[Tango-L] singers and how do you listen

Sat Mar 22 17:54:19 EDT 2008

In a message dated 3/22/08 6:17:52 AM Central Standard Time, 
keith at totango.net writes:

<< Looking back on how my tastes in tango music have changed (a constant
 rumination because of the dj and restoration interests), I realize the
 biggest shift has been in how I react to the singers.

 I thought - I'll bet others have been or will be going down the same road
 I have. Especially other non-Latins like me. Maybe I can shorten the time
 it takes to really appreciate the great tango singers.

 So, I've written a little piece called, "On Behalf of The Singers."

 http://ToTANGO.net/ttindex.html >>

Keith wrote a great piece on singers. Everyone should read it.
Which brings me to my thoughts.
It's funny how in tango nothing stays the same. Everything changes about my 
like and dislikes. How tango evolves inside each one of us.
One day we like one orchestra, and the next day a different group.
The same goes for Singers. In my early years of learning I didn't like 
Canaro, and didn't play any of his music. Now, he is on top of my list of favorites. 
Maybe I just learned to dance to his music better.
Maybe because I'm listening better.

The singers, for me, make dancing tango easier to express feelings.
I often tell my students that the tango had punctuation like a book.
It has a title, Chapters, Paragraphs, sentences, commas, periods and question 
marks.

Listening to the singer makes these punctuation marks more clearer to react 
to and express you feelings.

Where as I want to write into a different area, and slightly off this subject.
Just plain knowing the basics well, before going off in other directions of 
tango. Learn to stay with the music not the steps.

I went to so many lessons with Gavito and I constantly heard him say,
"tango is like a clock" and I heard him say Tick, tock as he showed the class 
their lesson. I didn't understand what he was saying at first. But it took me 
many, many years to finally understand what he was saying. This year infact. 
Today I hear the clock when I dance.
But, How do I teach this? How does anyone teach this?

Two years ago I spent 2 days with Dany Garcia along with Jon and Judy as my 
interpreters, and I have Dany saying on tape, that the sound goes into his 
ears, filters through his heart, and comes out his feet.
In other word, is Dany saying, listen to the music and let your feet sing the 
song.

I key word I keep using is hear or listen.

So many people really don't listen to the music or the orchestra as well as 
they should.
A month ago a lady on the L list told a couple they couldn't learn to tango 
unless they knew the music. You need to listen to learn.
 I go to milongas

 and see people performing dance steps and not dancing to the music. So I 
have to ask, are their teachers teaching this. 
How do we listen to the music? Once we learn this then we can dance to the 
music.

Since I became a DJ on WOBC 91.5 FM I'm reading anything I can get my hands 
on so I can express myself better on the air. If some of you only knew what 
some of the lyrics to songs were, you dancing would improve. 

I would like to see on this list, a conversation on 

How do we dance like we have something to say?
Instead of dance like we have something to show.

Timmy
in Cleveland
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