I thought I would just give you a written summary of the tango musicality I was talking about last night, with reference to the valz.
1. Tango valz is made up of chunks with a beat 1-2-3. You can recognize a valz because the 1 is stronger than 2 and 3. In fact 2 and 3 may not be so audible. The music is usually very fast and difficult to catch 2 and 3 but if you listen carefully you should be able to find the strong 1.
1 – 2 –3 /1-2-3/ 1-2 -3/ 1-2-3 ….. etc
2. The simplest way to dance to dance to tango valz is to look for the strong beat and step on this beat. Often the valz is too fast so you don’t have to step on every 1. You can slow down as much as you want and only step on alternate 1’s if you want.
3. Last night I asked you to look for the rhythmic structure 1 _3/1 where we were marking 1 and 3 but not 2. Therefore there is a slight pause (which is actually 2 which we leave out) after a strong 1. Following the pause, we mark 3 and 1 immediately after that. In time it looks like this:
strong absent weak strong
1 (2) 3 1
Note: This type if musical variation adds colour to the dance. You don’t have to use it all the time, on every opportunity but if you find places to insert it into your valz it will be EVER so much more fun.
See if you can find this rhythm in this song by Carlos di Sarli