This essay thoroughly discusses how Paco de Lucia became a virtuoso
flamenco guitarist by applying his technical abilities and broad knowledge of
different kinds of other genres. The reason of doing this research is because I
would like to prove the media’s and flamenco enthusiast’ statement that he
brings new “colors” and a completely fresh style on the genre in his
compositions, that are different than previous flamenco guitarists. Flamenco
guitarists that were acclaimed before him followed the basic musical rules of
flamenco, this includes the chord progression, scales, and others. However,
Paco de Lucia took the extra step of adding new techniques and
characteristics such as increasing the typical tempo and also incorporate
other musical genres such as Jazz and classical guitar. These shifts in
characteristics are caused by Paco de Lucia’s life experiences, encounters
with musicians that play different genres than him, and his family’s deep
enthusiasm in Flamenco. To that end, I decided to formulate my research
question “What are Paco de Lucia’s contribution to Flamenco Guitar?”. I
accomplished that by analyzing in depth his 2 best compositions, Entre dos
Aguas and Rio Ancho.

Grade A