Transmitting vs Entertaining - Make sure you know the Difference! 

I'm not sure if this is going to be a heated discussion or not, but I really wanted to do this kind of video for some time now. I hope it can help you clear the blurry line between understanding what is "Transmitting" through fingers, and pure Entertainment. Let me know what you think about this, even though I can't reply to every comment I do read them. PS: Sorry for the long upload, I've had some family emergencies that led to a long travel, and upon arrival I had other family cat emergencies.. Take care! Luciano

Beautifully put, Luciano! The two of these are different, and both are assets when working together. However, when transmission part is missing, showmanship instantaneously is perceived as fake, whereas musicality can survive on its own. I am very glad you are talking about expression. In my opinion, there is no better person to give insights into this subject. Please, do more of these. Talk about what musical passages mean to you and how do you go about expressing different emotions. Storytelling, emotional journey, characters, fragility, honesty, empathy and a myriad of other things. Talk about poetry in music. Big ole! to you, Maestro!

By far the most interesting and important aspect of music. Wish more people understood that. Thanks so much for this dear maestro.

Totally agree 100%.. rafael cortes plays don cortes maya with so much emotion in his playing any minimal facial expressions he makes looks genuine

I agree. The value of performing is created by players transmitting what exists inside. It will be a finest time for both if audience can feel something transmitted from the players. I must train skills for playing the guitar with all my heart.

Christ that was amazing guitar playing!

If the other stuff comes across as natural and not forced or tacked on, I say go for it. I come from a rock background, though, where showmanship and attitude are pretty important. It’s also a situational thing, of course. I wouldn’t throw a bunch of moves if I was playing cocktail music at a dinner party, for example. Just be you, is what it boils down to. Get the music down, then let it move you. You’re a phenomenal player, by the way. Thanks for the discussion.

I would like to think of your topic in two elements, being technical and emotional capacity and understanding of the players. The technical capability comes with fitness, training/learning, exercise routines and preferrably some appreciation of the music content. The emotional element depends on how the player is connected with the music itself which on its own can be a matter of culture and appreciation of what the music is meant to convey (which in your terminology is transmit) - this is so crucial in Flamenco music. Without the technical capability, it is hard to expect the players to be able to express the emotional component well, but what it is interesting is that the desire to be able to express, is an important drive to excel the technical capability over time. Those who are only technically advanced, are not necessarily profound emotionally and this is where they can be typical entrainers. Those who are good at both technical and emotional aspects, are capable to entertain (or better to say "communicate") at a professional level, which in fact can make them develop and grow their skills, given the audience feedback.

Very good explanation, Luciano. The expression should be transmitted naturally based on how the musician actually feels the music. Great content. Cheers! 😎

Thanks for speaking my heart out ❤ take respect.

Excellent video and discussion. When you play, I find myself watching your face, despite you doing incredible things with your hands. Seeing someone feeling something authentic resonates, and I guess that's "transmission".

Transmitir viene del alma pasando por los dedos con los conocimientos que tienes ahi se crea una historia ,un sentimiento que traspasas a los que te oyen a traves de tu musica nada de mascaras😊 puro sentimiento y emocion gracias

I completely agree, Luciano! Great video! Hope to continue lessons with you soon. All the best, Cheers!

Luciano believe me or not I saw you in my dream releasing a new video, great topic from a great master❤🙏

so great !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think that is key, if you really give of what you have, your giving the best to the performance, as opposed to trying to satisfy someone else's desires!!

I guess ur right, but I can’t help but think of the many accompanist’s who make faces while playing with a singer or dancer or both. And you brought up moraito, who not only was an amazing solo guitarists, but one of the most sought after and best accompanists. I feel like making a face can help you feel, or actually, that they are intimately tied for many people. Like I’m not making a face that I’m sad to express my playing is sad, it’s me playing sad and my face being sad are one and the same. Emotions are in the body, not the mind.

Very good to address, and great examples. An important concept to grasp. Well put!

Very interesting topic; thank's Luciano. It's too important to convey. I listen to you for this reason. 🎶🎶🙏

I call them guitar blogger on social media, we see this many times on social media specially in shorts videos, those guitar bloggers playing a sad and deep kind of a piece but looking at camera and smile and acting wrong all the time, happy that you pointed out that ;)

I could not agree more. There are many not listening to what they are playing which is also necessary to improvise.

