This playlist focuses on the orchestra of Osvaldo Pugliese.
Author Archive for Robert Hauk
Music is an integral part of dance and every culture has its own way of dancing and feeling music. These differences may be subtle or profound and can present challenges when learning a dance from another culture. For North Americans the differences between our own familiar music and dancing and Argentinean music and dancing are profound. This article will explore some of what this will mean to the beginning tango dancer.
The period from about 1935 until around 1952 is considered the golden age of tango music in Argentina. A succession of military dictatorships contributed to a hiatus in tango dancing from the late 1950s until the return to a democratic government in the early 1980s. When the dance halls reopened people danced to the same music they had in their youth from the Golden Age. The dance those people passed along to the next generation (and hence the dance that we learned in North America) is intimately connected with this music. You will hear recordings from earlier and later than this period, but you will always hear music from the Golden Age when you go out dancing. This will form the main body of music you will be dancing to as a new tango dancer; to learn to dance tango well then one must learn something of this music.
The core rhythmic structure of tango music is very different from most North American popular music. North American popular music owes something to blues, and jazz as they developed in the American South. This music is intimately connected to the musical traditions of West Africa, and as a result it has drums. Even if drums are not used in a particular recording, we know what they would sound like anyway. This is relevant to a dancer because there is a way we will move to feel music, even if we aren’t experienced as dancers. For North Americans this will often translate to a percussive bounce on the offbeat, and a swaying from side to side, even if we are walking which is illustrated in this video of Elvis from ‘Jailhouse Rock’.
Tango has African elements and it has been argued at great length how far these roots go. However, from the dancer’s point of view the drums are gone; even the memory of drums. This total lack of drums is one of the main things that make tango music feel so different, accounting for a lot of the difference in how tango is danced. Since there is no rhythmic bounce in tango, the music is felt in completely different movements.
Tango is danced as a walking dance, much more so than any North American couple dance form. The new dancer will be learning to feel the music in the movements of walking, which will be unfamiliar. It is a challenge to leave behind familiar movements – bouncing on the offbeat, swaying the hips, side to side swaying movement, and so on. Everything we would do naturally to feel like dancing has to be rewired. This is why it is important to know the music this dance comes from because this music has exactly the feeling we are looking for in our movements.
The strongest threads in tango music come from Italy and Spain. In fact the majority of the famous orchestra leaders have Italian last names and were generally first generation immigrants; for example Julio De Caro’s father was a violin player from Italy. Since this music is so intimately connected to Europe there is a lot of familiarity in song anatomy in terms of verse structure, number of measures per phrase in the music and so on. This means that overall the songs will not be so hard to understand, however our main work will be to feel dancing in our normal walking.
The beginning dancer will want to find music to practice to. When I was first learning tango in the mid 1990s it was hard to find any tango music at all and even harder to find anything from the Golden Age. We danced to whatever we could find which generally meant it said “Tango” in the title. The “Forever Tango” soundtrack was popular then, and it must be said at least it had real tango music but it was most definitely not good music for us to practice to. Today’s beginning dancer will have another problem; there is so much music available it will be hard to know where to begin.
In my opinion the ideal music to practice the smooth walking characteristic of tango is from a little before the start of the Golden Age. I like music from the late 1920s and very early 1930s including Francisco Canaro, Orchesta Tipica Victor, and the sextet of Carlos Di Sarli. The music has a particularly regular walking beat, it is almost pedantic, which makes it great for practicing (though not so great for a dance party). I use this kind of music in my classes because it is so good for practicing this musical walking.
As you get comfortable with the foundations of walking you will want to move to more complex tango music. There will be a nice progression from the simpler music of the late 1920s to the much more complex music of the early 1950s.
If there is no beat there is no tango ~ Juan D’Arienzo
The best starting place to enter the Golden Age is with the orchestra of Juan D’Arienzo. The first thing you will notice about his sound is that it has a much more driving rhythm than the older music. Almost anything recorded in the Golden Age period will be danceable. His nickname was ‘The King of Rhythm’ (El Rey del Compas) and that speaks for itself. His music has a straight ahead rhythm, and it is always relatively easy to find the walking beat. There is more rhythmic variation used. Other orchestras with this kind of style are the orchestra of Edgardo Donato, especially in the period of the 1930s, and also the orchestra of Rudolfo Biagi. Biagi played piano in D’Arienzo’s orchestra when that signature sound was developed. Some credit Biagi with creating that sound. Eventually he left D’Arienzo’s orchestra to form his own, continuing to develop this kind of rhythmic style.
