What's the Best Flamenco Form for Beginners?

Flamenco isn't easy! There are rhythmic elements to flamenco that can be quite complex and challenging for even the most accomplished guitarist. (The form Bulerías for example consists of 12 beats with unevenly distributed accents!) That's why the first flamenco forms that I teach for the uninitiated are Farruca and Tangos. 

The reason for this is that the "western ear" is used to the evenness and regularity of the 4/4 (or duple like 2/4) time signature, so since we have to learn all the Spanish guitar techniques anyway, we might as well apply them to the most palatable structure that we can as we develop our skills. 

If you've ever strummed a few open chords before, you're ready to go with the basic compás of Farruca. (The "compás" is the rhythmic and harmonic framework of a flamenco form.) Counting in 4/4 time, we have an 8-measure progression in a minor key using a common chord sequence (also familiar to the Western ear): a i, iv, V progression.

Below we have the basic idea stripped down to simple 8th notes where we will strum 2 times per beat with the index finger of the right hand. Each chord gets 1 measure:

The next 2 measures simply repeat the open chord exhange:

Measure 5 and 6  take us to the iv chord (Dm in this key of A minor) and back to the i (Am): 

 The final 2 measures of the basic compás of Farruca take us back to the open chords, only we will end the phrase on the 3rd beat and let the chord ring out over the 4th beat:

Now that we know the basic rhythmic and harmonic structure of Farruca, let's explore further what I consider to be the most accessible flamenco form - adding techniques like rasgueo, picado, arpeggio and more with actual examples and tabs from a farruca by Sabicas, one of the greatest flamenco guitarists of al time: