Listening to music to improve dancing skill

[chansondiamor]

Hi, beginner here, enjoying the journey so far.

I have heard people say that to progress in tango music you need to listen an awful lot to tango music. Why is this and is there a particular 'way' to listen, or can it just be background music as i go about my day? What kind of music in particular, as there are many types of tango songs?

I'm a leader if that makes a difference

 

[opendoor]

Hi chansondiamor, welcome to DF!
My personal opinion is that you don't have to listen to tango music specifically. Most people are musical and constantly listening to tango doesn't really improve them.

Nevertheless, as a tango beginner, I listened to tango all day and night. But I didn't analyze the music, I immersed myself in it. I remodeled my apartment to suit tango, I walked around in black togs and geared everything towards my hobby. That's why I listened to tango all the time, but without any ulterior motives or agenda.

..What kind of music in particular, as there are many types of tango songs?

The field of tango music is too large to make suggestions. Some will certainly answer that you should be able to recognize the so-called "Big 4" orchestras. I don't think so. When I was a beginner, however, I noticed that I liked certain music better than others. For such pieces, I asked about the artists. Nowadays, that's easy with Shazam. That's how my taste was formed and slowly filled my music library as a DJ.

 

[Rabbit]

I have heard people say that to progress in tango music you need to listen an awful lot to tango music. Why is this and is there a particular 'way' to listen, or can it just be background music as i go about my day? What kind of music in particular, as there are many types of tango songs?

It helps to improve your understanding of musical structure in general, but you can do this by listening actively to any music. I recommend starting with a genre you're familiar with, it's easier than trying to learn on an unfamiliar one. You can for example focus your attention on different instruments, try to predict what's coming next and when there will be breaks in the music. Dance, or tap your feet or fingers.

You can acclimatize to the tango sound by having it in the background sometimes but it's important to listen to other genres of music as well or your brain will probably anchor to the wrong things.

 

[TTanguero]

I suspect you'll get as many opinions on this as there are members here!

I think in truth it depends on the individual. For me personally, listening to tango music almost 24/7 was absolutely key. The more I listened, the more the musical structures embedded themselves into my brain, and the more able I was to dance to unfamiliar music as a result.

The more I listened, the more I fell in love with the music. The more I listened, the more layers I would hear, and the more possibilities I would see to express them. Plus anytime I'm moving around my home while music is playing, I'm dancing. Indeed, there is all kinds of CCTV footage of me dancing on tube platforms, walking down the street, etc, so my body figured out how to do all kinds of things that hadn't occurred to my head.

My advice is try it for a while, then evaluate.

 

[Gssh]

I think that while listening to a lot of tango can be helpful to develop an intuitive understanding of the formulas underlying tango music it is more useful to actively engage with the music. What worked for me was singing along and doing awful tango scatting. Singing along makes phrasing and other musical structures really obvious.

Another exercise is something Homer taught at one of his workshops: He asked us to sing the tango to our partner. No dancing, no embrace, just singing to each other. Hearing what my partner actually hears and wants to sing along in the music, and listening how it fit (or didn't fit) into what i was singing along was quite interesting. We did not do this a lot after the workshop - we wanted to use practice time for technical stuff, and we worked on musicality on our own, (and neither of us was all that confident about singing), but try and see if this is useful for you.

 

[opendoor]

..Another exercise is something Homer taught at one of his workshops: He asked us to sing the tango to our partner. No dancing, no embrace, just singing to each other. Hearing what my partner actually hears and wants to sing along in the music, and listening how it fit (or didn't fit) into what i was singing along was quite..

Thank you for this creative inspiration. Although I have met Homer several times and attended workshops, I am not yet familiar with this particular intervention of his.
I deliberately chose the word intervention because it is not a didactic aid, quite the opposite. Tango, especially the sub-style propagated by d'Arienzo, gained its popularity not through the melody but through the groove. Horizontal structures appear in the arrangements of early d'Darienzo perhaps just as a short violin run (contramelodic) at the end of a verse. I therefore see Homer's intervention more as a clever move to break through familiar listening patterns. Thanks for sharing, this also expands my didactic toolbox.

 

[Bailango]

Another exercise is something Homer taught at one of his workshops: He asked us to sing the tango to our partner. No dancing, no embrace, just singing to each other.

Can’t think of worse exercise to subject my partner to. You don’t want to be within miles if I had to attempt to sing!

 

[Gssh]

Can’t think of worse exercise to subject my partner to. You don’t want to be within miles if I had to attempt to sing!

