[Tango-L] why music

[David]

Martin,

It really is as simple as, different people learn in different ways. 
The music doesn't help me to learn figures (at least not initially), but 
it might for you.  For me, the music helps me once I know the figures, 
but not before then.

Another observation I'll make, is that a lot of what you posted seems to 
have more to do with dancing (executing), and less to do with learning, 
which is what Michael's post seemed to be about.

As an aside, my wife made a comment to me recently about how differently 
(worse) I dance in classes, than I do at milongas, to which I explained, 
at milongas I'm not fooling around with stuff that I don't know how to 
do yet.  That's when the music can inspire and help me, once I've 
already learned it, (not so much when I don't really know what I'm doing 
yet).

YMMV

David


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Date: Thu Jul 7 12:50:42 EDT 2011
From: "Nussbaum, Martin" <mnussbau at law.nyc.gov>
Subject: [Tango-L] why music
To: <tango-l at mit.edu>

I understand your position, Michael, but I respectfully disagree with
your conclusion.  The music helps one understand the figure. The human
brain is a marvelous mechanism that has the evolved the ability to use
multiple references to anchor a memory, including the visual details of
where the event is experienced, the emotional details of how you felt
and with whom you were dancing or practicing, and what music is playing
to anchor the figure.  They all tie together.   Perhaps some people are
stronger in visual retention, others in aural retention, but most people
dance because of their joy in the music, so this helps dancer's anchor a
memory of a figure.  Personally, at the point of the class when Chicho
or Gustavo anchor the tempo of a figure in a specific phrase of music,
and it expresses the mood of the piece, it becomes so much clearer, and
i remember it so much better.  So I believe the converse, if you cant
execute it with the help of a music phrase to anchor it,  you certainly
cant execute it abstractly.