Find the ONE when you need it!

to recognize the ONE
why  and how
taping and stepping
speed up the song
low volume
Julio & Juana
Joaquin Amenabar

For the first ten (!) years I was dancing and even leading without *hearing*, being aware of the musical structures. In other words, I couldn't tell you when the ONE....One .... One was sounding in music, not even on a most simple song. Surpricingly my feet knew better and I was appreciated for my musicality, my ability to step on the accents and fit the phrases. This gave me enjoyable tandas with musical partners but was a hell at musicality workshops! I didn't understand, I wasn't able to do anything of the stuff a teacher asked! The lessons became easier when I learned to recognize the retuning ONE in the music structure and the workshops became bearable! The retuning ONE is a fundamental base, giving me valuable anchoring points in music and organizing the sometimes overwhelming musical chaos. It was so for me and therefore to make it easier for you I have written down some guidelines which I used to break through the sound barrier in tango!

How to recognize the ONE and series of them!

The most important guide for me has been Joaquin Amenabar's book Tango: Let's dance to the music! When I got it I had been dancing for 10 years without never recognizing a single ONE. After doing the exercises for two weeks I first time knew: THIS is ONE! and HERE is another ONE! and there!  and here again!

The exercises made me sound, tap, sing and step - to approach the music from different angles and I was put to express the sounds my ears could catch. For me this has been the most important tool for development - to do something when I hear the music, to train my body to become synchronized with the sound, to connect my ear and foot! That's what the dance is about, isn't it?

The book will be available again later in autumn! This time digital and in seven languages!

There are a lot of other things dancers can do by themselves at home. Youtube provides some helpful features for aiding the learning and I have used these possibilities! When listening to youtube songs I do it sometimes at a higher speed because that emphasizes the sound structure and the One is more audible. Another trick is to put the volume down so you hardly hear the weakest parts and this highlights the ONE structure to be easily recognized. .... and all the time I am tapping on the table, on the edge of my laptop to clue the music and body together!

On youtube you also find JuanayJulio website with several examples presented with rhythms and suggested steps. Here is an example of tango and milonga! Tap you through these examples several days in a row! Leave them for a while and return again for some additional days! On an adventurous day, you can test the steps too or test the songs with more variation on the structure.

tango: https://youtu.be/pZzLqvpeuA4Aa
milonga  https://youtu.be/rQ5m1z2ebXM


I work happily at home but If you like to work together with others, form a group and learn together or maybe the teachers are with you! There may be an occasion, time for such a course! Ask them! During a workshop teachers can help their students forward by using a short exercise or a game for learning and then even the music educated can survive the training moment without getting dead bored!  

I have also noticed that when the base is stable many additional patterns can be developed more easily. Just this now: 1-3-1-3. When you know the ONE and step on it you can place the next step in the middle on your way to the next ONE. Try the milonga above with this in mind!

My initial drive to work on music was to become a more skilled dancer! Music was part of the path. Later on, the motivation and goals became more diversified including the enjoyment for me and my partner, understanding the lessons, to hear more details as well as larger structures in music. The persistent basic training has even increased my enjoyment in listening to other music and the enjoyment seems to continue growing . . . . 

 

How to orient among all these options?

The different timbres of a CD

The most stunning surprise in Buenos Aires milongas was the sound quality. It gave me a feeling that the music was surrounding me in a soft nearly touch-able way. It was so overwhelming that I got tears in my eyes on a milonga where the feeling was strongest. It was nearly that I could feel the music with my skin as strongly as with my ears. The music was not loud but it gave still a kind of bodily sensation.

When I tried to compare it to something else the quality of air comes quite near. At home in Nordic the air doesn't usually give so much of a sensation but on a warm summer evening the air gets thicker and you can sense the air directly on your skin. It is rolling heavily towards me or I feel that I am floating in it. The ordinary air is hardly noticeable.

When I pointed this out to an experienced DJ friend she immediately agreed to it and said that the songs are more powerfull in Buenos Aires (Swedish: maffigare).

