1892  Improving as a DJ (long)

Date: Tue, 14 Oct 2003 10:10:13 -0400
From: Stephen Brown <Stephen.P.Brown@DAL.FRB.ORG>
Subject: Improving as a DJ (long)

Bernhard Kolhass wrote:

>The questions that remains though is, HOW can I learn to become
>a better DJ? Am I just left to my own wits and skills of
>observation? What do you recommend?

Let's divide the task into four parts: development of a playlist,
development of tandas, programming the evening's music, and learning from
djing and dancing.

Development of a Playlist:

>(I.e. I currently have 3900 tango tracks, but only about
>220 of them are marked as good for dancing).

Sorting through the available tango music and creating a playlist of the
tangos suitable for dancing is a good start. To develop my playlist, I
started with my own list of tracks that I considered suitable/enjoyable
for dancing. To further add to the list, I began asking djs and dancers
who know the music by song title to tell me what they considered the
classics of tango dance music. With all this information, I assembled a
lengthy playlist, which can be found online
<https://www.tejastango.com/classic_tangos.html>.

>I then can get various views over the whole database filtered
>and grouped by various criteria, i.e. only tangos
>suitable for dancing, grouped by mood and orchestra.

Because the resulting playlist was long, I began classifying the music by
its characteristics and orchestra. For characteristics I used the
following: old guard, early golden age, golden-age harder rhythmic,
golden-age softer rhythmic, golden-age smooth, golden-age lyrical,
golden-age dramatic, transition era, new tangos, modern tango orchestras,
milonga, vals, La Cumparsita. Some of the categories were suggested by
other people, such as Dan Boccia and Tom Stermitz, who participated in the
project.

A few of the people participating in creating the list of classics did not
agree completely with how I ended up categorized things. One-person
pointed out that the distinction I made between golden-age harder rhytmic
(D'Arienzo, Biagi and Rodriguez) and golden-age softer rhytmic (early
Troilo, some Calo, Tanturi/Castillo, and D'Agostino/Vargas) was not
completely clear. Another pointed out that Di Sarli and Pugliese
instrumentals, which I had separated as smooth and dramatic, shared the
characteristic of being powerful. I recognize the validity of these
comments, and tried to incorporate them in my organization, but could't
find a way to do so. Ultimately the person assembling the playlist must
decide what works for them in categorizing the music.

Development of tandas:
According to my experience and what I had read in discussions on Tango-L,
a good tanda has coherence. That coherence provides a continuity of theme
and tells the dancers what kind of music to expect for the entire tanda.
In my opinion, achieving that coherence requires more finely subdiving the
music of a given orchestra by its sound. (On the other hand, playing two
pieces of music that sound exactly the same doesn't work very well
either.)

Let's consider a Pugliese tanda that starts with La Yumba and ends with
Gallo Ciego. La Yumba sets a very powerful mood. The dramatic Gallo
Ciego is one logical way to close such a tanda. It rewards the dancers
with more of the same. We have numerous choices for music to use between
La Yumba and Gallo Ciego. We can use La Rayuela and Tupungatina in the
second and third spots. These two tangos continue the La Yumba beat, but
with a somewhat different feel. I hear La Rayuela as sounding a bit
bitter and Tupungatina as beautifully sweet. If we are looking for a bit
lighter feel to the tanda, we can use Raza Criolla and Pelele in the
second and third spots. If we are looking for a more progressive feel, we
can use Nochero Soy and La Mariposa in the second and third spots. In my
opninion, using Emanicpacion and A Evaristo Carriego in the second and
third spots would represent to much of a departure from La Yumba and Gallo
Ciego.

Let's also condsider a tanda built around D'Arienzo's El Flete. El Flete
is such a rhythmic masterpiece, that it is difficult to find anything that
will stand up to it. So, I place it last in the tanda. Union Civica and
Canaro en Paris have similar rhythms but I do not consider them quite as
powerful. Because Union Civica is the stronger of the two, I play it
first, then Canaro en Paris. For the third spot, I use Pensalo Bien.
Pensalo Bien does have a vocal, but falls into the category estribillistas
(refrain singers), and the rhythm is very strong.

Anyway, the idea is to build coherence and sufficient variety in the
tanda. Working with pre-set tandas is one way to assure this coherence at
the beginning. You can see my ideas for tandas online
<https://www.tejastango.com/tandas.html>.

Programming an evening's music and learning:
Let's start with a simple formula: two tandas of tango, one of milonga,
two of tango, one of vals. To build in variety, let's follow the rule
that no two consecutive tandas of tango can come from the same category of
music, but let's not jump too far across categories. (No pairing a tanda
of D'Arienzo with one of Pugliese.) As an example:

1. Tangos: softer rhythmic -- Tanturi with Castillo
2. Tangos: harder rhytmic -- D'Arienzo
3. Milongas: Canaro
4. Tangos: smooth -- Di Sarli
5. Tangos: lyrical -- Troilo with Fiorentino
6. Vals: Calo with Beron

Do these tandas work together? Is there enough variety across tandas?
What mood has the music created? Are the dancers connecting to the music?
Are the dancers on the rhythm of the music? Are the dancers staying out
on the floor or sitting down? Do people quit dancing in mid-tanda? Is it
the entire tanda or just a clinker in the middle of the tanda? Are you
getting requests to play something different? Would you dance to this
music with that special someone? What tanda of tangos follows the Calo
valses?

Another example:

1. Tangos: softer rhytmic -- early Troilo instrumentals
2. Tangos: lyrical -- Di Sarli with Duran
3. Milongas: Tanturi/Castillo
4. Tangos: softer rhytmic -- Calo with Podesta
5. Tangos: harder rhythmic -- D'Arienzo
6. Vals: Laurenz

How does playing the music like this affect the mood and the feeling of
variety? Are the dancers connecting to the music? Are the dancers on the
rhythm of the music? Are the dancers staying out on the floor? Are you
getting requests to play something different? Are the dancers staying
until the end of the evening?

With best regards,
Steve