Musicality Exercises
Ideally, you should listen to a ton of tango tracks so you recognize them and know what comes. If you are not yet that well prepared, read on...
Finding the count in a tango music
Ability to count through the music while you dance is like driving with the Google Maps in a busy city: you don't just react to events in the music - you anticipate them and have ample time to prepare.
For your musicality practice, I created a set of videos for selected tangos where I added some aids to mark the beats: the "metronome" click, the screen flash, and the beat count. The first video, Level 1, has all of these aids present. The Level 2 omits the click. The Level 3 omits the count and shows only the flash and the "selected" important beats like "1" and "5". This final Level 4 is pure music with just the important beats flashing for you to check yourself. I also added a spectral presentation of the sound to make the screen more lively.
The way to use these videos is to count through the music starting with the Level 1 video with clicks, counts, and flashes, and gradually switch to Levels with fewer aids. In the end, you should be able to count through the music not looking at the screen.
You may want to challenge yourself: start the Level 4 video in a random place, close your eyes, catch the count and then -- open your eyes and check if you got the count right!
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Ensuenos (tango) recorded by Orquesta Caminito
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Bahía Blanca (tango) composed and recorded by Carlos Di Sarli
Finding phrases and accents in tango music
Did you have fun with counting exercises above? However, we don't really dance to the count. Instead, we dance to bursts of energy in the music. Phrasing practice helps learn to find these bursts and anticipate when they come.