My singing is horrible, so while i thought was an interesting exercise i found it very hard to enjoy, and there were other ways of working on this that i liked better. I hope somebody tries and it is perfect for them.

 

[ArbeeNYC]

Hi, beginner here, enjoying the journey so far.

I have heard people say that to progress in tango music you need to listen an awful lot to tango music. Why is this and is there a particular 'way' to listen, or can it just be background music as i go about my day? What kind of music in particular, as there are many types of tango songs?

I'm a leader if that makes a difference

You'll get a lot of different replies but, in general, I'd say that it's a good idea to start listening to the music on a regular basis. An interesting exercise for you might be to listen to it chronologically from, say, about 1925 up to about 1955. That would be an interesting listening experience and also expose you to the music's development. And musical structure and transitions will be more obvious in the early music.

 

[JournalInTime]

Echoing the "You'll get lots of different answers" reply. My personal experience was that I needed to listen to tango music, specifically, for two reasons:

1. To like it. Sure, you can learn all about abstract musical structure from any music, or I suppose even from books or phone apps. However, tango has a very specific gamut of instruments played according to a small range of peculiar styles to create particular harmonies, according to compositions intended to be danceable using tango steps first and agreeable to listen to second. For quite a while, I found it to be charmless music – a horrific din that reminded me of the music my grandfather played through a horn from wax cylinders (he was born in 1899). Exposure to tango, the music as I studied tango, the dance led me to understand why it sounded like it sounded, and eventually to appreciate it as music.

2. To be ready for it. Tango is an improvised dance and you should never dance a tango the same way twice, much less choreograph it, unless you're actually choreographing for performance. However, there are only about 150-200 tangos out of all the thousands that exist that you'll hear all that often. Knowing that core œuvre from the first few notes lets you invite someone, or choose to accept or decline an invitation from someone, on the basis of whether you like the music and/or feel that's the right person to dance that music with. It also lets you avoid being stuck dancing an energetic piece that starts deceptively slow, or vice versa, or an intense piece that starts deceptively light, or vice versa, at moments when your energy or focus isn't suited to it.

These days, all that listening I did means that I can dance reasonably well to a totally unknown piece, or to live music by playful musicians, because I know the structures and the surprises that tango music supports. Some people here will claim that those things aren't unique to tango, but are general musical principles. I can only respectfully disagree with them.

But I still listen to tangos when I work on boring, repetitive tasks, or cook, or mix cocktails, or host a dinner party with tango friends, because now I actually like to listen to them! Especially with other tango people, when conversation trails off, knowing which era of what orquesta with who on piano (or whatever) provides an instant subject of discussion.

(Edited to add: All of the above assumes that most milongas in your region play close to 100% traditional music, mainly from Argentina and Uruguay, from the 1920s up to about the early 1960s, mostly by a short list of well-liked orquestas. If you're in a community where modern tango, neo-tango, tango electrónico, alternative music, etc. is prevalent, it might be bad advice.)

 

[Rabbit]

Echoing the "You'll get lots of different answers" reply. My personal experience was that I needed to listen to tango music, specifically, for two reasons:

1. To like it.

Well, a lot of it actually isn't good.

Maybe a curated playlist of only high quality material (from all eras) that isn't too long might be a good idea

 

[JournalInTime]

Well, a lot of it actually isn't good.

Maybe a curated playlist of only high quality material (from all eras) that isn't too long might be a good idea

I think most of the 100-something tangos played all the time, out of the thousands to tens of thousands that exist, are . . . well, let's say better. But not always good, that's true. I listen to my tango music via a curated streaming audio service, which helps a lot.

 

[Tango Distance]

My experience is I got more benefit from musicality training than listening to music. My humble advice would be to right upfront get some musicality training (youtube videos, festival classes, local teachers, and the swing folks have good stuff). You'll be able to better listen and benefit from the music then.