In La Viruta I pointed it out to another experienced DJ and he interrupted me and said: Yes! You are right! It's richer, I never heard Biagi as rich as it sounds here! (Swedish: fylligare)

I started to ask around about the possible reasons for this more rich sound in BA vs. at home and got following suggestions:

• Degree of humidity which carries the sound in different way
• The old buildings create different/softer echoes and sound
• The building materials are different
• The sound systems are different compared back home
• BA is the center of tango and the mental state creates the difference

However some people were upset and pointed out that the acoustics is quite lousy at many venues and therefore the sound was not so pleasant.

On the other hand I do not think this is about plain acoustics, how the sound is advancing in the venue, but more about the other qualities of the CD in this venue! I do not have any formal education in this area so the thoughts below could be seen as teaser for more able thinkers. But here we go!

In music they have a concept of tone color, timbre. It means that an individual note sounds totally different when it is played/produced with different instruments. When a note comes alive the piano gives you a different sound compared to an oboe or violin or whatever instrument you pick. With other words a note sounds different in different places/instruments and the composers are using this to create different auditory and emotional landscapes in their work.

I think that the very same CD does sound different in different locations, in different circumstances. A CD gives you a deeply different experience based on the venue and the crowd, a difference not only caused by the sound systems. With other words if you would play the CD with the same sound system in different locations the experience can still be deeply different.

I am sure this is not recognized by all dancers but for some this is definitely part of the magic of Buenos Aires milongas. The BA sound gives them a more rich and powerful emotional experience, contributing to the magical experience.

Just think about it and you maybe realize the richness of the BA sound as the DJs above did!

These wikies are adding some more facts to this teaser!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustics

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timbre

Finnish tango 100 years today!

The  2nd November 1913
is the clearly stated  date for the start of tango in Finland. That day a Danish couple/three French couples had a dance performance at a restaurant in Helsinki presenting the newest steps from Paris; the Tango!

There are some others claiming that the tango was presented earlier by a Finnish dancer and the fact that music came earlier sounds reasonable too.

This early succes was not enough to establish the tango in the whole nation and it took years, until the second world war to hit to the roots of the Finnish soul. It is said that when the Argentine tango was combined with the Slavic romances and coloured by German march rhythms the whole country did open their hearts to this new music.

This is the result! Filmed at the Frostbite festival February 2013.

Here you find a palylist for some popular tangos and tango singers!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SIqnLmoNS0&list=PL1D0272D95EA04EAA

no Milongas but Dance evenings!
There is not specific tango evenings but tango is one dance among the 8-12 other kind of dances during an evening. This is the case even for the biggest tango gatherings in the country - Tangomarkkinat - which has around 100 000 visitors during a weekend. Two tangos, 8 other dances (two same kind of songs for each)  and then tango again even there!

no YouTube but Competitions!
It has been nearly impossibly to find any clips in youtube and Finns don't post anything today either. The clips on line are posted by foreigners mostly by johnofbristol. In Finland the feedback is received from judges in the countless competitions! Here a posting from a competition, semifinals:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5BqKCFLIic


How it was to grow up with this kind of tango?
The feeling now is that I was virtually surrounded by tango, but not actually.
http://leadingladyl.blogspot.se/2011/01/another-kind-of-tango.html


New York times has visited the Tangomarkkinat, the Finnish festival.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/16/world/europe/finnish-tango-the-passion-and-the-melancholy.html?_r=0

A blog posting at Tango Voice - Finnish Tango is worth reading if you like details too!
http://tangovoice.wordpress.com/2011/01/10/finnish-tango-tango-finlandia/

Neatherland Radio is talking for 30 mins about the tango and tango history in Finland.
What is the difference between A and F tango? If you kill your wife's lover can you sing about it?
http://www.rnw.nl/english/radioshow/tango-minor-key


John Wards blog gives you a continuous contact to the Finnish tango culture; enjoy!
http://finnishtango.blogspot.se/

If you plan to visit Finland, you can find the tango information in Face Book: https://www.facebook.com/groups/5555248820/?fref=ts

QQS in milonga and tango

For me the Quick Quick Slow or a double step pattern in tango is different compared to the same pattern in milonga. Or more exactly - the process we create the QQS is the same but the time values for our steps are different. I am reasoning like this:

