[Tango-L] What to call the normal tango walking beat?

[Trini y Sean (PATangoS)]

I think a useful way of talking about the walking beat is using "downbeat", as opposed to the "upbeat".  This becomes more obvious if you compare the ONE-two rhythm of tango versus the one-TWO rhythm of rock & roll (which emphasizes the upbeat, thus the names of the beats are fairly intuitive to the non-musician).  I interpreted your question as how to refer to the beat itself.

I also think of quarter-notes as indicative of how long a note is held, regardless of the beat.  (e.g, quarter-notes vs whole notes).  Of course, I'm not a trained musician.

The uses of single time, double time, and half time refers to the interpretation of a series of beats.

Hope this helps.

Trini de Pittsburgh
 


--- On Sun, 9/25/11, Jamie Gifford <tango at cocolisa.com> wrote:

From: Jamie Gifford <tango at cocolisa.com>
Subject: [Tango-L] What to call the normal tango walking beat?
To: tango-l at mit.edu
Date: Sunday, September 25, 2011, 12:11 PM

I am interested in what terminology people use to refer to the tango 
walking beat. I'd like to find terms that are precise but which don't 
create unnecessary confusion.

By the "tango walking beat", I mean the natural walking beat that 
usually has a speed of about 1 beat per second, that appears in the 
usual "caminata". I want to distinguish it from the faster (double 
speed) beat that appears in the "corrida".