Entertaining means “being always immediately accessible”. Really important things are rarely only entertaing, but are transmitting: “birth”, “death”, “love” … and nobody can escape them …

thank you luciano for bringing us attention to this topic you are truly one of the best artists but please can you answer these two questions 1-where can i learn more advanced chords 2-can't you recommend any pieces to play for intermediate players

Good man no tik tok....the first sabicas falseta was brilliant

That is why i listen to music depending on my mood. That's also why i can listen to a wide range of music. For example, i listened to rap music when i got road rage, hehehe.

Beautiful, thank you, I love this topic. Another word we might use for the same thing would be Channeling… like Bach or Coltrane

I would often get told that when I play, I would never blink and my face looked too "paralyzed". Therefore, people would say I play like a robot. So I then started to "put on a show" through some facial expressions, and guess what? People still said that I play like a robot LOL - so I concluded that I just suck. :P Also, I hate RU-vid shorts or any form of material that is less than sixty seconds long. :P Esoooooooooooo!

La cara que tengas será la de la emoción que te trasmite lo que tocas , lo otro sera impostado, como un actor. Un abrazo

2:17 Excellent decision, I never liked short form videos. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this topic. This reminds me a lot of the state of "flow" and it's something I look forward to experiencing in the hopefully not too distant future. Thank you as always.

you are right! i hope your family and cat family are fine now

Luciano we want flamenco education series

Hello Luciano. I saw your advice on using the low tension Knobloch Actives, but for the life of me i cannot find them anywhere, only the low-medium and they get mixed reviews at best. Can you tell me where to buy them if possible or a good alternative? I have gone to all the usual websites. By the way, i like the sound of the guitar you have here. Who is the maker if i may ask? Thank you!

Thank you for addressing this issue. I hate entertainers who make a spectacle and a show out of a guitar piece with weird facial expressions and exaggerating emotions with their body language and such. I give all of these clowns a fat thumb down every time, and I tell them also. Lol... They don't like it, but I don't care. If their silly show distracts from the music, then it has nothing to do with the music anymore, but it becomes all about their person and trying to sell themselves. Which I hate. The music should be enough. The music's execution should sell itself. And I fully agree. With Yamandu Costa, it does not feel intrusive. Whatever he does feels very spontaneous and not artificial. With him you clearly get the sense of a gigantic level of skill, and he just lets himself flow with the love of music, which is pleasurable to watch. If I wasn't already a subscriber I would subscribe again! :) Great video!

Really interesting. All my respect for you.

Luciano where are you based? Do you do online lessons unless you happen to live in London? In which case I would love to do lessons in person of course.. I am completely self taught but I have been taking my playing a lot more seriously lately and I just really like the way you explain things so I believe if I was to have a teacher I would like it to be you edit I didn't start playing the guitar until very late sadly.. I never picked up a guitar until I was in my 20s which is one of my biggest regrets in life because I truly love it.. .in the past I went up to grade 6 piano and also played drums in many bands so maybe this helped me learning faster.. . of course though learning as a child is ideal because your brain and hands will actually grow around the guitar instead of having to force new connections in my old brain which is already formed.. The progress has been slow because of this but I have slowly ended up becoming much better then I ever believed would be possible at my age, so I think it's about time I took some lessons The reason is because I am getting a lot of offers to play in band a record. (you know how it is Luciano even a mediocre classical / flamenco player sounds Amazing to people who play simple rock and pop) so I am tempted.. I think I started too late to ever be a serious professional flamenco player for example.. but when it comes to pop music I am at a level where I can probably even play a lot of professionals under the table.. Sorry about this long message Luciano I hope you find the time to read it.. Honestly you have been a huge inspiration to me because of the tabs you have offered on "Mr guitar tabs" and also you really really look like my dad when he was younger .. No joke it's crazy, if we ever speak I will show you pictures , you would be shocked haha.. He was a professional Buzzuki player all of his life and is very well respected in the Greek music world.. And he really does look like your long lost Greek brother 😂. so this has also made me feel connected to you in a way that other strangers can not.. I do not have a patron link you any channels on RU-vid but I want to set up one for you because I belive you really deserve it.. But then I thought perhaps lessons would be cool.. Sorry again this message turned out way longer then I planned so I don't blame you if you don't read it

You are so right, amigo! I can listen to a couple of bars of technically superb musicians but have moved on before the 4th bar.

