk in the streets or go to what they call tabloa, which are little flamenco clubs, you feel that culture. If its hanging out with those musicians or being under that sun, I dont know, but there is some thing about that location that gives you something spe cial, an energy, its very important. It helps so much with your playing, just being there and understanding that culture. I practiced all day and went out at night, watched shows, drank beer, hung out with other fla menco artists, and talked about flamenco. That was more important than locking myself up and just practicing.

It helps because you are developing the full potential of your hand, but conceptually you have to understand how to do these techniques to get the right sound, and that takes a little more work. Its not just about playing fast. Many people can play fast, but very few can play very clean, very staccato, very aggressively. The best example of this is Paco de Lucia. When you say machine gun, Paco is the first that comes to mind. When he plays its depressing in a sense. You just want to give up and say, you know whatto hell with this! It takes a lot of hard work and really understanding how to do it. When you say, understanding how to do it, are you referring to the staccato playing and getting your fingers back to the strings quickly? I would love to do a column on flamenco scale tech nique and really get in depth with it. Its a technique

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called picado. Its basically like the classical rest stroke but the flamenco way. There are a couple different approaches, but the way I play comes from the Paco de Lucia school of trying to minimize movement. Its also

time not approaching the development of speed with the correct approach.

I like to break it up into two ways of thinking: One is the actual approach, the science. You have to understand how your finger should be moving, how your nail is shaped, the posi tioning of the right hand, how youre attack ing the string, etc. The speed aspect is a completely different thing. Once you do the work, I look at speed almost as a sport. You do it the same way an athlete trains. You dont quit and you give it the time it deserves. If you do it the right way, you will be productive and not have to play your hand off. The force also comes from your wrist. The wrist is the foundation of your hand. When using more of your first joint you can lean into the string. The upper joint is going to move if you like it or not but youre trying to minimize the motion. Youre trying to lean into the string. Sabicas was more old school and actually used more of the upper joint. It worked fine for him. He was just flawless and an amazing guitarist. I have a more contemporary approach like Paco de Lucia. Im not an expert on flamenco, but I love Sabicas.

using the third joint as much as possible instead of moving the whole finger from the knuckle. This helps minimize the movement. The aggressive attack has to do with how you place the finger. You do not want too much flesh because you dont want that double bump with the nail. Yet, you also do not want all nail. You want the string to be played from the place where the flesh meets the nail. You pluck up and in at the same time and that produces a snappy sound. You have to develop placing the finger in the same place no matter how fast or slow you play. Once you get the correct approach, speed works itself out over time. I have a feeling that many people have wasted a lot of
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Oh yeah. There are so many important gui tarists of his generation such as Nino Ricardo and Melchor de Marchena, but Sabicas put a big dent in the flamenco guitar. From his refined tech nique to his compositions, his style changed the game. Each generation has a group of players who elevate the art. Then Paco de Lucia came along and took it ten steps further. I assume there are many respected flamenco guitarists who are better known for their accompaniment to singers and dancers than as soloists. Yes, thats a very important art. They all play their ass off, but they put their focus on accompaniment while others focus on solo playing. I cannot say one is more

important than another. They are equally important to the art of flamenco. Have you played behind flamenco singers and dancers? I have, when I was younger. Its a crucial part of learn ing to play flamenco. You get a lot of the rhythm and the soul of flamenco from playing behind singers and dancers. After all, this was the original purpose of fla menco guitar, there were no soloists. When you want to play something that is cultural, you need to start at the beginning. You may want to be an abstract painter, but you have to learn to paint first.

guitarist. Please tell me a little bit about him.

His name is Sarkis Turgutyan. My father started playing guitar very young, in Armenia. At that time, Armenia was part of the Soviet Union and in those days there was no conservatory or school that taught classical guitar. He was pretty much self taught. He worked very hard at it and it led him to being the guitar soloist for the National Philharmonic. He was very successful! He was a diplomatic artist as they called it in those times.

How do you handle the guitar being heard when you are playing live with piano, bass, and drums?

I like to break my practice into group, technique, reper toire, improv, and composing. When I practice, I have a routine of warming up, stretching and basic warm up. I like to be pretty agile once I dig in. You can waste a lot of time practicing if you do not have a focus. I try to practice with a goal. I set a goal and do what I can to achieve that goal. Im still young, but as you get older, your time becomes more valuable. You mentioned your father and that he is also a great

Please tell me about your approach to practicing.

German Vasquez Rubio he is a very well known builder in LA. He is very precise with his work and a very sweet person. He puts a lot of care into his instru ments. I have loved his guitars for a long time.

Its difficult with the acoustic guitar, but I try to blend the mic sound with the LR Baggs Hex pickup through a Roland Acoustic amp. Its also important that the musicians understand dynamics and know how to play with the acoustic guitar. Its almost like playing chamber music. Who built your guitar?

When he saw Paco de Lucia, he was blown away and started to investigate flamenco guitar. It was very diffi cult at that time to learn another cultures music because the Soviet Union was very strict. It was almost impossible to get any information. He would occasion ally get a few rare recordings and learn from them. It was the breakup of the Soviet Union that opened things up. My father is the most important teacher Ive had. He taught me everything I know about playing the guitar. Ive always said he is one of my favorite guitarists.

[Editors note: Solitude is available as of August 28th, 2012 on Ingrooves/Fontana- Universal Music] Broken Compass will be released October 9th, 2012 on LMS Records. Pre sales are available now at http://lmsrecords.bandcamp.com/album/broken compass Bill Piburn www.vahagni.com

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