[Tango-L] Some leaders *are* trying to learn Tango rhythm - forsome of us, it's just not easy

[Jeff Gaynor]

Victor Bennetts wrote:
> Here is another idea. Actually try learning a musical instrument. I know a few musicians who are dancers and they are all musical as you would expect, although their dancing might suck for other reasons :-) I don't think you need a degree in music to be able to dance tango well, just a basic understanding is fine. And if you are really musically challenged or can't be bothered with the tedium of learning all those scales, just do what I do and sing the words of your favourite tango songs in the shower/car. All the words are on the internet and once you have sung something yourself, no matter how badly, it is amazing how much more intimately you understand it.
>   
Good suggestion. Something a bit more practical. Go grab a pair of 
chopsticks or pencils, throw on your absolute favorite piece (doesn't 
have to be tango, but something you know really well). Play it and tap 
the rhythm out for one of the lines. Say play it once, doing the bass, 
then once along with the melody, then another time with some other 
instrument. After you feel comfy doing it with a piece you know by 
heart, try it with a favorite tango. Try it 5 minutes a day for a week. 
You'll like the result. Oh, you probably want to stick with something 
easy initially, like di Sarli. If you start with Pugliese or Piazzolla 
you'll get frustrated more likely than not.

For you musician types out there, a really simple way to stick a dance 
together is to follow the structure of the music. So I have a basic 
pattern for each subsection* and then vary that. Makes it a lot easier 
to go with the music and so far the followers think it feels natural. 
Just curious if anyone else does this. But then again, I'm such a 
structuralist I can only sing atonal music by modulating every other 
note...  :o)

Cheers,

Jeff G


* Music geek stuff: Tango is written in ABA where each section is 
usually also ternary (usually) binary.  So ABA --> aba, cdc, aba for 
example. Have some figure for each of the lower case letters.