Musicality - Dancing to 4 8's
In the video, we say 4 8's because that's the most common structure. The more profound truth is that you listen to the music and find its ebb and flow. Sometimes that's not 4 8's. But if you focus on listening to the transitions of the music, you can find the moment when it moves from one section of the music to the next. Then you can be very together with the music even if it's 6 8's or whatever.
- Artist Name:
- Mandragora Tango
- Song Title:
- A La Gran Muñeca
- Album Title:
- Let's Have Dinner And Go Dancing
- Artist Website:
- http://www.mandragoratango.com
From website: Mandrágora Tango is a tango band headed by bandoneonist Bob Barnes and guitarist Scott Mateo Davies, 2 Minneapolis-based musicians who are wildly passionate about tango. We have been playing tango for dancing and listening since 2001 and we are still going strong. We've played in over 40 cities all over the United States.
- 00:05
- In the earlier chapter, we talked about accenting the one.
- 00:08
- The music goes, "ONE, two, three, four. Five, six, seven, eight." So, there's, sort of, you know, strong, weak, semi-strong, weak.
- 00:16
- Two pairs makes one eight. Usually, the first beat of every eight is really strong.
- 00:20
- Here, we'll say, oftentimes, music... Bars of eight, at least as dancers count, not as musicians count, are grouped in eights.
- 00:29
- And so, you might have four eights. And then, another four eights. And, sometimes, there are transitions.
- 00:33
- And so, what I'll do is I'll count like this.
- 00:38
- One, two, three, four; five, six, seven, eight. Two, two, three, four; five, six, seven, eight.
- 00:46
- Three, two, three, four; five, six, seven eight. Four, two, three, four; five, six, seven eight. One.
- 00:54
- So, that was, you know, one group of four. And, really, that wasn't a big transition. Right? They did the same thing for those four.
- 01:01
- And then, when it transitioned, it didn't transition that radically.
- 01:04
- So, I'd put that it flows all together as, probably, four eights. And, whatever it is, two or four eights.
- 01:10
- And then, you "Wzum". That's the start of another, I'm going to call it, phrase.
- 01:14
- If you think of it as poetry, you know, you have the A-B-A, something like that.
- 01:18
- So, after you mark... So, actually, what I'll do, when I'm trying to choreograph a piece, is...
- 01:23
- Let's let the camera focus, and we'll see if this works.
- 01:35
- Dum, da-da-dum. One, two, three, four; five, six, seven, eight. Two, two, three... and you get the idea. There's the third.
- 01:54
- And then, really, it repeated.
- 01:58
- Two, two, three, four; five, six, seven, eight. Three, two, three, four; five, six, seven, eight.
- 02:06
- Four, two, three, four... There's your new phrase.
- 02:13
- And then, eight; two, two, three, four; five, six, seven, eight. Three, two, three, four; five, six, seven, eight.
- 02:21
- Four, two, three, four; five, six, seven, eight. One, two, three, four...
- 02:27
- And it's keeping on to the same thing. Even though that's the fifth one.
- 02:33
- And that was a one. And I'm going to put on the second line, probably.
- 02:40
- OK, so, at the very end, because I was thinking about listening to the music and talking to you, I missed the end completely.
- 02:48
- So, I'm going to wait for a big ONE, to indicate the beginning of a phrase.
- 02:55
- Bum, bumm. There it is. One, two, three, four; five, six, seven, eight.
- 03:00
- Two, two, three, four; five, six, seven, eight. Three, two, three, four; five, six, seven, eight.
- 03:08
- Four, two, three, four. Ah one. So, you see, that's the beginning of a new phrase.
- 03:16
- Three, four; five, six, seven, eight. Three, two, three, four; five, six, seven, eight.
- 03:23
- Four, two, three, four; five, six, seven, eight. One.
- 03:28
- And so, so and so forth. I diagram the music. Oh, there's four eights, there's four eights.
- 03:32
- There might be eight eights, or six. You might hear a transition.
- 03:35
- And then, once I'm done, I listen to each set. I'd say, "Well, maybe this set is like this set".
- 03:39
- And, you could say, "Oh, well, that's the A phrase. And this is the B phrase."
- 03:44
- And then, at the end, you have the music diagrammed. You can say, "OK, here's not just a one that we accent."
- 03:51
- You know, this is a whole eight, rather.
- 03:54
- But of these four eights, make a phrase. And then, another four, six, or eight eights make another phrase.
- 03:58
- And the phrases relate to each other. And so, when you go to choreograph, you can choreograph things that relate to each other.
- 04:06
- So, for example. In one phrase, maybe you do a bunch of sharp things. Maybe, boleos.
- 04:11
- And, maybe, in another phrase, that's a cousin, you do a bunch of boleos, but a different kind, or, a bunch of ganchos.
- 04:18
- And... Excuse me.
- 04:21
- And eventually, if you know the song really well, you know, maybe you can just do this on the hoof. Which is really cool.
