The Malagueña is the quintessential Spanish guitar song. However, the Malagueña melody most people think of is not the original flamenco form.
There are actually many forms of Malagueñas, which hail from Málaga, Spain. They originally evolved from the Fandango.
The three most famous creators of Malagueñas were Juan El Breva, El Mellizo and Don Antonio Chacon. A good example is Juan El Breva’s Tiene Tan Malas Entrañas (Malagueñas), which you can listen to on Spotify.
The more familiar Malagueña is attributed to Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona (1895-1963) and forms part of his Suite Andalucía. However, the famous Malagueña melody was clearly not his own invention.
Spanish guitarist Francisco Tárrega (1852-1909) had composed a version, Malagueña Fácil, many years before Lecuona. The timbre of the guitar truly brings the Malagueña to life and for many, Tárrega’s version is the standard.
You can hear a version of Malagueña Fácil by Italian guitarist Giulio Tampalini on Spotify or watch the popular YouTube version below by Michael Lucarelli, which has a few embellishments.
The Malagueña lends itself to improvisation and, once you know the main melody and understand the music, you can create your own version. The Malagueña below by Sabicas (1912-1990) takes many different turns and shows why he was considered one of flamenco’s greatest guitarists.
What makes Malagueña sound Spanish?
Malagueña is played in E open position, often referred to as por arriba in flamenco. The melody is largely played on the bass strings. The upper E is played in response to each bass note, creating a characteristic droning sound.
The Malagueña’s distinctive melody is largely due to two altered notes from the traditional E minor scale (E – F# – G – A – B – C – D – E): the F (a flat II) and G# (#III). This gives it an exotic sound that is associated with Spain and can be heard in many flamenco forms.
The F turns the E minor scale into the E Phrygian scale (E – F – G – A – B – C – D – E). This is the fifth mode of the minor scale (in this case A minor). While the notes and chords are the same for E Phrygian and A minor, the difference is the music resolves to E rather than A.
However, Malagueña also contains a G#, which creates a minor third between the second and third notes (F to G#).
This turns the scale into Phrygian Dominant (the fifth mode of the Harmonic Minor scale). While the scale still belongs to the same family as other ‘minor’ key modes, the tonal center (E) now becomes a major chord.
The G and G# are often used interchangeably in flamenco creating another unexpected but pleasing dissonance. Tárrega uses the G# to build the E chord but then generally uses the E Phyrgian scale to build the remaining chords (Em – F – G – Am – Bdim – C – Dm).
If you’re looking for a place to start with music theory as it specifically applies to the guitar, I recommend Music Theory for Guitarists by Tom Kolb.
How to play the Malagueña melody on the guitar
We’ve seen the simple Malagueña melody in Figure 1 above. The full melody in Figure 2 below is the opening of Tárrega’s Malagueña Fácil. The bass notes are all played with the thumb while the melody is played with a,m,i.
Bars 3-4: The implied Am chord presents some tricky left hand fingering. Hold the C (on the B string) with your first finger and the A (on the third string) with your third finger, leaving the second and fourth fingers to play the bass notes. Note the melody on the treble strings changes in the second half of bar 4 – release your first finger but keep your second finger in place before making the transition back to E.
Take it slow while learning and work up to full speed, which can be anywhere from 175bpm to 200bpm. Once the movement is second nature and you can play it through with a rock steady rhythm, you can be more liberal with the timing. Listen to how Giulio Tampalini plays with the timing and volume (Spotify) to create tension and release.
There are many ways to improvise around this core melody. Another common choice is to arpeggiate the treble strings with the i-m-a fingers the first time you play them in each bar (Figure 3). You can hear this effect in Lucarelli’s version the second time he plays the opening melody here.
Another common variation is to play a tremolo on the high E string in response to the bass melody (Figure 4). If this is difficult to keep steady at speed, you can play two notes (using the m-i fingers) rather than three notes (using a-m-i).
The tremolo below is the classical guitar technique (a-m-i) rather than flamenco, which is four notes (i-a-m-i). You can hear a tremolo version of the Malagueña melody in Lucarelli’s version here.
How to play the full Malagueña on the guitar
The Malagueña Fácil is not technically difficult but songs don’t have to be difficult to be great. I’ve listed the implied chords in the transcription and suggested right and left fingerings. The first 25 bars barely stray from variations around E and Am that exploit the guitars natural strengths on open positions.
The song begins with Figure 2 above, which is the only time the famous melody appears (bars 1-8).
The next four bars continue below (bars 9-12). The right hand pattern in bars 10-11 will show up any weaknesses in the a finger. The solution is repetition at a slowly increasing speed to make it second nature.
The next four bars (13-16) continue the same theme. Use the right and left hand fingerings you find most comfortable.
The next section (bars 17-20) create a nice dissonance using the F and G#.
Bar 18-19: Be sure not to move the second finger holding the F on the second string while changing chords between these two bars.
Bars 21-28: This section sets the scene for a key change from E Phyrgian Dominant to C major. There’s a new repeating pattern: a simple melody runs for three bars and ends with a corresponding chord broken into a bass note and three treble string notes.
Variations on the pattern in bars 25-28 are repeated throughout this section, resolving to a C chord in bar 29, then F (bar 33), C (bar 37), G7 (bar 41), and C (bar 45). The song then returns to the type of dazzling dissonance centered on E Phrygian Dominant (bars 51-58) found in the opening sections.
These sections can be found in the full Malagueña Fácil (102 bars), which can be downloaded below. It includes a PDF of the sheet music (including TAB) and Guitar Pro file, which allows you to play along at your own speed.
