How to improve musicality

[pianistamediano]

... the evolution has pushed the interpretation more and more to a note by note fashion.

That is because many performers (which many dancers take inspiration from/strive to emulate/learn from) are dancers first, not musicians (through no fault of their own), and therefore necessarily work from a relatively limited musical perspective which ends up in that one-to-one mapping of notes to movements. That latter part also applies to many dancers, so even if the teacher is also a musician, they are limited in the scope of what they can convey about music in workshops and classes to those dancers.

Let music education proliferate; let the people listen carefully to the music, and let them try to discern more than just the dribs and drabs discussed over and over again in your typical musicality workshops. I look forward to the pruning of this dead end and (as you say) new, better music/movement relationships!

 

[opendoor]

..It's funny that she should mention that though, because without..

Perhaps the professionals are particularly aware of this discrepancy: your ego is boosted by publicity, but you become increasingly lonely and distance yourself from the anonymous crowd at the milonga. You live with your suitcase and have to put family planning on hold.
Noelia was not one of my close teachers. But I learned from Alejandra and Mariano for over two years and saw how the situation was taking its toll on the woman.

 

[LadyLeader]

That is because many performers (which many dancers take inspiration from/strive to emulate/learn from) are dancers first, not musicians

For me tango combines two independent parts: movement and music. I respect your dedication to music but I am different with my deep dedication, roots to movement. Therefore musical training is/was valuable to me only to some extent but would become a limiting factor later on.

 

[opendoor]

..some local schools... offer lessons that propose – in essence – to take show tango steps and put them on the social dance floor.. To bring in new blood and make money..

To be honest, JiT, I don't think it's a bad thing at all. We old men don't have to go to the milongas anymore. If you invite people to a private milonga in your living room, all is well with the world (I would come just because of the unusual mixed drinks, and of course I would bring along my shellacs, too). And by withdrawing from the public, you enable the few tango professionals that are left to survive (whatever their art is named).

 

[JournalInTime]

To be honest, JiT, I don't think it's a bad thing at all. We old men don't have to go to the milongas anymore. If you invite people to a private milonga in your living room, all is well with the world (I would come just because of the unusual mixed drinks, and of course I would bring along my shellacs, too). And by withdrawing from the public, you enable the few tango professionals that are left to survive (whatever their art is named).

Hah! I think the issue there is that my living room isn't big enough. I have dozens of close tango friends and hundreds of tango acquaintances.

But the state of mixology at the average milonga is another hot-button topic. Don't get me started!

 

[opendoor]

I am grateful for how you form this! ..during my years in tango ..evolution has pushed the interpretation more and more to a note by note fashion.. a dead end..

Breaks are part of development. And the attitude can also change and we will deconstruct what we have previously laboriously built up.

Maybe it's time for you to not only dance the tango, but also sing it with the guitar? Candombe drums also would be fine!

 

[Bailango]

Translated

Interview with Noelia Hurtado in La Gazzettango:

“Gz: Where does the future of tango lie, according to you?
NH: Phew, no idea, after so many changes I wouldn't know where it's going... but I hope it continues with a good hug and with both active roles! “

Back to the embrace part

 

[LadyLeader]

(When I push I choose a video and watch it every day for a week, leave it and after some time I have a new week!)

Chicho & Eugenia, an old one!


Fausto e Stephanie, milonga (click on the picture - fb opens)


Gianni Y Marina Tango, another vals (click on the picture - fb opens)


Almost everything from these couples
Joachim and Michelle
Fernandes and Ariadna

This gives you a glimpse about my inner preferences for musicality, some aspects of it. I think the difficulty is that you and me need to track similar aspects on a video to understand each other and how often does that happen!

I promised a few more videos easier to watch in YT:


If you are interested take the trouble and watch the fb videos above - two of my strong favorites.