Very subjective, and although at first I found myself agreeing, on reflection, many questions arose about the motivation of performers, and their abilities both as musicians (fingers) and as performers (plastic or real feelings). I then started asking myself why I agreed, and if there was a possibility I was wrong. The human condition of perspective, or lack thereof, wins the day.

Totally agree with you. Plus even if she/he plays well,sometimes with very exaggerated artificial expressions,it becomes distracting and makes listening difficult.

Are you improvising based on Punto y Tacon by Sabicas? Really great playing.

Thank you for this. I come from a classical Indian music tradition, playing Sitar for last 35 years and this subject fascinates me . I feel in Indian music some of the maestros overdo the facial expressions. In Induan music the audiance or the percussionist say wha wha or Kia bate to express at times. Similar to ole in Flamenco. Often it becomes a show and overdone in modern classical performances. Anyway thanks for your great videos.

Just say it, they are showing off

It's a distinction that's hard to do for people who are not passionate about music, especially nowadays

Mediterranean and middle eastern cultures are very emotional. Also a lot of melancholy in various ways. In music, the performer/artist must be able to tell the story without words or physical expression. That’s what Ido prefer to listen to. Only when I’ve absorbed the feel and emotion of the piece. I’ll check a video and try to understand why it was played that way and what I may learn from it.

That's a difficult discussion.. as I feel what's been true for any art since forever, if you can't put up a show, entertain, or sell it to people... very few will ever get the chance to hear you no matter if your transmitting or not. Some even fine tune a show to a degree that it can invoke feelings in people and that's just as valid as well and just as hard to do where everything is so finely tuned that the whole thing becomes the vehicle. I agree though you can also see people play and put on a show but the music isn't hitting hard or it feels automatic ... and yes then there are solo artists or bands where everyone gets into the music and where they maybe even take it to places they haven't been before.. as sometimes synergy between musicians can tilt everything to higher plateau. I do think audiences can recognise this when it happens as when a musician is transmitting it doesn't go unnoticed or unappreciated.

Waiting a cover from Gerardo Nuñez,thanks

Transmitting is great, but the problem is that most people just wanna be entertained. That's why short format content is so popular rn.

This is transformative!

Unfortunately this happens a lot in the Persian flamenco community and they’re all over Instagram. The main problem comes from flamenco teachers in iran not teaching correctly and their lack of knowledge sums up in these players smiling and winking at the camera. The sad part is that these pieces they play they only know 40 seconds of it for social media and that’s about it. That’s why I stopped posting flamenco content on Instagram once the reels came. Flamenco pieces are usually very long and very expressive there’s no way u can actually get the point across in 30 seconds.

Reminds me of this video of Vladimir Horowitz talking about how not to play the piano :)

You have to check out yamashitas interpretation of the pictures of an exhibition… first without video and than with video … a perfect example of what you are talking about

You're spot on Luciano.

... as for me, the frases toy played at 10 : 12 resume all waht you tell us. Marvellous differences, like a musical actor, thinking of...

Crucial facts regarding reimbursements

If you are playing and transmitting automatically you are changing your expressions without noticing… so transmitting implies expression but not the other way around

Fantastique Luciano

Vera good work from You, Luciano! I would add the word "projection" of tone and attack as well as soul and feeling to it. Vicente has a decent bodyspeech, Paco of course less. And I would suggest to look and listen to f.ex. two players of the Jazz world, where you experience how feeling, musicality, technique is goin hand in hand with an expression of body, face and even voice. It's amazing, it is entertainment (for someones, how you take it) but it is no show, it is music at its best: Pat Metheny and Keith Jarrett!!

In his later years and after much drug use Niño Miguel lost a lot of his technical ability, but he still played with soul (transmitting). But then there is this guy: Lucas Imbiriba. No duende!

So am i right, when im trying to play vicente's falsetas the way i want? Not like he does? Is that the point?

Block video images & Keep sound = Transmitting. Block sound & keep video images = mime, which is entertainment. Then, music is lost as well as any emotions derived from it.

