4961  Try simple staff first, musicians !!!

Date: Wed, 23 May 2007 11:49:46 -0700
From: "Igor Polk" <ipolk@virtuar.com>
Subject: [Tango-L] Try simple staff first, musicians !!!
To: <tango-l@mit.edu>

Imploring in desperation.

I beg you, dear musicians,
do not try to play music of 40s which really requires outstanding abilities
of musicians, arrangers, and directors. Do not try to be Piazzollas.

Be able to play simpler music of early 1920s and 1910s !! Get the right
rhythm and feel on simpler examples !!! No fancy staff, just tango !
Bam-Bam-Bam. Keep the rhythm and variations! Learn what creates this tension
( swing ), why razor-edged notes are so important, and more complex staff
like how performers exchange rhythmical lines. And it has to be danceable:
it has to have "figures" inside. Once you are able to do it, and we say yes,
it sounds almost like Arolas. Then you may move.

In tango we learn: simple things done well are much better than loads of
elements done wrong. It relates to you too.

You are at advantage !!! It is definitely not other musicians you can learn
from, but only old scratchy records on CDs. Available.

Igor Polk

Date: Wed, 23 May 2007 15:18:51 -0400
From: AJ Azure <azure.music@verizon.net>
Subject: Re: [Tango-L] Try simple staff first, musicians !!!
To: <tango-l@mit.edu>

Wow I actually, almost agree with Igor! The only problem Igor is that every
time you or someone else try to tell musicians what to do they are missing
HUGE concepts of what playing music and understanding music is as a
player/performer. So the 'advice' is quit limited. That's the point you
don't seem tog et. Listening to records does not cover it enough. It's a
huge start but, it goes waaayy beyond that. Unless you just want musicians
to regurgitate arrangements note for note and if you do well that's damn
insulting. We're not CDs. We can certainly play music of the 40s. The fault
lies in the fact that dancers are looking for an exact copy of the CD when
musicians play 40s music. That's wrong. Now the music absolutely should be
danceable but, regurgitation as an expectation is a huge mistake.
Please ember that many of the musicians out there are highly educated in
music technique, theory and history. It's a matter of time to interpret the
music but, to copy it, is not musicianship.

_A

> From: Igor Polk <ipolk@virtuar.com>
> Date: Wed, 23 May 2007 11:49:46 -0700
> To: <tango-l@mit.edu>
> Subject: [Tango-L] Try simple staff first, musicians !!!
>
> Imploring in desperation.
>
> I beg you, dear musicians,
> do not try to play music of 40s which really requires outstanding abilities
> of musicians, arrangers, and directors. Do not try to be Piazzollas.
>
> Be able to play simpler music of early 1920s and 1910s !! Get the right
> rhythm and feel on simpler examples !!! No fancy staff, just tango !
> Bam-Bam-Bam. Keep the rhythm and variations! Learn what creates this tension
> ( swing ), why razor-edged notes are so important, and more complex staff
> like how performers exchange rhythmical lines. And it has to be danceable:
> it has to have "figures" inside. Once you are able to do it, and we say yes,
> it sounds almost like Arolas. Then you may move.
>
> In tango we learn: simple things done well are much better than loads of
> elements done wrong. It relates to you too.
>
> You are at advantage !!! It is definitely not other musicians you can learn
> from, but only old scratchy records on CDs. Available.
>
> Igor Polk
>