Here Achaval milonga

Jimenez vals


Here two tango/vals/milonga combos
https://youtu.be/G9gvkOYtIqg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xH0hxO9SAV0&list=PL3-yf2D3DihbNvECHsgtKmQCEFNvjIt7b

 

[itwillhappen]

As life happens, I now went to a milonga with a tanguera from the early days, who once said to me at a festival: "it would also be nice if you danced more musically". Yes, yes, one does not forget things like that, but looking back, of course, she was right.
Only you should be careful with what you wish for ... more musicality often means that you sit out more tandas. Ironically, at this milonga with completely mixed music it was around 50% for me, so I wasn't able to dance with her as much as would have been helpful for her in that environment.

 

[opendoor]

...more musicality often means that you sit out more tandas.

That !

 

[Miradamiranda]

more musicality often means that you sit out more tandas.

Oh, not necessarily. Developing a discerning taste comes out of hearing things better, maybe, but more musicality doesn’t have to mean you become more picky. It can also mean you can make the most out of each song.

It can be interpreted the other way, too, that some of those people who are very picky with the songs they dance to, are only able to dance to those types of songs. It’s not a badge of honor to sit out because of the music. Of course, hopefully the music is inspiring, but still.

 

[itwillhappen]

If you are interested take the trouble and watch the fb videos above - two of my strong favorites.

Here Achaval milonga

After personal musical listening comes musical leading, and this is primarily dominated by which impulses the partner can follow without stress, especially at milonga rhythm.

And so he begins calmly in the 2nd phrase, with his closing sidestep on 4 clearly beside the rhythm. And he can't help but emphasize the end of the phrase, by the 7+8 he lands on the right leg and quickly switches to the left - without a reference in the rhythm - so that he can start uniformly with the right for his students.
Likewise with the squares in the next phrase, the steps on 4 and 8 beside the rhythm, it hurts to dance along. But it's a good introduction so as not to spread stress, and it has a musical appearance because he can walk confidently. And only in the 4th phrase does he start with the typical traspie hammering with 1+2 3+4 5+6 7+8. This also doesn't always exactly fit with the music, you can see it clearly in slow motion, but it's just a workshop summary and not a performance.

 

[itwillhappen]

Oh, not necessarily. Developing a discerning taste comes out of hearing things better, maybe, but more musicality doesn’t have to mean you become more picky. It can also mean you can make the most out of each song.

It can be interpreted the other way, too, that some of those people who are very picky with the songs they dance to, are only able to dance to those types of songs. It’s not a badge of honor to sit out because of the music. Of course, hopefully the music is inspiring, but still.

Of course. The advantage of such an attitude is that you don't need suited dance partners or even a suited floor, you are just happy to be able to make the best of the situation, at any milonga at any time.

The milonga in question had a 50% non-tango profile; not everyone feels like dancing to sacred organ music. And relative beginners often move joyfully and largely independently of such music.

 

[Rabbit]

Only you should be careful with what you wish for ... more musicality often means that you sit out more tandas.

I don't think it's musicality, one doesn't need to understand the music to like or dislike a song. Experience itself is the poison

 

[JournalInTime]

One doesn't even have to know the specific music to dance it musically. If you're at least a halfway decent dancer, that's a function of the music's structure. You can dance it at first listening.

I saw Bandonegro on November 10. I didn't know anything about their original compositions . . . I was there not as a fan of them, but as someone who attends all tango events with live music simply because we don't get enough of them. Anyway, their original pieces were structured like classic GA tangos, so despite having never heard them in my life, I was able to hit accents and pauses that I simply assumed had to be coming, and nail the finale. It wasn't harder to dance to those tunes than to, say, Tanturi or Biagi tunes I'd danced to hundreds of times.

I had similar experiences with Alejandro Ziegler Cuarteto Tango.

This is one reason why the classics are classics: They're structured for the dance. Whether you like them is another matter, but you can't deny that they just work if you know how to dance tango. This is why I have a healthy skepticism for people claiming to sit out such music because it's "undanceable": No, you just don't like to dance to it, which is entirely fine but not the same thing at all.

"Undanceable" does happen, but more often than not because some composer got too ambitious with wild shifts in key and signature (transpositions, modulations, or whatever they're called . . . I'm not a musician).