The orchestra of Osvaldo Fresedo is another to study. This music isn’t as driving rhythmically, favoring a more melodic style. Fresedo inspired Carlos Di Sarli, and some have said that without the Fresedo orchestra and style there wouldn’t have been a Di Sarli style.
As the Golden Age progressed vocalists became more important to the orchestra, and the musical focus is more on melody. The walking beat is still there to find but there is now the emotional range of the melody and the voice to feel as well. All of this feeling can be expressed in the walking, so as the music becomes more sophisticated so does the dance.
Through most of the Golden Age the rhythm of the orchestra is constant within a song. The music does ‘breathe’ though, the way the melody is played can give the illusion that the beat varies. In the 1950s Osvaldo Pugliese began to stretch this feeling and actually vary the tempo of the music. This is the last music that is truly dance music, Pugliese didn’t forget the dancers in this process, but the music demands more control from dancers. In this case dancers must be able to control the timing of the foot placement, and often this will be greatly slowed down. This will require very good control of balance.
After the Golden Age the music continued to evolve, and becomes concert music more than dance music. It takes a more experienced dancer to feel which of this music is good for dancing and which music is better for listening.
When you go out dancing you will also encounter two other musical styles, Valz and Milonga. The Valz is a three count music, waltz with a different spelling; you walk on the one, and have two interior beats to play with. Milonga is fundamentally a two count music, without a clearly marked offbeat. This makes walking to milonga music feel quite different from walking to tango music. These really deserve a separate article.
This playlist covers the main arc of Di Sarli’s long career from his sextet recording in the late 1920s to his grand instrumentals from the mid 1950s. This is all high quality dance music. Di Sarli featured many great vocalists over the years, and continued to record lovely instrumentals until the end of his career. Read More→
This playlist focuses on the orchestra of Ricardo Tanturi, with instrumentals, and songs featuring his two best known vocalists, Alberto Castillo and Enrique Campos. This music is generally rhythmic, but it is very interesting to see how much the vocalist can influence the feeling of the music. Tanturi’s vocalists give dancers a lot to work with.
The playlist starts with two instrumentals. These are straight ahead rhythmic tangos with lots of fun energy and lots of rhythmic variations to play with.
There are six tangos featuring Alberto Castillo. The orchestra is still primarily rhythmic, but the vocalist adds so much. The melodies are beautiful, and Castillo’s voice soars. I particularly like Cancion De Rango.
The last five songs in the playlist are sung by Enrique Campos whose mellow voice lends a very different feeling to these songs. The orchestra plays more complex rhythms, sometimes the rhythms can be confusing to dancers not intimately familiar with this phase of Tanturi’s orchestra. Campos was able to sing so smoothly over these rhythm variations giving dancers the option of dancing more to the melody. It is a nice contrast to dance smoothly with the vocalist and feel the complicated rhythms underneath.
This playlist features some of the popular orchestras of the early golden age. These orchestras feature a slightly faster tempo, and a more staccato, rhythmic sound. This was the sound that launched the golden age of tango dancing in Buenos Aires.
The playlist begins with the orchestra of Juan D’Arienzo. D’Arienzo is credited with inventing the driving rhythmic sound of the early golden age. This style of music was very popular with dancers and all of the most popular orchestras of the mid 1930s played this way. Notice the piano in these recordings. Rudolfo Biagi was the pianist with D’Arienzo’s orchestra in the early period. His hands are amazingly fast, his piano decorations are precise and fun. D’Arienzo felt that the piano was the most important instrument of the orchestra and he always had strong players. Also notice the strong violin solo melodies, another common sound for this orchestra.
Rudolfo Biagi eventually left D’Arienzo’s orchestra to form his own. The sound is staccato with very punchy rhythm. There are rhythmic accents that are unique to Biagi and eventually you will be able to identify him by these rhythms when you hear him at a milonga.
