2884 Making tandas for milonga
Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2004 18:43:41 +0000
From: Oleh Kovalchuke <oleh_k@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Making tandas for milonga
Someone asked the list a while ago about DJing tips.
I keep my music on laptop. Many people DJ directly from CDs. I admire their
skills but that's a lot of work in my opinion.
Recently my collection of good tango songs has expanded significantly. This
gave me a reason to reevaluate my entire collection and to reorganize it in
tandas. This happened to be much easier process than my previous method. I
used to organize music in 70 minute stretches - CD length. Songs played in
the beginning of CD would influence the choice of the songs played in the
end. Each CD would have a mix of tangos, valses, milongas and alternative
songs. That's a lot of information to keep in mind for processing.
The tanda approach.
Distribute songs into Tangos, Valses, Milongas, AltTangos, Contemporary
Tangos and La Cumparsita folders. Compile tangos and valses in groups of
four, milongas and alt tangos in groups of three in WinAmp playlist. I
rarely last beyond three quick milongas on the dance floor and alt tangos
tend to be lengthy, longer than the usual three minutes for traditional
tangos, hence these tandas should have three songs as opposed to four.
Criteria for compiling individual tanda:
* Very important. Every single song should be a hit. I take care of this at
the preliminary weeding out stage when I rip the songs from the original
CDs. Good rule of thumb for me here is this: "Do I wish to hum along as
listen to the song?".
* Put songs with similar arrangements, mood and fullness of sound in the
same tanda. Usually songs from the same orchestra will have similar sound.
Thus it makes sense to start with compiling tandas by orchestra. Do not ever
put Biagi and Tanturi in the same tanda. Biagi sounds very thin, while
Tanturi has rather full sound. Some songs beg to be combined across
orchestras. Example: both "Organito de la tarde" by Di Sarli and "Malena" by
Troilo-Fiorentino feature very nice as well as prominent piano arrangements,
which smoothly flow from one song to another.
* All songs within tanda should have approximately the same tempo. Try to
start with a song with slower beat than subsequent songs. People need some
time to get used to each other lead and follow - slower tempo will help.
* Start with megahit with easily recognizable melody. This song should draw
people on the floor. Perfect examples: "Cafe Domingo" by D'Agostino, "Toda
vida" by Canaro, "En la buena y en la mala" by Rodriguez. There are many
more. If you can resist the draw of these songs, perhaps you should consider
dancing something besides tango.
* End with something lyrical having that feeling of longing tangos are
famous for. People should be sorry to leave the embrace and the floor.
Examples: "Que te importa que te llore" by Calo, "Duelo criollo" by Di Sarli
(not the inferior version by Canaro!), "La melodia de nuestro adios" by
Canaro.
Cortinas.
These are short snippets of nontango music played between tandas. You can
play the same cortina throughout milonga (this practice makes cortina easily
identifiable to dancers) or show off your collection of nontango music.
Cortina should be immediately recognazable as a nondanceable music, however
it should not in my opinion break the overall mood. If you play some
alternative tangos during milonga this requirement could present a
challenge. Also cortina should call for a change in music and partners from
one tanda to another. I like upbeat cortinas. Some classical music may work
(Van Cliburn in Moscow is already clipped into 30 seconds snippets for you).
Also music for movies by Nino Rota is quite good.
Organizing tandas within milonga.
The way it is usually done is this: (2 tango - 1 vals -2 tango -1 milonga) -
repeat. I put a tanda of alt tango after vals tanda. I finish milonga with
tanda of three distinct arrangements of "La Cumparsita".
Cheers, Oleh K.
Colorado Springs
https://TangoSpring.com
Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2004 23:19:19 +0200
From: andy <Andy.Ungureanu@T-ONLINE.DE>
Subject: Re: Making tandas for milonga
Dear Oleh,
everything single word you wrote in here is allready written somewehere
on the web.
If you compiled it, give the credits to those who made the work for the
first time.
If you invented it, you invented a wheel, at least it's a good turning,
round wheel.
Just one point, Biagi is not thin, he is very intense. He may be sharp,
but not thin. De Angelis is thin. People learn to love Biagi after 4 or
5 years.
Good luck
Andy
Oleh Kovalchuke wrote:
> Someone asked the list a while ago about DJing tips.
It must be a long time ago :)
>
> I keep my music on laptop.
As many hundred other DJ
Date: Tue, 12 Oct 2004 12:01:45 -0500
From: Stephen Brown <Stephen.P.Brown@DAL.FRB.ORG>
Subject: Re: Making tandas for milongas
Fairly comprehensive information about tango music and deejaying can be
found online.
https://www.tejastango.com/tango_music.html
Among the pages are:
Classics of Tango Dance Music
https://www.tejastango.com/classic_tangos.html
Playing Music for Milongas: The DJs Role
https://www.tejastango.com/milongas_djsrole.html
An Annotated List of Tandas
https://www.tejastango.com/tandas.html
Although I assembled these pages, some of the information is drawn from
previous discussions on Tango-L and other forums. A number of individuals
contributed directly to these projects (including Astrid, Dan Boccia,
Steve and Susan Brown, Mark Celaya, Victor Crichton, Keith Elshaw, Sharna
Fabiano, Al Garvey, Alberto Gesualdi, Graciela Gonzalez, Robert Hauk, Mike
Lavocah, Polly McBride, Matej Oresic, Lisa Penninger, Daniel Saindon, Dave
Schmitz, Tom Stermitz, Florencia Taccetti, Florencia Taccetti and Ruddy
Zelaya), and they are listed in the acknowledgements.
Many DJs use laptop computers and play MP3 files. Personally, I do not
like the sonic compromise. I also recognize the considerable programming
effort in shifting back and forth between commercial CDs just to put
together one tanda. I prefer to use tandas pre-burnt on CD--one tanda per
disc. In creating these CDs, I make work strictly with the music in AIFF
files.
For convenience of travelling, I have put together compilations with six
tandas per disc--2 of tango, 1 of milonga, 2 of tango, 1 vals. Depending
on the pieces of music, these discs are about 60-70 minutes long. I
rarely find myself playing a preset program of that length, however. I
prefer to make more adjusments to the energy of the dancers.
With best regards,
Stephen Brown
Tango Argentino de Tejas
https://www.tejastango.com/
