Here's a little holiday gift for you aficionados. It's a bulería falseta in A (por medio) based on a bulería romanceada sung by Manuel Agujetas on his album in Paris with Periquín (fourth cante of third track on the recording; click here to listen to the first sung line). The letra sung by Manuel is very old and has been sung as a villancico (flamenco Christmas carol) in Jerez de la Frontera and other towns across Spain. Click here to see Manuel's version (the fourth cante). The Joaquín Díaz Foundation has published a folkloric version as a villancico collected from the tradition of towns in the region of Castile and León, in northern Spain. Interestingly, it includes the line "Que bajan los ríos turbios y no se puede beber," which Manuel Soto Sordera and Manuel Jero (Periquín's father) recorded as villancicos. There are many variations with different titles, such as "La Virgen y el ciego," "El ciego y la Virgen" and "La fe del ciego."

The score is arranged so that each staff contains 12 beats (flamenco's compás) counted 1 to 12. I've added repeat signs at the beginning and end because the score is just an outline, and the falseta can be played over and over with other ideas and short falsetas, as you like. To get a feel for the music, listen to Manuel Agujetas' recording. Listen to all of them, for that matter, because he was probably the all-time best flamenco singer. The aire throughout is the romance, a style at which he and his family have excelled.

Notice that the rasgueados at the beginning of the third and fourth staves start just after beat 1 (on beat 1-and).

In the third staff, you can play a full sixteenth-note rasgueado over beats 1–3, like the one seen in the preceding staff. At beat 3, I've indicated the full chord, although I don't play the bass strings at that point in the video.

In the fifth staff, the arrow at beat 3 indicates that the thumb plays everything from that point onward. At beat 6, you can barre partially or completely. At beat 9, the left hand moves to first position, as seen in the video.

Click here if you can't see the video.

Here's a letra I wrote specifically to be sung as a bulería romanceada. Click here to see more of my letras.

Pobrecito que llegara
y al censito que llegó
resfriadito el pobre
y Boneo contestara
y en Boneo se quedó