Carlos Di Sarli is more often associated with a smooth melodic sound. In the mid 1930s though he plated in this more rhythmic style. Some typical pieces are featured in this playlist. Di Sarli was a pianist, and led his orchestra from that instrument. His piano decorations are immediately identifiable. The music was of the highest quality, he demanded a lot from his musicians. He would later feature some excellent vocalists including Roberto Rufino, Alberto Podesta, and Jorge Duran.
Edgardo Donato is featured next. These pieces are typical of Donato’s lovely melodic rhythmic style. This is very good dance music, interestingly D’Arienzo is credited with creating the rhythmic style of the early golden age, but Donato was recording in this style at the same time as D’Arienzo. Who influenced who?
Pedro Laurenz was a very influential Bandoneonist. He played with Julio De Caro’s sextet in the late 1920s, and along with Pedro Mafia was hugely influential in developing the sound of the bandoneon in tango. The influence of De Caro can be felt throughout the long career of Laurenz. Laurenz eventually participated in the development of more modern styles of tango with the Quinteto Real.
Up next is the orchestra of Ricardo Tanturi. One of his well known vocalists, Alberto Castillo is featured in the first song. Castillo had an amazing vocal range, and his melody is a nice contrast to the rhythm of the orchestra. You will find many ways to dance to this orchestra, sometimes moving with the rhythm and sometimes dancing to the melody. The two instrumentals are nice examples of this orchestra.
The last three songs in this playlist are from the orchestra of Anibal Troilo. This was one of the most popular orchestras in the golden age. These songs are typical of Troilo’s earlier recordings. They are all instrumentals, you will find them to be fun, playful music. They are lovely to dance to.
This is the current playlist we use for the beginners class series.
A long time ago the Monday milonga started at the Viscount Ballroom. Later the business changed hands and became the Bossa Nova. The Monday milonga moved from the large ballroom to the small upstairs bar, and I gave the milonga the name ‘A Media Luz’. Then the business changed hands again, becoming Outlaws, and the Monday milonga moved to the PPAA.
After this move, from a smaller space to the larger space of the PPAA I was surprised at the number of people who have said to me that the upstairs bar at the Bossa Nova was a great space, if only it could have been bigger. It was an intimate space and dancers needed to pay attention to their navigation to dance well there. It could be crowded, but it was never so crowded that it was impossible to dance. On a good night it reminded me a bit of dancing in Buenos Aires. It was often crowded enough, though, that one or two dancers who navigated the floor poorly could spoil the smooth flow of the entire floor.
On a normal night at that milonga somewhere between 60 and 70 people came through the door. That included the people who came for the beginning class, many of these people left early. I am guessing that there were often as many as 20 couples on the floor at the peak of the evening. Many people thought this was too many people for the size of the floor, but I have experienced much more crowded floors in Buenos Aires.
When I first visited Buenos Aires in 1999 there were many people who had been dancing tango for most of their lives. These people were then in their 60s and 70s. They learned to dance tango in their teens during the last part of tango’s golden age. At that time there were many people dancing tango, and everyone wanted to dance at the most popular clubs. The dance floors were very crowded, and people did not tolerate being bumped into on the dance floor. To prevent fights, the bouncers in those clubs kept a close eye on the dance floor. A dancer who was causing trouble was removed from the floor, and possibly removed from the club. I have been told that if this happened the bouncer would introduce the offending dancer to all the other bouncers so they all would remember that person. If a dancer was removed a couple of times they would not be allowed back into the club at all. They would have to wait until there was time for the bouncers to forget them, maybe a few months, before trying to get into that place again. Because of this a young dancer was under a lot of pressure to be good on the dance floor. As they grew older with tango these dancers developed great skill at dancing literally in the space they could stand in.
My experience dancing among these people forever changed the way I dance tango. When I got used to moving on those crowded dance floors I found that it wasn’t as constraining as one might think. First of all the floor still moved, so there was always space opening ahead to move into. I never had to dance in place for long before I had a chance to move a bit. There was enough movement to circle a moderate sized room at least once in a song. You could spend 6 hours on those floors (I did) and never be bumped once. The dancing was amazingly energetic, and dancers seemed free to dance a musical and creative dance. It was beautiful to watch, and an amazing experience being in that flow.