The bar below is a 4/4 kind of measure - as you can see there is B1,  B2,  B3 and B4. In tango we normally step on B1 and B3 and we get a calm and peacefull caminata. (One box is 1/16 so 4 of them are 4/16 = 1/4) 

Tango: Measure I

To create more action we can do a double step, a Quick step, by dividing our ordinary step to two. By using B1, B2 and B3 we get our double time-step and a feeling of change and urgency. The boxes above present also a time value so we get following numbers

Quick:  a-d = 4 boxes =>  4/16 or 1/4
Quick:   e-h = 4 boxes => 4/16 or 1/4
Slow :   i-p  = 8 boxes =>  8/16 or 1/2

Milongas musical structure can vary but here we focus on steps and what happends when we split a step to two. In the green bar you find the red boxes indicating the accents in music and the steps you take in basic milonga. When your foot hits the floor at B1, the other foot will do the same on B2. Here we need to move some faster or make the steps shorter than in tango!

 Milonga: Measure I                                                                Measure II

When we devide our ordinary step in milonga we will put down our feet on B1, C and B2. We could also write it like a, c and e. Our numbers looks like this

Quick: a-b = 2 boxes => 2/16 or 1/8
Quick: c-d = 2 boxes => 2/16 or 1/8
Slow : e-h = 4 boxes => 4/16 or 2/8

If you compared the QQS above for tango and milonga you find the difference in time, don't you!

QQS have a timely difference even between the tangos going in different speed as well as for milongas in different speed. But we can still keep the formula!

What is Chicho doing?

Below you find a presentation of two measures in Milonga Sentimental.  The blue bar shows the habanera rhythm and you find the same information on the lower rows of the sheet music. To check the habanera you can listen to this early tango from Turkey. It starts with this musical pattern and you can follow the pattern with your fingers like this:

 The song is here!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dK3sSaB76k4

The red spots B1 and B2 are for basic stepping in milonga, but the dancers can make other choices of course :) Sometimes the action on the green line/the upper part on the sheet music is more prominent hiding the underlying habanera pattern. Can you spott some of these in Milonga Sentimental?


It looks like this with the notes. The information on the green lines are at the upper part and the blue habanera beats are placed on the lower lines.

In milonga you step on GOL - pe NUN-ca DI-sxx- TE por

(If this had been a tango your steps would have been on GOL - pe nun-ca DI-sxx-te por)

The link below is a version of Milonga Sentimental with Chicho and Eugenia. I put the start a few seconds before the text starts:
so listen to the text and look at his feet.
GOL - pe NUN-ca DI-sxx- TE por

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=--I61uRCsn4#t=83s

What are Chicho and Eugenia doing during these two measures?
Only basic stepping?
Extra steps?
If Eugenia is doing two steps here how are they placed?

If you want to check the sheet music for the whole Milonga Sentimental you will find it here!
http://www.todotango.com/spanish/las_obras/partitura.aspx?id=253

Ricardo Vidort and Muma

Ricardo Vidort
Every stage of your path in tango has its own scenery. This is for a milonguero who has danced for 60 years. At this point it is quite sure you got the essence of this dance clear for you.

The most important for me is this:*The body doesn’t think, the body feels the music as a way to move it and walk, and if we put attention to what our body is feeling, we shall see we are moving.*

Old milonguero knowledge for you via an interview with Ricardo Vidort on Jantango's blog
http://jantango.wordpress.com/2012/08/31/ricardo-vidort-again-in-his-own-words/

An video interview with Muma, who has been dancing with Ricardo Vidort.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QfDZVX9wpI&list=UUKAaJeHDmrdn0J4XHrXiLwg&index=1&feature=plcp

Muma as teacher
We are different as persons and need different methods to easily learn to make moves connected to the music. It seems that Muma has a different way giving a key to some learners. Please read this story:

*In my experience, sequences held me back for years learning AT, I think because my mind didn't have the framework for them. Sequences are definitely not a necessary part of the learning experience and the first teacher able to teach me social dance, was Muma, a Molinguera who just had me walk and feel the music and then after I mastered that, she then taught me several little things like ocho cortadas (just the cortada piece which can be on the right or left), weight changes, double times, check steps, trespies, ocho steps, various turns, back steps, crosses and back crosses which can all be done in an amazing variety of ways.