• Always had music playing, knew 100s of rock songs. Only learned the main beat. I could "dance" on the main beat at night clubs. This is a case where lots of listening occurred, but I only figured out very rudimentary musicality on my own (like stop when music stops).
• I took a ballroom class, it didn't go well, so it doesn't really count. Tango was my real first exposure to formally learning to dance. I often really struggled to pick up even the main beat, I had to watch the instructor or listen to his clapping. It took about 3 months for me to generally be able to pick up the beat in Tango songs. I did little listening outside of class. I did learn fairly early Vals is 3 beats and other Tango music is 4.
• I then took some Tango musicality classes. Wow, what an eye, uh, ear opener! Some things I learned:
  • Call and response
  • ABAB etc song structure
  • Bridges between A and B or call and response sections
  • Step smaller to dance faster
  • Dance with more turning for Vals (molinettes and ochos), and simpler and faster for Milonga music.
  • Dance on the 1s for Vals, and things like 1.31..1.31 to get fancier. 123123 is often too fast but maybe for a slower Vals song.
• I also did swing lessons. My studio was big on musicality (maybe all Swing studios are?).
  • Swing music swings the beat: Beat Beat Beat (middle beat there is delayed a bit).
  • Beats are often in groups of 32, and build to a max, and then calm down to start over.
  • "and" is a very powerful concept. In my rock and roll dance days, it would be 1 2 3 4. After Swing lessons I learned many songs are 1 2 3 and 4 (and indicates an extra double time beat or note). Wow! Now I hear it all the time! Just knowing this puts one ahead of many night club dancers.
• The polyrhythmic nature of Blues Dancing is awesome. It doesn't really transfer to Tango, but it is fun to do at concerts (you can do it without moving your feet).
• Maybe 5 years into my Tango journey I got my first musicality compliment, now 11 years in I get that regularly. It definitely took me a while. It's one thing to hear the musicality opportunities, it is another to work them in and lead them!
• This has helped me appreciate more and dance better to rock, pop, blues, and other music as well as Tango music.

Practical musicality:

• I'm not going to claim this is the "one true way." Also, I think many people here on DF pick up on these things easier than I did/do, and their posts often have more assumed knowledge.
• Listen to the music, and practice with your fingers or dance steps in your head -- even while doing other things.
• Listen for 3 vs. 4 count to identify vals vs the rest quickly.
• Step smaller to dance faster. For call and response, for some songs it works to step slower for one, and faster for the other. To go really fast, I take literally 1 cm or even 0 cm steps.
• Another fun call and response thing is to do more turns for one, and more straight movements for the other.
• Find a song with a 1 2 3 and 4 beat. For a Tango step with a double time in it (like molinettes) do the double time during the 3 and 4 in the music. Other steps can work this way, like a rock step, or stepping twice with the same foot.
• Side steps are super versatile for musicality. You can do them really slow (harder to do for walking steps), or repeat a side step if you made a mistake and need another step to hit the last beat.
• Stop for stops in the music.
• Try to do something neat for the last note of a phrase or the end of a song. For example, end in a cross, or bring your feet together with emphasis. BTW, this doesn't have to mean you've perfectly planned ahead 12 steps (though that is nice if you can do it!). As it gets close, you can pause for a beat, do a slow step, or do a double time step to get in sync with getting the perfect finishing step on that last note.
• Some songs have what I call a "whoosh boomp" rhythm. It works well to take a big step with the left foot, for the "whoosh" and a short one with the right for the "boomp." It also works for ochos, do bigger, slower steps in one direction, and smaller faster ones for the other direction. I also do it with rock steps, pause on one foot, and then quick dab the other, rather than doing equal time.
• Exaggerated contra-body can work well for music that calls for big, marching steps.
• You can mix things up for interest: Do the "and" thing every other measure, or stop for a really fast burst of notes.
• Try dancing on different instruments. Nirvana is the leader dances on one instrument and leads the follower to dance on another instrument. I don't think I'll get there ever!
• I am surprised how many good dancers I see (in the sense of knowing and doing well many steps), but they only dance on the main beat, except for the standard double time steps in standard figures.
• I am surprised how many dancers only dance fast, and never slow it down, even briefly.
• FWIW, I think opening the embrace can be a good musicality and variety thing (ducks rotten empanadas being thrown at me...).
• One of my favorite songs for musicality is this version of Poema:

 

[opendoor]

..knew 100s of rock songs. Only learned the main beat...

Please don't reduce rock music to the main beat. I was still a pupil at school when we argued during the long break about whether Kashmir was in 9/8 time or how else 4/4 and 3/4 could be combined: everyone drummed the groove on their knees and anyone who was too opinionated got the accent of the main beat on their head.

..The polyrhythmic nature of Blues Dancing is awesome. It doesn't really transfer to Tango..

Also milonga is polyrhythmic in nature!

 

[TTanguero]

I then took some Tango musicality classes. Wow, what an eye, uh, ear opener! Some things I learned:

• Call and response
• ABAB etc song structure
• Bridges between A and B or call and response sections

I think those are all good examples of things you can learn explicitly, or simply absorb through lots of listening. I'd recognised and danced to call-and-response long before I encountered it as an explicit concept, for example.