Hello Victor, you wrote:
>> 1. Many tandas have a stand out track ... At first I always put these tracks as the last in a tanda, ... I decided that is actually a bit too predictable. I observed that actually I get better results when I put the tracks first or at least mix the strong tracks so they are first sometimes and last other times. << A tanda needs a good choreography. I figure there can be wildly different approaches to building good tandas. Sometimes when I build a tanda I build it around one particular song, other times around a specific singer (still one and the same orchestra - I don´t mix them), or I build one specifically to fit in well with the previous one, or pave the way for the next. After all, even if people don´t dance a tanda, they still hear it, and it will affect their mood. Mostly I will use a well-known or at least very powerful and danceable track first, so people want to get up and dance, and they have a sense they know what they´re getting themselves into. Once that is achieved, I can play with the energy, based on that first track. It will lead to the second major track, which is the last one. Whether the first or the last one are the "stand out track" can vary, and often it will be different for different listeners/dancers. The point is that each track in a tanda has a specific function, a job to do. The final one must wrap up the experience of that specific tanda. >> In recent weeks I decided that actually it is best to treat the two adjacent tango tandas as related (VTTMTT) and keep a consistent mood across them. So now I have eight tracks to play around with. << All tandas are related, and adjacent ones especially, by the overall choreography you´re going for. I still treat each tanda as a mostly closed entity - it has to work for the dancer who dances this one tanda, then sits down again, not dancing the next one. If you manage both this as well as there being some nice interplay between tandas - perfect. Just don´t try to be too clever, you´ll just be disappointed if nobody "gets the joke", and maybe it will even be annoying for people. >> Some I just can't bring myself to play at all like Fresedo, Firpo, Piazzolla, Basso, Sassone. << No argument from me except that I sometimes play a tanda of Firpo (very rarely, and usually milonga), and that I can see how one might get bored with Fresedo/Ray after a while. I rediscovered Fresedo at some point, and found some extremely pretty things under that particular rock. Give the man another chance. Maybe try Tigre Viejo, Mariposita, Derecho Viejo, Pimienta. >> So my NuevoÂtandas consist ofÂOtros Aires, a couple of the Gotan tracks, and a couple of the Bajofondo Tango Club tracks. << I couldn´t get myself interested enough to explore Bajofondo yet, but I am guilty of having played Gotan (though not for some time now) and Otros Aires - their milongas, which are real milongas after a fashion. >> 4. Milonga tandas, should they be three tracks or four? I started out playing four tracks but does not seem to go down so well as three tracks. << I prefer three. I find four a bit much, but I know good DJs who play four, and I can live with it. I also play vals tandas of three only, btw. Have fun with your DJing, Andreas _______________________________________________ Tango-L mailing list [email protected] http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/tango-l