There are a few reasons I think we should try to emulate those dancers. Not because I am some kind of historical preservationist, not because I think the only way to dance tango is like those older dancers in Buenos Aires. Not because I think we should only dance on crowded dance floors. Simply stated I think we need to develop good navigation for the health and growth of our communities.
Generally I don’t think people like to be bumped on the dance floor. We may accept that it happens but I don’t think anyone likes to have the flow of their dance disrupted when they are in a deep groove with a good partner. I know people whose entire night can be ruined by being bumped too much. Those who follow can’t trust their partners if they are constantly being led into other people. When the follower can’t trust the leader, they can’t dance well, and they can’t fully enjoy the dance. Good navigation is important first of all so that everyone who comes to dance can enjoy their evening.
Good navigation is important so that people don’t get hurt on the dance floor. Women dance in shoes that often have very small pointy heels. Getting stepped on or kicked by those heels can cause painful injuries. Imagine getting the base joint of your big toe stepped on by one of those heels. You might have to quit dancing for the rest of the night. I know people who have had to quit dancing for the whole weekend of a tango festival because of an injury like this. Followers step on other people because their partners don’t navigate well. These injuries are completely preventable by good navigation.
Good navigation is important for the business of tango as well. We simply cannot open a new milonga for every 20 new people who come to tango. Those who organize milongas need to at least pay for the rent of a space. Hopefully they can also bring in a little money to pay for the time invested in organizing a milonga. If the milonga is happening in a club, the main thing a club owner understands is numbers. If a tango night doesn’t draw many people the club owner will find another way to fill the space, and another venue is lost for a milonga. Without good venues, or people willing to put in the time to organize milongas, the tango community will die.
But the preceding reasons only address what will happen if we don’t learn good navigation. There are some big benefits that we will enjoy from learning to dance in crowded spaces. Benefits that we won’t get any other way, benefits that can increase our enjoyment of dancing tango.
A milonga, like any party has a bigger, better energy when more people are in the room. If a room is too empty, the party energy never seems to get going. When more people can share the floor, the energy of the milonga just gets bigger. Good navigation leads to better, happier parties.
Learning to dance on a more crowded dance floor will improve a dancer’s ability to improvise. When a dancer has a lot of space they are more likely to dance movements exactly the way they learned them. It is easy to fall into a rut, dancing the same patterns over and over again. A more crowded space leads dancers to find new possibilities within the movements they know. They learn to break up long sequences, and modify them to fit the available space. New possibilities arise, and new sequences are created in this process. A dancer’s personal style emerges from these discoveries. Finally instead of dancing sequences only as they were learned in classes, the dancer’s creativity is set free. Good navigation leads to a more creative dance.
The big surprise to me when I first danced on the crowded floors of Buenos Aires was how much more intimate the dance became as the floor got more crowded. As I shrank my dance to fit the space, the lead became more subtle, and as a result my partner’s response also changed. Our focus on each other deepened as we concentrated on each other to communicate more clearly. It seemed like we were in a bubble, close to many people and yet distant from them. I have never felt this feeling when the floor isn’t crowded. One of the big benefits to learning good navigation is this deeply connected dance. You don’t have to be on a crowded floor to have a deeply connected dance, but in my experience the feeling is unique and wonderful when it happens in a crowded, well navigated dance floor.
Finally there was an experience I had on those crowded Buenos Aires floors, among the older dancers that I don’t think can happen on a less crowded floor. When the dance floor is very crowded, dancers are forced to dance a similar phrasing. As I said earlier I was amazed at how much the floor still moved when it was very crowded. I think the strongest dancers probably affected the whole floor then. Everyone ended up dancing their phrasing. I realized that there are times to move forward, and times to dance in place. The floor had a rhythm of movement that everyone participated in. This flow was very hypnotic, as if all the dancers were dancing somehow synchronized with each other, each dancing their own dance but everyone moving forward or dancing in place together. At times like this if the DJ played a particularly strong tanda, there would be as much as half a minute of silence on the floor as the cortina played, as if everyone had gone to that special tango heaven at the same time, and all were waking up from the same dreamy kind of experience. For me these were some of the most powerful moments I have experienced in my years of dancing tango. I think this experience is not possible if the floor is not crowded with dancers who navigate well.