I actually think that most people like me, unable to learn from sequences, end up dropping out and quiting tango and the only reason why I never gave up is because I was extremely stubborn. I actually thought that I had a learning disability until I met Muma and she straightened me out ridiculously fast. I know that some people have minds with a frameworks such that sequences work well for them and I have nothing against that. I see it as intuition vs. intellectual ways of dancing and I can respect both, but intuitive dancing feels much better to me personally. It is a real shame that there are so few teachers that can teach to intuitive minds like mine. Robert Hauk is one of the only teachers within 100's of miles of me that I can actually learn from, and kinesthetic learners like me mostly leave tango and never come back. I have talked to a lot of other people (artist types) who were unable to learn tango from sequences and I think sequences are much better teaching aids for analytical people like programmers, engineers, or mechanics, which is why there are not many artist types dancing tango.*  (link to the original posting)

A lesson with Muma
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p32q5E1lYVQ&feature=relatedhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p32q5E1lYVQ&feature=related

A feeling of speed

After thinking a lot i noticed that the speed in music has two aspects as i see it. I try to explain how i am reasoning.

We keep us to the four quarter notes, 4/4 time signature

The first option is how long every and each quarter note is sounding. If we think ordinary tango with 5 parts, 16 measures each, then we get totally 80 measures which usually takes 2,5 mins to play. But we could modify the music file and play it faster, in 2 mins or slower so it takes 3 mins.

How many measures are passing per minute?

Another way to create a feeling of speed is the number or accents within a measure demanding our steps.

How many accents there is per measure?

As dancers we can decide the number of accents we want to use for our steps. Usually in tango we have two accents per measure. If we would step only on 1 and the same for next measure we create a much calmer, slower feeling. In milonga there is 4 accents and when we take them all it can go quite fast!

How many accents we step per measure?

When you are playing a dance video in slow motion you are using the first alternative. The music and dansers steps are the same but sloooooower.


                    In dance the steps are the changing element and the music a constant

Traspie thoughts!

I am pretty convinced that traspie is used as a group name for all steps faster than double-time steps in tango. These fast steps come up every now an then in tango but regularly in milonga. Follow me!

When we are talking about ordinary tango, 4/4, there is a shared understanding for the usual steps, where they should be placed and how they relate to the music and the notes! The following variations are known even if there is a lot of frustration because of the names of them. In the illustrations below you find all the four beats, accents, for a 4/4 tango written as B1, B2, B3 and B4. The accents we use for ours steps will be marked with red color.

Half time-step

We take only one step during a whole measure.

You can take a step extremly slowly or decorate during the *waiting time*.


Simple time-step

We step on B1 and B3.

 The usual way to walk, to go in caminata.


Double time-step

You can do it like B1_B2_B3  or  B1_B3_B4 as illustrated below!

These are the fastest basic steps in tango in two variations.

These are the names for basic speeds for tango steps but there is a lot of situations when it goes faster and those steps are called traspie. There is traspies in tango, but it happens far more often in milonga. The ordinary milonga steps are double as fast as for tango. When you in tango take two steps you are putting down your feet four times in milonga.(*) So basic milonga steps are as double-time steps in tango, continuously. It means that if you do some kind of double-time steps in milonga they end up in traspie group; they are double-double-time in tango.

To review the traspie possibilities in milonga we need to understand the structure of milonga first. It has a basic rhythm with two accents, two beats marked below as B1 and B2, and the measure is 2/4. Above this basic rythm we have a fixed rhythmic pattern often called habanera and here marked by H1, H2, H3 and H4. Pay attention for the differences in duration for habanera accents. The basic rhythm and habanera are sounding together at B1/H1 and B2/H3 but H2 and H4 are sounding alone. Please check here! The red ones are for your steps!

The explanation below is valid for all milongas but it is not so easy to hear or produce them during a fast milonga. So try them while listening to a slow milonga, for example Milonga Sentimental.

