The Bulerías' Compás

The same five accents as the soleá, counted from the accented 12 so the strong count is heard first — and a second accent form the same source also prints.

The cycle, count by count

  1. 12accent
  2. 1
  3. 2
  4. 3accent
  5. 4
  6. 5
  7. 6accent
  8. 7
  9. 8accent
  10. 9
  11. 10accent
  12. 11

Twelve counts, printed from 12; five are accented: 12, 3, 6, 8 and 10. Laid out from 12, the accents group the cycle as 3+3+2+2+2.

The bulerías' cycle read three ways, each laid out from count 12: where each reading's groups begin, and which of the five accents land there.
Reading Groups begin on Accents it explains
3+3+2+2+2, from the accents 12, 3, 6, 8 and 10 5 of 5
In twos (2+2+2+2+2+2) 12, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 4 of 5
In threes (3+3+3+3) 12, 3, 6 and 9 3 of 5

Only the count in twos puts a downbeat on 8 and 10; only the count in threes puts a downbeat on 3. Three of the four downbeats counted in threes carry an accent, against four of the six counted in twos: the accents favour the count in threes.

Every accent lands on a downbeat of one even count or the other.

Read from 12, the palo's own grouping is the count in threes for its first six counts and the count in twos for the last six.

The soleá and the alegrías accent the same twelve counts. Started from count 8, this cycle becomes the seguiriya's.

Played in the flamenco mode, por medio: the home chord's root on the fifth string, which on a guitar tuned EADGBE puts it on A.

Counts as printed in Bulerías (Wikipedia): [12] 1 2 [3] 4 5 [6] 7 [8] 9 [10] 11, the bracketed counts accented. Tonality from Bulerías (Wikipedia): "most commonly in an A-phrygian mode (por medio) with a sharpened third to make A major the root chord".

Sources disagree here. Bulerías (Wikipedia) prints a second form that moves the accent on 6 to 7: [12] 1 2 [3] 4 5 6 [7] [8] 9 [10] 11. This page declares the form its source prints above.

The cadence, in A

  1. Bb
  2. A

Two chords, ending on A. This is the key the por medio position plays in with no capo; any other key is the same shapes with the capo moved.

As printed in Bulerías (Wikipedia): Bb A in A (II I).

The bulerías is fast, playful and the most open of the palos to improvisation, and it very often closes a flamenco gathering. Its source prints its compás starting on 12, so that the strong count is the first one heard, and prints the same five accented counts the soleá has. Laid out from 12, as every cycle on this site is, the bulerías and the soleá read identically count for count.

Two printed forms

The same source prints a second form of the bulerías’ cycle, with the accent on 7 where the first has it on 6. Sources and teachers genuinely differ on this palo, which is why this page says so rather than choosing silently: the form declared here, and read in the table above, is the one the source prints first and that the wider article describes as the way the cycle is most often played today. The second form is quoted beside the source line, exactly as printed.

In practice the bulerías is often felt in shorter spans than twelve — dancers in particular count it in sixes — and a lot of its character comes from the accents players choose to add or leave out. None of that changes the cycle underneath, which is what the grid and the readings record: whatever a player adds on top, the palmas and the guitar keep coming back to the same five accented counts.

The cadence

The bulerías is usually played in the flamenco mode por medio, with the home chord’s root on the open fifth string, so the page opens in A. Its source describes a typical accompaniment built on just two chords, the one a half step above the home chord and the home chord itself, and that pair is the cadence realised below. Pick another key and the same two chords are realised there; the count above does not move.