Good social tango comes in many styles, and many embraces. Good social dancers know how to respectfully share a dance floor with other dancers. They dance creatively using the space available. They can delight in the special pleasures found only on a crowded, well navigated dance floor. When everyone navigates well we can share this beautiful dance with many more people and our community can grow.
This article provides some guidelines that contribute to better movement of the dance floor. They are inspired by my own experiences in Buenos Aires in the late 1990s at milongas filled with older dancers who had danced most of their lives. Despite the crowding, these milongas were not so hard to dance in because the dancers moved so nicely around the floor. If these guidelines are followed everyone will have enough room to dance and everyone can share the floor and have a good time together.
On a well-organized dance floor the outer part of the floor will be organized into lanes like a race track. The outermost lane will be the best organized because it is contained by the perimeter of the dance floor. As you move toward the center of the floor the lanes get less and less organized until the middle of the floor may be a bit chaotic. The dancers who like dancing in lanes and who navigate well will tend to be found in the outermost two lanes on a big floor. Those who need a little more space will tend toward the inner lanes. At times the center may be nearly empty. The dancers in the middle will use the space they have and not enter or disrupt the lanes near them.
When we dance in lanes it is best if we don’t change lanes. This means that the first thing to do when the movement of the lane stops is to dance in place. Turns are the key to dancing in place. A dancer who has a few left and right turning movements in their repertoire, and understands how to combine these turns will have plenty of things to do when dancing in place. Turning also gives you a view of what is going on around you. With practice it is possible to predict the movement of the dancers near you. Knowing when you can use space close to your neighbors, and when they may need space close to you allows you, and them, to effectively use what space there is.
As you move in your lane it is important to stay in your lane and not crowd the dancers in the other lanes. This way you are not disrupting the flow of the other lanes near you. It is frustratingly common for dancers to dance in what might be called lane 1.5. Dancers in the outside lane and the second lane don’t have room to get by someone doing this. If this person is moving slowly then both the outside lane and the second lane will be affected.
Why shouldn’t we pass? Mostly we don’t pass because in passing we have to enter another line of dance. You will be entering the new lane coming from a direction that will not be easily visible to the dancers in the lane we are entering. This is especially true if you are moving from an outer lane toward the middle. Because of the position of the follower’s head in the dance frame, often the leader’s view to the right is blocked. If you move from an outer lane to the next lane in, the dancer you are moving in front of may not see you until you are really in the way. Then it is a big disruptive surprise, and that dancer may have to react very quickly. At a minimum the flow of their dance is disrupted, and possibly the dancers behind them as well.
Sometimes you may feel that you have to pass, because, for some reason the people ahead of you have stopped to talk, or they are moving very slowly and there is a lot of space ahead of them and the dancers behind you are crowding you. Just make sure you won’t be blocking the space of someone in the next lane and keep moving after you change lanes.
Entering the dance floor in the middle of the song presents the same problems. Everyone does this so we all have to be aware of how it affects the existing line of dance. It is most helpful if you wait at the side of the floor to catch the eye of a dancer on the floor, to ask for space before entering the floor. Then the person most affected by your entry on the floor knows where you are, and since you are asking nicely, they shouldn’t resent your presence, or block your entry to the floor. If they don’t give you the space wait for the next opportunity. The dance floor isn’t a place to fight.
It is important to control your partner as you enter the floor. I regularly hold my partner’s hand so I can keep her from blindly backing onto the floor to dance. It is ridiculously common for followers to just step onto the floor without paying any noticeable attention to the dancers already dancing. Still it is a leader’s thing to manage, so you just start leading a little earlier than you start dancing.
When you get on the floor, dance and get moving. It is very irritating to have someone ask for space to get on the floor, give them the space, and then have them take a lot of time getting ready to dance. If you are entering the floor in the middle of the song, enter the floor dancing.
