Assimilation
It’s great to have Hsueh-tze back, for the second time this year. Currently we are about half-way through her series of workshops. As usual, she has enlightened all of us on the subtleties of close embrace and yet again highlighted some very important fundamental techniques that allow us to do just that little extra with the music…
Unfortunately, as usual, this is also going to be another period of struggle for me, as far as the Tango is concerned, as I try to disassemble and critically scrutinise the Tango knowledge that I have accumulated up to this point. Really a kind of deconstruction/construction process. Hopefully, after the eventual reconstruction, I can reach a better level than I am. The trouble is, it can take a while. Meanwhile, things can get a touch frustrating. 🙁
Musicality
Recently some followers questioned the value of taking classes on musicality. To me this was rather strange, which I can only put down to having experienced bad teaching in the past. In my opinion, musicality goes way beyond recognising the stereotypical generalisations for each of the major orchestras, e.g. Pugliese is only represented by his La Yumba beat, D’Arienzo means only the ric-tic-tic marching rhythm and Fresedo means always a certain romantic silkiness. Musicality in a technical sense is more to do with how we can recognise the phrasing in the music, the syncopations, the change from rhythmic to melodic, just to name a few. Ultimately, it allows us – leaders and followers – to transform a series of steps into a moving dance.
So, is there any point for a follower to learn and understand musicality?
Tango music genealogy
A pictorial representation of Tango music genealogy, for the occasions when you want to show off to your friends!
Note (4.12.2008): The original source for this is here, http://www.tango.ch/.
Teaching of Tango
Almost any Tango teacher worth his salt – be they of the “resident” variety or the travelling maestros – would have (or should have) struggled with these questions at some point in his teaching career: What do I teach to the students? And in what order should I present what I know?
It goes without saying that considerations for a resident teacher who may (or may not) choose to take on the responsibility of helping a community to grow, i.e starting from raw beginners, will be different from the “hit-and-run” strategies of visiting masters, who may be in town for a weekend or two for a festival or intensive workshops.