Individual music expression/ transmission seems to be like an individuals personality. The personality is there when one starts playing and regardless of how much an individual progresses technically the essence of that persons transmission remains the same. The same appears to apply regarding music reception/ perception. Often someone will point me to some music that touches them personally and I feel nothing. Same the other way around 😆 All I know is that if I was an attractive female my videos would have more views🤣

maestro increíble un OLE en mayúsculas

music as a language awesome :)

el feeling no es del player, hay talento cuando el yo desaparece y solo hay musica, a Krishnamurti le preguntaron cuando hay Amor y Belleza? y el contesto cuando la persona desaparece!!! esto me pasa a mi yo desaparezco cunado toco y el resultado no es mental no es del personaje es DIOS que mueve todo !!!

Dónde compro una guitarra así? 😍

I hope you're fine. As human while we are living, we have like a "budget" of energy we are spending in the present moment, or like when driving a racing car. We either concentrate in just driving well or "spending" a bigger part of the budget showing more face's expressions at the windsheild. I think the answer is; if we only focus in transmitting, there will be some unique face expressions, as a result of the efforts. Yes seeing these faces can add to the performance, but it's visual only, not sonorous. Face's expressions are like the smoke from a fire, it's part of it but not the essential. It's a question of honesty, either I imitate Paco de Lucia like a parrot doing similar head's movements while playing or I just play my best & my head will move just like only me can ? Acting drunk, doesn't make you drunk. :)

Маэстро!!!

👍👍👍👍👍

To be honest, a lot of virtuosos entertain me, but they don't transmit or invoke in me, evoke, much emotion, except jealousy heheh. However, a simple phrase by Paul Simon or Bert Jansch, or indeed Paco Pena or Ghosn can evince strong emotions.

What guitar brand do you use?

Right on the money! 🤘

❤👍🏼

100%

👍👍👍😘😘😘

I think emotionality with playing are very natural thing , it s deep feelings when u play ur falseta etc ...but the fake emotions that man do just in order to decorate his playing is not that good thing it can add a pression on him and maybe affects his performance.

agreed bro

After long wait every day I check your chenl for new vedio but

Ciao Luciano!! If I understand correctly, have you had problems with your family? I hope everything goes well!! I hope to meet you in person one day!! Hi Giancarlo

But you have shorts on youtube

Well...im not playing that sabicas song anymore

I've watched a ton of Vicente covers on RU-vid and there is almost a direct inverse correlation between overly emoting and poor covers. The worse the cover, the more the guitarist is hamming it up, typically. One of the (many) things I appreciate here is the lack of cheesy showmanship. What's the name of that young Eastern European guy who pounds a lot of on his acoustic for percussion? Starts with an M, maybe? He's obviously great in a technical sense, (although not my style) but the faces and the spinning around is so over the top that it actually detracts from the playing if you ask me. I'm glad you don't do that stuff, even to a lesser degree. Of course, unlike a lot of the people doing this sort of thing, you have the luxury of letting your guitar completely speak for itself. Some of the people doing Vicente covers need Esteban cowboy hats and facial expressions to tell the listener that what they're listening to is, in fact, very beautiful/mysterious because the playing is just kinda sloppy and soulless.

Watching a great artist’s body language while they’re playing is additive to the experience if it isn’t ‘studied’ - it has to be spontaneous and therefore natural. It's part of the creative process. The grimace, the raised eyebrow, the right hand flourish etc. The constant smiling and turning towards the camera etc isn’t about the music it's about distraction. THE LISTENER will be the judge of when a musical passage is worth a nod - not the player. Costa’s constant smiling and facial theatrics I find condescending as a consequence. I no longer follow him. Lots of flash but no heat. It’s like watching Tommy Emmanuel - after a while it just gets tedious.

What is the name of the song at minute 7:03 ?

If you are not "Authentic' when playing, you will first fail yourself and the audience thereafter.

What is the intro song please anyone thanks x

Hey man Your opinion tell us this fact that How to be an artist ?! Not guitarist!

Well I mean it all depends on the technique and skill of the player. I won't really care about your face if your skill is amazing like yours Luciano. But if the guitarist has no skill then I probably also won't care about the face but I won't care about the playing haha, sounds cruel but it has to be practiced a lot.

Credo che trasmettere sia una questione d'arte. Un pezzo puo' essere eseguito benissimo tecnicamente, ma non trasmettere niente. Scusa se scrivo in italiano, ma in inglese non riesco ad esprimermi come vorrei.❤