How much room is enough when you have to change lanes, or enter in the middle of a song? This is a little more complicated than it might seem. When you move into a new lane, are you moving into a space that another dancer is in the process of moving into? If so there isn’t really room for the lane change. The other dancer will have to make room for you at the last minute, and you will be coming from an unexpected direction. You will be relying on the other dancer to make room for you. That dancer will have to stop briefly, or maybe even step a little backward, and that will affect all other dancers in that lane. Even if this doesn’t result in a bump, it still affects the flow of the floor. Skilled dancers can avoid bumping because they can change what they are doing at the very last instant. Because of this less experienced dancers may not be aware of disrupting the other dancers around them. If you watch the dance floor you can see this happening all night.
If we aren’t going to pass, then each of us has another responsibility. If there is space in front of us to move into, we need to move into that space and give the dancers behind us room to move as well. This is the secret to the continuing motion of a crowded floor. If everyone does this the dance flows around the floor like a river, stopping briefly to circulate in an eddy but always moving on. When a dance floor circulates like this it is beautiful to watch. It is an amazing feeling to be a part of this movement.
Moving forward as space becomes available seems to be the last thing people learn to do as they learn to navigate. They know how to stay in their lane when they walk, and they know how to make their turns small enough that they don’t enter the neighboring lanes, but they get focused on their turns, and don’t move forward when there is space. The floor behind them stalls, and in desperation, other dancers begin passing to get room to dance, and the floor becomes chaotic.
It takes time to develop the skills required to navigate the dance floor well. You have to want to do this and you have to practice. Step combinations are taught in class one way. It is up to you the dancer to figure out how to navigate the movement. You should always know where the line of dance is, and you should be able to control your turns so that you can always arrive back on the line of dance. You should make sure you don’t drift backward against the line of dance unknowingly. You should be aware of what the other dancers around you are doing, and where they may be moving next. It would be nice if all teachers addressed these skills in their classes, but in the end it still is the responsibility of the individual dancer to learn to navigate well.
These are not a set of firm rules, they are guidelines. I think the most important thing is to be aware of the other dancers around you, and to work with them so everybody has enough space to dance in and everybody has fun.
The DJ plays a critical role in making a milonga successful. If the music is good the party has energy and the dance floor is filled with happy dancers. People sitting enjoying social time with friends are pulled along into the party. Everyone is sad when the last tanda is played and it is time to go home.
Much of my inspiration for DJing came from Felix Picherna whom I met during my first visit to Buenos Aires in September of 1999. In those days he was the DJ at two classic milongas, Tuesdays and Thursdays at a milonga called ‘Pavadita’, and Wednesdays and Saturdays at ‘Italia Unita’. These milongas are gone now but I will never forget my experiences there. When Picherna was on I knew I could count on a great milonga; the music was so good I couldn’t sit down. Later in the milonga my feet would be so tired, and I would be thinking to myself that I would just sit out the next tanda. The first song of the next tanda would be so good that I would ask someone to dance without thinking. As I went onto the floor I would be wondering what I was doing, and still I would dance like crazy. To get any rest for my feet I would have to leave the milonga. Picherna’s music selections were that good every time I heard him: I want to be that kind of a DJ.
I learned a lot in those short three weeks. I listened a lot to the kind of music played at the milongas, and when I didn’t know which orchestra I was hearing I asked people. I asked titles of songs I especially liked, and I bought a lot of CDs to bring home. When I got home I continued to listen to lots of tango music. I had already been listening mostly to tango for three years, but now I had a lot more music to study, and better still a memory of a great DJ to guide me as I learned to be a DJ myself.
Later in 1999 I started DJing a milonga on Mondays and have run this milonga since. Being only four hours long, and on a Monday night the music has to be really good all night long. If people sit down because they don’t like the music they will soon put on their coats and leave; it is Monday night after all. If they have time to think about it they remember that they have to go to work Tuesday morning. This has been a great place to tune my DJing.
There are many web sites about DJing that have lists of tandas, and long descriptions of all the orchestras. The music is categorized into different styles and long discussions are made about how to present the music. I don’t want to re-invent that wheel. You can read those web pages yourself and learn what there is to learn from them. Here are the things that are most important to me in DJing, and maybe you can learn something from this as well.
