Accents (this page) [12] 1 2 [3] 4 5 [6] 7 [8] 9 [10] 11
Learn first Lesson 10: Six-eight time
Alegrías is the best-known of the cantiñas, the festive songs of Cádiz. It is in a major key, quicker and lighter than soleá, and as a dance it follows one of the most settled orders in flamenco: an entrance, sung letras (verses), a slow section in the minor called the silencio, escobillas (footwork sections) and a fast finish por bulerías, in the bulerías rhythm.
The compás is the same as the soleá's: 12 counts with accents on 3, 6, 8, 10 and 12, grouped 3 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 2. Studio Flamenco writes the alegrías count from 12, and this page sets it out that way: a bar of 6/8 (counts 12 to 5, accents on 12 and 3) and a bar of 3/4 (counts 6 to 11, accents on 6, 8 and 10), with one click per count. Other sources, including Jacobo Góngora's doctoral thesis on dance accompaniment, count from 1 and write four bars of 3/4. Studio Flamenco also notes that letras, llamadas (a dancer's signal that a new section is coming) and escobillas start on 1, while dancers often begin their steps on 12.
| Pattern | Count |
|---|---|
| Accents (this page) | [12] 1 2 [3] 4 5 [6] 7 [8] 9 [10] 11 |
| Counted from 1 | 1 2 [3] 4 5 [6] 7 [8] 9 [10] 11 [12] |
| Guitar chords | tonic on 1, dominant from 3, tonic again on 10 |
The cantiñas took shape in Cádiz in the early nineteenth century. Studio Flamenco and other accounts connect alegrías with the Aragonese jota, sung in Cádiz during the war against Napoleon (the Peninsular War). Today alegrías is a staple of dance classes and stage shows, and the silencio and the bulerías ending make a full dance a good test of compás.
In the guitar's basic rhythm the chord moves from the tonic to the dominant on 3 and back on 10, and sections end on 10, with 11 and 12 left silent or held. Palmas are bright palmas claras, made by striking two or three fingers into the open palm, and two palmeros often split the work, one on the counts and one on the contratiempo (the offbeats in between). Studio Flamenco adds that the accent on 6 sometimes moves to 7, as it often does in bulerías.
Alegrías sits between soleá and bulerías in speed. Jonathan Richter gives guitarists 100 to 180 beats per minute, a commercial flamenco metronome offers 70 to 150, and an automatic analysis of recorded cante in the COFLA research corpus found cantiñas mostly between 150 and 170. The silencio is much slower, and the last escobilla speeds up into the bulerías.
If you learned the soleá from 1, counting from 12 can make you hear 12 as the end of the cycle. Say the numbers aloud for a few rounds until 12 feels like an arrival. Keep the offbeat claps light and even; a heavy contratiempo pulls the tempo.