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Let's listen to a coletilla together!

Let's listen to a coletilla together
– and make sense of the sung lines..

The coletilla is the short letra the cantaor/a will sing to you as you dance the final off stage at the end of your pataíta.

There are usually 2 sung lines in a coletilla, and the cantaor/a will repeat the sung lines to suit the moment (improvisation!).

If you want a refresher on the structure of a coletilla, click the following link to go to my previous post on this topic, 'What does a coletilla for Bulerías Por Fiesta look like?'.

The letra..

In the previous post I linked to just above, I used a sample letra to help explain the structure.

In this post we're going to listen to that same coletilla letra being sung in a live situation 🎤 Hopefully this will help you make more sense of the sung lines..

The sample letra looks like this:
Son los toreros (first sung line)
Los que se ponen 
 cintas en el pelo (second sung line)

The video..

The video below starts off with the cantaor singing a main letra before moving on to sing the coletilla.

Listen carefully to the tone and melody of the letra, and then compare it to the tone and melody of the coletilla.

Can you get a feel for the shorter phrasing and the more upbeat melody in the coletilla?

What to listen out for..

To give you a heads up on the structure of the coletilla in this clip, the cantaor sings the first sung line 4 times – 'Son los toreros', and the second sung line 1 time – 'Los que se ponen cintas en el pelo'.

Written out it would look like this:
Son toreros, Son los toreros (first sung line x2)
Son toreros, Son los toreros (first sung line x2)
Los que se ponen
 cintas en el pelo (second sung line x1)

Your turn!

Watch and listen 👇 😍 

I hope this description and training video help you make more sense of the differences and nuances between the main letra and the coletilla.
 
It's really only by repetition and listening to a lot of Bulerías Por Fiesta that we can train our ears to the nuances - but it helps massively to know first what we're supposed to be listening out for!
 
VIDEO CREDIT:
Here's a link to the whole video on YouTube, 'Fin de Fiesta Por Bulerías' performed by Escuela de Danza y Flamenco Silverio.
 
I recommend taking the time to watch the whole video! It's absolutely awesome and has all the elements of improvisational Bulerías Por Fiesta, amazing singing, and excellent examples of the coletilla!
Until next time, happy dancing 💃🏻
Belinda x
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PS If you want more reveals 🕵🏻‍♀️ for discovering how to improvise for Bulerías Por Fiesta, sign up below to watch my Free Masterclass 🎬
 

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Author: Belinda Retamal
Belinda has been dancing flamenco since the age of 10 and is passionate about helping other aspiring dancers learn flamenco without spending years to master the basic skills.
 

You can find out more about Belinda at http://www.theflamencocoach.com/about

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