September 8th, 2008 in Tango Music, Tango Tips | 228 Comments »
Here is what your instructors want you to listen to when they are asking you to “dance to the rhythm”: The double bass playing in the background. If you don’t know what the double bass is, it’s this gigantic violin type of instrument that’s played usually standing up. If you’ve heard your tango instructor go “pum, pum pum, pum pum pumpumpum”, while explaining a step to you (Argentinians do it more often than others), he is attempting to reproduce the sound of the double bass. That’s the part of the music that tango players and dancers use, that’s our time keeper, our metronome.
For examples of a clear, rhythmic and prominent double bass, I would recommend the orchestras of Carlos Di Sarli, Juan D’Arienzo and Francisco Canaro. I would also suggest an exercise: Go to your favorite music player (i.e. itunes) and play any of the classical tango songs you have, e.g. one of Carlos Di Sarli. Now open the equalizer (under the “window” tab) and drag all the sliders completely down except for the left most 3. What you are hearing most prominently now, is the double bass. Try to recognize it the next time you are dancing.
Have fun!
August 10th, 2008 in Tango Music, Tango Tips, how to dance tango | 75 Comments »
Many students of tango, a few days after they’ve begun and have mastered their ocho cortados and “close embrace” start hearing key words like “Musicality” and “cadence” and so on. Now, some of us are fortunate to be gifted with a sense of music that does not need explanations but most of us, even when they are intrigued by a particular form of music, need someone to explain to them, what the hell is musicality ? Or rather ”what exactly am I looking for” in here ? And once they know, everything becomes much more enjoyable.
Just like a cubist painting, which may evoke some pleasant emotions just by looking at it, but becomes much more impressive and effective once it makes more sense, once you know what’s special about this technique. In other words ”What to look for” in it.
So here is my humble attempt at trivializing this abstract quality called musicality: At the most basic level, it involves going slower or faster depending on the music. Now, purists are going to cringe at this description. Of course there is much more to it than slowing and speeding. It’s like describing impressionism as ”Oh that’s just when you use dots and more discrete strokes and distort stuff rather than drawing a photo-realistic representation”. But it’s a good beginning.
Read my next post for more on tango rhythm and ”what to listen to”.
For examples of a clear, rhythmic and prominent double bass, I would recommend the orchestras of Carlos Di Sarli, Juan D’Arienzo and Francisco Canaro. I would also suggest an exercise: Go to your favorite music player (i.e. itunes) and play any of the classical tango songs you have, e.g. one of Carlos Di Sarli. Now open the equalizer (under the “window” tab) and drag all the sliders completely down except for the left most 3. What you are hearing most prominently now, is the double bass. Try to recognize it the next time you are dancing.