My advice to people who want to be DJs is to listen to a lot of music. You have to play the music you love. If you love the music you present it in the best way you can. This means that to please your audience though that you must love a lot of different music. It takes time to know and love such a variety of tango music. You need to know the different classic orchestras and their different periods. You have to know how they are similar and how each are distinct from the others. You need to understand what part of their body of work is best for dancing, and more importantly what part is not so good for dancing.
To play music for dancers you have to understand dancers. You must dance a lot and feel the music as a dancer. Listen while you dance, feel how a good tanda works, and more importantly how a bad tanda fails. Learn to feel the energy of the party and how the music is the driving energy of the party. When you DJ it is good to dance and feel first hand how people are dancing.
It is important to construct good tandas. The first song in a tanda is an important one. This should be a song that would make you want to dance. The middle songs carry the energy of the tanda, then the last song completes the group, it should also be a special one, one that will make that last dance is the best. Study your music to figure out which songs make good first ones, and last ones. Experiment a lot. A good game to play is to listen to the first 15 seconds of all songs by one orchestra. Some songs will stand out from the rest. You don’t have to know why, but those songs will likely make good first songs for tandas.
I like to keep the mood consistent inside a tanda so that one song leads to the next. I generally use a single orchestra for a tanda, and I like to keep within a similar period of the orchestra and the same singer if possible. The songs don’t have to be all alike, but I like to keep from telling dancers a lie by playing a nice rhythmic song as a first song and then after they are on the dance floor changing moods drastically. As a dancer I like different partners for different musical moods. When the DJ changes moods drastically in the middle of a tanda I sometimes would rather be dancing with someone else.
I play different kinds of music at different times of the night. Early in the evening there may be a number of beginners in the room, and while I don’t really believe in the concept of ‘beginner music’ there are orchestras that are easier to dance to. D’Arienzo’s music is perfect dance music, and the rhythmic style inspired by his orchestra is a nice place to begin the evening. This is high energy music that is easy to dance to, it is music that makes you want to dance when you first hear it entering the room. Since there aren’t many people in the room early in the evening you need to keep the energy up with the music.
Later in the evening when there are more people in the room you have a bit more freedom with the music. I like music with vocals, I like the extra emotional energy that goes into a singer’s performance. There is nothing like a good tanda of Di Sarli with Rufino, Podesta or Duran, D’Agostino with Vargas, and so on. When the party is really rolling I like to play this kind of music. I might return to a few tandas of D’Arienzo or Tanturi or Rodriguez to push the energy even higher, but I like the more romantic music for the later part of the night. Then I like to finish the evening well I have a few special tandas that I like to use for the end of the night. You can find your own favorite way to do things.
It is important to have the best sound you can get. I have heard too many people using badly processed mp3 files to DJ with. The CDs we are able to get today have very good sound. You should spend the money to get these CDs. I have over 400 CDs in my collection. Many were purchased to get the same songs with better sound quality. The investment was worth it. When the sound is better people dance better, and the party has a better energy. Understand the sound system you use and learn to get the best from it. Each sound system has it’s own characteristics. Each room has it’s own problems so even the same sound system sounds different rooms. You should show up early enough to check out the quality of the sound. Have a few songs that are your gold standard and use them to adjust the sound system to get the best quality sound for the room.
I like to have the best dancers at my milonga. I play the best music for them, because I want to keep them on the dance floor. These dancers are also some of the most experienced dancers in the community. If they are on the dance floor they are a good model for the less experienced dancers to follow. If the best dancers go to a milonga, so will everyone else, and if the best dancers are having a good time the energy in the room will be great. Above all when I DJ I want people to have a great evening of dancing. I want them to dance all night long and go home hungry for more. I like it when a DJ does that for me. I have also spent too much time at milongas where the DJ has made me aware of how tired I am and how much my feet hurt.
Ultimately it is important to remember to Dj with your heart and and not your head. All theory is useless if it is just blindly applied. Never forget that as a DJ you are the entertainment for the evening.