March 14, 2020
March 14, 2020

Teach Yourself to DJ

All the tango DJ’s I know have taught themselves the art.  You can teach yourself, but DJing is a lot of work, and it takes a lot of study to become good at it, so don’t bother unless you seriously want to do it. As I write this, on 3/14/20, most milongas have been cancelled, and most people are staying home.  This is a perfect...

May 23, 2019
May 23, 2019

Quick, Quick, Slow

You could listen to tango music as a mix of Quick, Quick, Slow rhythmic patterns, and slow walking steps . . . with the occasional pause.  You could dance to tango music using slow walking steps – in any direction – and QQS step patterns, according to what you hear in the music.  With just a little practice, you could improvise this kind of dance,...

May 29, 2019
May 29, 2019

Sound System Equalizing

Whether you use a stand-alone equalizer, or the equalization function in iTunes, you can set your equalization to match most of the tango music which we usually use.  It is wise to listen to each song you use, to see if further equalization adjustments are needed, but this procedure will get you a good general-purpose equalizaton: https://elespejero.wordpress.com/2014/12/17/eq-4-tj-getting-the-best-sound-out-of-your-tango-records/ When I followed this procedure, I ended up...

July 7, 2019
July 7, 2019

What is Improvisation?

Improvisation is the foundation of dancing tango, but you might ask exactly what constitutes improvisation.  Of course, we all understand improvisation in a general way, so we might ask where, exactly, do we draw the line between improvisation and not improvisation. A quick definition of improvisation is that it is combining the position and momentum of your partner, with a rhythm heard in the music,...

July 8, 2019
July 8, 2019

Milonga Sound Equipment

In a previous post I noted the sound quality problem with music in a dance hall.  The speaker’s mechanical distortions, the high frequency delay from the crossovers, the varying echo in different parts of the room, and the standing wave overlaps here and there, each cause muddiness and loss of crispness in the music.  Taken together they cause the music to sound like a mix...

July 9, 2019
July 9, 2019

Teach Yourself to Tango

Many dances are based on learning certain figures, and then performing them correctly on the dance floor.  Not tango.  Tango is not based on figures; Tango is based on moving in response to the music, along with your partner: “Tango is Musicality and Connection” as the tango maestros say again and again.  In tango classes it’s common to teach figures rather than Musicality and Connection,...