Traspie variation 1
We step on both beats in this milonga measure, B1 and B2, as well as H4. This could be seen as a double-time step in milonga - but keep in mind that it is double-doble-time compared to tango steps above.

You can dance this in many different ways but to start with use rock step. B1 right foot forward, B2 left foot forward, H4 rockstep backward, B1 forward

Traspie variation 2
Here also we step on both beats, B1 and B2, as well as on c. There is no clear accent for c and if you have a trained ear you can get a feeling to step offbeat.This could also be seen as a double-time step in milonga/double-double-time step in tango as the case was for Traspie variation 1 above.

 

You can dance this in many different ways but to start with use rock step. B2-right foot forward, B1 left foot forward, c rockstep backward, B2 forward


Traspie variation 3
This traspie is fundamentally different compared to the ones above because it introduces a double-double-doubel-time step compared to tangons double-time step. We use the both basic beats B1 and B2 but this time we step even on the second habanera accent H2.

We can use the rockstep here too but the time space is so short that there is hardly time to rock but only replace the foot before us some centimeter further forward. This gives me a clear feeling of stumbling.

Here you have a link to Milonga Sentimental as a guitar version with sheet music.
http://www.todotango.com/spanish/las_obras/partitura.aspx?id=253

(*)

Milonga   
Measure I                                                                                    Measure II

    

Tango
Measure

.

Expressions of follower musicality

I have had hard time trying to find the difference between a musical expression and an adorno. Both are part of the follower's musicality and so far the degree of independence of the movement is the most clear difference I have found. For adornos a follower takes own initiatives based on music and the time available. One of the most frequent adornos are the small kicks done every now and then. Another possibility is the marking with the toes on music.

Noelia is following fantastically the piano here!



The followers can find a lot of ways, when carrying out the lead and they have a lot of space to find a personal way to take the steps according to her personal musical taste.

Here you have one of Juana's! That planeo is fantastic!


But there is a beautiful area in between these two, where the follower just adds something extra to the lead.

Watch this, when Juana takes the step and goes down following the piano.



Or this one from Noelia when she divides the step to a series of steps; first slowly and then with two markings!

I am touched

When I started to dance, there were no YouTube videos and I didn't have access to videotapes either. The skill and knowledge in our community was the whole universe and the local teachers were the only source of knowledge, our heroes and heroines. We were enjoying our dance!

Things have changed since then and today the best performances are always availble in the net, so my eyes are used to certain standard.  And that little voice inside me is always looking for mistakes, criticising. That little voice is keeping me on the surface, keeping me from experiencing anything.

There has been two situations where this critical voice has been shut up, repeatedly! In both cases the couple was dancing and in their dance the music was more in center than the steps. Suddenly I noticed that it was quiet inside me and I was deeply enjoying the dance.

The third one is this video where an old man is singing in an afternoon milonga. I discovered this clip about a year ago and since then I have returned back every now and then. When I am listening to his song, I get alive inside, somehow his song is giving me an anchor to the deeps inside me. I am touched.

Live Music with Kate & Roberto

My odd musicality

I have no musical education so the basic singing and some dancing are the only active experiences of music before tango.

For some reason I started to walk to music and I soon noticed that at certain times the steps got a deep meaning for me. Then suddenly I felt again how ridiculous it was to walk around to music, alone at home. I started to chase these meaningful steps because those steps must connect to the music in right way. I became an intuitive dancer and I mostly placed my steps according to the structures other then basic count.

I had also lost my childhood musical memory so I never knew what was coming next - I felt as if being an audio head in an old tape recorder. This forced me to dance without any plans, but just concentrating on the music sounding NOW. You don't necessarily need to know what is coming next; Followers are actually doing that all the time - they seldom know what movements are coming next. Leader's relation to music is similar as the followers relation to my steps.

For these reasons I was TOTALLY unaware of beat, phrases and the parts of tango.

How was I doing then?

In the beginning of a song I let my body move on the spot and find the music, find the feeling of meaningful movements and then go. Some times I was pointed out as the only (!?) one on the small pista who was stepping on the beat all the time. I got positive feedback on my phrasing and my dancing was great fun for followers too.

