Hi everybody, Fran here with your Tango Tip of the Week. Last week, we took a little time out from our planned agenda to clarify -- specifically for our non-musician readers -- exactly what the words quarter notes, half notes, and
whole notes actually mean. I hope that last week's Tango Tip served to make these concepts somewhat easier to understand. In fact, if you have a few minutes, it might make sense to reread that Tip (February 25, 2016) in order to get these ideas fresh in your mind.
Today, we're going to get back on track by taking a look at
one more category of basic timing. Before we start, however, let's recap a bit. In our ongoing discussion so far, we've examined in some depth the following elements of Tango movement (defined in terms of timing):
· Half-note movement (February 4, 2016)
·
Whole-note movement (February 11, 2016)
· "Long-pause" movement (February 18, 2016)
These three "basic" categories of movement, used in an improvised way, enable the leader to respond rhythmically to Tango music in a precise, informed manner. He/she can, of course, choose forward,
backward, side, or in-place steps as he/she applies these rhythmic elements. At a more advanced level, he/she can also opt for forward or backward ocho, molinete, boleo, sacada de la pierna, calicita, and many other elements within the Tango repertoire.
As stated previously, people from Argentina who have been dancing in the
milongas for many years have usually developed such rhythmical expertise by "picking it up" over time -- i.e., by emulating other dancers -- rather than by learning in the analytic way we're attempting to incorporate here. This process, of course, takes a lifetime on the dance floor. As would-be dancers from outside the Argentine tradition, we have little choice but to rely on an analytic method of learning, at least as a means of getting things started.
To continue with our examination of basic rhythmical response to Tango music, we're now going to focus on what I think of as the fourth category of movement -- "doubling the time," sometimes referred to as traspie. The word traspie literally means stumbling or tripping. A traspie, therefore, might be considered the equivalent of what American swing dancers sometimes call a "hitch step."
For this part of our discussion we're going to return to the element we defined in our Tango Tip of January 28, 2016 -- the quarter note.
You may recall that a quarter note takes its name from the fact that each measure or bar of 4/4 music contains four quarter
notes; i.e., each individual note takes up one quarter of the measure. If we offer a graphic representation of this concept, showing a two-measure phrase, it might look like the following:
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 / 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 ....
The quarter notes are those, which are underlined in the graphic. Furthermore, if we now return to our representation of the signature phrase of "La Cumparsita," we have the following:
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - (_)
and 6 and 7 - 8 ....
Again, the quarter notes are the ones underlined in the graphic.
When we originally talked about quarter notes, we said that if a leader tried to actually
dance to these beats for any length of time, he/she would become exhausted within just a few seconds. Even during a relatively slow Tango continuous quarter notes would just be too fast to handle. However, if that same leader were to use a very small group of such beats every once in a while -- let's say, short bursts of three at a time -- this would pose little or no problem once he/she had learned, practiced, and integrated this
skill.
A double-time sequence -- what I refer to as a traspie -- might be defined then as a short burst of quarter-note beats, danced occasionally by a couple within a Tango (or Vals or Milonga), in order to create a momentary variation in the ongoing cadence of the dance. A traspie might be incorporated by a leader to punctuate a specific
phrase in a given piece of music, or simply because he/she feels the inclination to vary the beat at any given moment.
As mentioned above, a typical traspie might consist of three sequential quarter notes within a phrase of music. Referring back to our graphic representation of a standard two-measure phrase, we would, therefore, have the
following opportunities for incorporating traspie:
All quarter notes within the phrase are underlined:
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 / 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 ....
Individual possibilities for three-beat quarter-note traspies are underlined:
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 / 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 ....
1 - 2 - 3 - 4
/ 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 ....
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 / 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 ....
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 / 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 ....
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 / 5 - 6 -
7 - 8 ....
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 / 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 ....
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 / 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 / 1 - .... (traspie extends into the next phrase)
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 / 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 / 1 - 2 - .... (traspie extends into the next phrase)
I hope it's obvious that there are actually eight opportunities within any two-measure musical phrase to create individual three-beat quarter-note traspies. Depending on which piece of music
he/she is dancing to, any given leader might feel, of course, that certain of these possibilities work better than others. This would be a matter of personal choice.
Taking the idea of traspies a bit further, if a leader were to decide to incorporate multiple three-beat quarter-note traspies within a single phrase, the possibilities would
increase exponentially. Below are just a few possibilities for multiple three-beat quarter-note traspies with a single two-measure phrase:
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 / 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 ....
1
- 2 - 3 - 4 / 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 ....
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 / 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 ....
Another consideration is the length of any given traspie. To keep things (relatively) simple, I've limited our discussion to
three-beat traspies, However, it's certainly possible to extend the total number of beats within any given traspie to at least five quarter notes. Below is an example of one five-beat quarter-note traspie plus a three-beat traspie within a two-measure phrase:
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 / 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 / 1 - ....
And finally, an example of two five-beat quarter-note traspies with an extended phrase:
1 - 2 - 3 - 4 / 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 / 1 - 2 - 3 - ....
As a leader, it's up to you to choose a single three- or five-beat traspie, or a multiple combination within any given musical sequence. The possibilities are limited only by your sense of musicality, your own level of
skill, and your personal creativity. In order to clarify exactly how traspies can be incorporated within a sophisticated, musically diverse dance, next week I'm going to discuss what I consider to be the three basic types of technique, which leaders can use in creating three- and five-beat traspies. We've talked about this before, of course, but I think it bears repeating in this context.
See you then.
