Flamenco Guitar

The late Ivor Mairants was a successful jazz and dance-band guitarist, who opened a pioneering and equally successful guitar shop in central London that still bears his name. He also took an interest in classical and flamenco guitar; and in the course of his business he met several noteworthy flamenco guitarists, such as Niño Ricardo and Pepe Martínez, whose styles and technique he tried to absorb. His flamenco guitar method of 1958 was the result of these labours. At the time it was unique and ground-breaking, and many British flamenco guitarists got their start with it. The material is good, traditional stuff, pre-Paco de Lucía obviously. Even at the time, though, the book left something to be desired. I remember my friend Richard Lawrence marked all the mistakes he found in his copy and sent it back to Mr Mairants. Since then many more competent works have appeared, several of them using technology unavailable to Mr Mairants. Among these I would recommend: If you already play fingerstyle guitar: The Keys to Flamenco Guitar by Dennis Koster (2 more vols forthcoming) Flamenco Guitar Method by Gerhard Graf-Martínez (2 vols) If you don't: The Flamenco Guitar by Juan Grecos Flamenco Guitar: Basic Techniques by Juan Serrano El Arte Flamenco de la Guitarra by Juan Martín Mr Mairants's work does have an interesting distinction: the (separate) LP that accompanied it was played by another flamenco guitarist who is now very famous, under the pseudonym of Pepe del Sur.

Contains sheet music-transcription of items played on the vinyl lp:Cojo De Huelva – Introduction To Flamenco. Some minor differences in some of the transcriptions