But to participate on a musicality workshop was a living hell to me!

Walk on beat .......? Walk only on 1 ....?? I was painfully aware of being different, I was out. I tried to look how others were doing and asked my follower. The last two years of that period I was aware of that others heard something very vital in music, but what? I couldn't form a question and nobody asked me how I was doing.

About two years ago a tango friend gave me Joaquin Amenabars book Tango:Let's Dance to the Music! I started to do the practical exercises and two weeks later I heard first time the beat - I was totally exhilarated! Totally! Several years of frustration was canalised in work with that book. I have done it several times alone and several times with tango friends.

But there is one big devil!

My early tango was magical, something between my body and the music. I did not have control of it, the first time in my life my aware brain did not have anything to say when the feet were dancing. Quite interesting, nice!

I was and I still am afraid of that the musical training changes my dance to some kind of mechanical step machinery. Therefore I try to balance the technical drills with other exercises to keep the magical, emotional side strong enough

Dancing to knowledge

A joyful way to learn more about relationship between music and steps is to watch the videos at La Milonga del Trenos YourTube channel. The channel owner loves old dance movies and combines that with the love to Argentine tango. He/she uses a lot of creative imagination and hours of time to find a suitable match and sometimes the result is an amazing fit, but you can learn a lot from the revealed difficulties too.

It is clear that the vals and milonga with their fixed patterns are easiest to match. I knew this fact earlier, but the videos here gave me the experience. These videos will also visualize for you how much more variation the tango structure has and how far more complicated it is to find a suitable match with an movie dance sequence and a tango.

The good tango/movie match makes me aware of the shared, general rules for tango and other  kinds of music. It is fascinating to notice how large the shared area is. On the other hand the unmatching sequences are revealing the unique parts for tango and the movie music. I think the situation on the pista has some similarities - in the laudspeakers the song is same but most of the dancers are listening to a different song. The steps are showing, what your BRAIN hears!

I wonder if this is a problem for the performers? There is one song in the laudspeakers but the audience comes with their inner versions of the song. I suppose performers must somehow be able to form the dance so it is logical, connected in some extent to all the inner versions of this same song, among the audience.

So test yourself, watch some of the videos at the channel and ask yourself:
Where do the steps and tango go together?
Where do they differ?
What is the overall feeling for this tango? Do the steps express that feeling?

When practising check if....
Are my steps speeding up more than the music does?
Do my feet express the musical accents or were they lost?
Did you noticed something else to look after in your own dance?

Please, click the channel name Canale di lamilongadeltreno  and you get there directly! 

   

What a movies they made those days! I just LOVE  to be entertained!

Here you have some of my favorites! 


Milonga
La Milonga del Treno - Azabache
La Milonga del Treno - Sacale punta

Vals
La Milonga del Treno - Lagrimas y Sonrisas
La Milonga del Treno - Desde el Alma

Tango
La Milonga del Treno - El Huracàn
La Milonga del Treno - La Colegiala
La Milonga del Treno - Carnaval de mi barrio

Libertango portal

I think the biggest surprise when working on this Libertango portal was the lack of ordinary tango performances! There is some but not in the numbers as for other tangos.

The second one was the fact that it is so appreciated  world wide, of different ages so you can find it in repertoirs of old musicians as well as the ones below 10 years. It is also suitable as background music for beauty contests and car races - amazing!

..

Please click here and enjoy this small selection!

There is different themas for playlists:

Moves us - dance and performances
Unusual instruments - never seen like them
Chicas - things from bellydancing to stage
Outdoors - all kind of activities under the skyes
Classics - the old ones and the next generation




PS. It seems there is some problems with the music, which is not allowed to be shown in all countries. Please send me a note if you can not see this. I will check what I can done for this...... 

Theremin portal

When working on an other portal I came across the Russina instrument theremin again but this time I got fascinated by it.

This portal shows that the instrument is still alive! Really popular in Japan where they have at least one orchestra with 100 musicians. There is also an iPhone app so you can play it everywhere!

Please enjoy!