START HERE · FLAMENCO GUITAR FOR DANCE
New to flamenco guitar? You don’t need to know what to ask.
Most beginners get stuck before the first lesson. Not because flamenco is too hard, but because nobody shows the map. This page is the map: five small steps, each with one free thing to do today.
Free. No signup. About 5 minutes per step.
Which one sounds like you?
Pick the closest line and jump straight there.
- “I have never played flamenco.” → Begin at Step 1
- “I play guitar, but the flamenco rhythm confuses me.” → Go to Step 2
- “I can play a few pieces, but I get lost when someone dances.” → Go to Step 4
- “I dance or teach, and I want to understand the guitarist.” → See the view from behind the dancers
- “None of these. I honestly don’t know.” → Use the fill-in-the-blank note
The map: 5 steps to playing for a dancer
Do them in order. Stay on a step until the checkpoint feels easy, then move on. There is no deadline.
1. Hear it → 2. Count it → 3. See the shape → 4. Follow it → 5. Play with it
STEP 1 · HEAR IT
Watch one whole dance before you touch the guitar
Flamenco guitar for dance is a conversation between three people: the dancer, the singer and the guitarist. Before learning any technique, see what the finished thing looks like.
Do this today: watch it twice. The second time, watch only the guitarist.
Checkpoint: you can point to one moment where the guitar stops or changes because of the dancer.
STEP 2 · COUNT IT
Learn to count one rhythm cycle (compás)
The rhythm cycle in flamenco is called compás. Each style has its own cycle and its own accents. If you can count it out loud, you can already follow more than most beginners. If you cannot count it, no technique will save you.
Start with Soleá. One cycle has 12 beats. Say every number, and clap only on the large ones:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Do this today: count and clap five cycles in a row, slowly. No guitar.
Then listen: this is the same 12 beats on the guitar. Just listen for now. Do not try to play it yet. (The lesson is spoken in Japanese with English captions; turn on CC.)
Checkpoint: you can count one full cycle without looking, and your claps land on 3, 6, 8, 10 and 12.
STEP 3 · SEE THE SHAPE
Learn the parts of a dance
A flamenco dance is not one long stream. It is built from sections. Once you know the sections exist, the guitar part stops feeling random. Here is the order used in the Alegrías lesson below:
- Guitar salida: the guitar introduction
- Salida del cante: the singer warms up the voice
- Llamada: the dancer enters and calls the singer in with strong footwork
- Letra: the sung verse, danced
- Falseta: a guitar melody
- Llamada and second letra
- Escobilla: footwork
- Cierre: a closing pattern, and the rhythm stops
- Silencio: a slow section in E minor
- Llamada and castellana: a short sung part of 4 compases
- Escobilla: slow, then fast
- Bulerías de Cádiz: the ending, everyone together
- Exit: the dancer leaves and the guitar closes
Do this today: keep this list open and watch this full Alegrías performance. Say “new section” each time it changes. The lesson above is spoken in Japanese with English captions (turn on CC).
Checkpoint: you can name at least three sections in the order they appear.
STEP 4 · FOLLOW IT
Stand where the guitarist sits
Dance is usually filmed from the audience. The guitarist sees something different: the dancer’s back, feet and shoulders. That is where the signals come from. Pick one style from the 18 free samples and watch it from the accompanist’s side.
Do this today: choose one sample and do its “One thing to try”.
Checkpoint: you can tell, a moment before it happens, that the dancer is about to finish a section.
STEP 5 · PLAY WITH IT
Take the guitarist’s place for 18 seconds
Now pick up the guitar. Watch a short Sevillanas opening, read the score, then play the same passage with the guitar removed from the recording. The dancers and the singer are still there. You are the guitarist.
You will need: a guitar, a capo (fret 3 matches the recording), and the C and G7 chord shapes. If you do not have those two chords yet, that is your homework before this step, and it is a small one.
Checkpoint: you get through the 18 seconds without stopping, even with mistakes.
Finished all five?
Then you already know what the full courses are for. Each one takes a single style and walks through it section by section, with every guitar part written out in standard notation and TAB.
Want to keep going for free? Get the free starter kit: 4 videos and a 10-page booklet sample. Gumroad asks for an email address to deliver it.
Words you will hear (in plain English)
You do not need to memorise these. Come back when a word stops you.
| compás | The rhythm cycle, and also the feeling of being “in time”. |
| palo | A style or family of flamenco, such as Sevillanas, Soleá or Alegrías. Each has its own rhythm and mood. |
| toque / cante / baile | Guitar playing / singing / dance. The three parts of flamenco. |
| letra | A sung verse. The guitarist supports the singer here and plays less. |
| falseta | A short melodic passage played by the guitar between verses. |
| escobilla | The footwork section of a dance. The guitar keeps a steady pattern underneath. |
| llamada | A “call”. The dancer signals that something is about to change. |
| remate / cierre | A strong finish to a phrase / the close of a section. |
| rasgueado | Flamenco strumming with the fingers of the right hand. |
| golpe | A tap on the top of the guitar, used as part of the rhythm. |
| palmas | Hand clapping. The simplest way to practise compás. |
| cejilla | The capo. It is used all the time to match the singer’s voice. |
Questions beginners are afraid to ask
Do I need a flamenco guitar?
Not to start. Any nylon-string guitar is fine for these five steps.
Do I need to read music?
No. The scores show standard notation and TAB together, with right-hand fingering and strumming direction marked. Use whichever line you can read.
There are no dancers or singers where I live. Is this pointless?
That is exactly the situation these videos were made for. The play-along recordings keep the real dancers and singer and remove only the guitar, so you can practise the guitarist’s job at home.
The lessons are spoken in Japanese. Can I still follow?
The booklets are in English, and the courses come with English captions or English reading notes. Coverage differs from course to course, and the free lessons on this page have English captions, with the key points also written out here. Please try the free samples first and judge for yourself.
Which style should I learn first?
Sevillanas. The structure is fixed, so the same thing happens in the same place every time. It is the easiest way to feel what “following a dance” means.
Why learn flamenco from a teacher in Japan?
Dance accompaniment is traditionally learned by watching and copying. People who grow up inside it rarely need it written down. I learned it as an outsider, so I had to work out every step and write it out. Those notes became these courses: each part of the dance, with the guitar fully notated.
I got stuck on a step. What now?
Stay there. Repeat the “Do this today” task tomorrow. If it still does not click after a few days, send me the note below and tell me which step.
For dancers and teachers
If you want to understand what your guitarist is watching for, start with the rear-view excerpt on the samples page. It shows the dance from the accompanist’s chair.
Still not sure where you are? Fill in the blanks.
You do not need a good question. Just complete these three lines and send them. I will point you to one step.
I play: ______
I want to be able to: ______
The part that confuses me most: ______
About the teacher
Toshi Ikegawa teaches flamenco guitar at VIVA Flamenco Music School in Japan and is the author of フラメンコギターの教科書 (Flamenco Guitar Textbook). These lessons focus on playing together with dancers and singers.
