Some Thoughts on Tango Music and DJ-ing

Two words … “Energy Management” … most concisely convey  (I believe) the essence of playing music for a social Argentine tango event. Several approaches may succeed with this broad definition, but there also seem to be just as many approaches to DJ’ing that in some way fall short.

Background: I got into DJ’ing by virtue of starting a local practica here in Portland seven years ago.  In those early days, I used a mixture of cassette tapes and source CD’s to provide music (as I was quite slow in getting a computer with CD burning capabilities). But even then, I constructed many well-sequenced tandas on those old cassettes.  It may have been playing with mirrors, but the music was kept relatively fresh by re-arranging the order of tapes and timely infusion of supplemental tunes from original CD’s.

My eventual purchase of a modern desktop computer (with CD burner) allowed me to pursue tango DJ’ing more seriously. It is then I began sequencing in earnest.

Good DJ’ing addresses (to some extent) the subconscious of many dancers. Those in attendance may or may not have a good time, but they may not always be able to pinpoint why. “Oh, the lighting was weird.” “The room felt funny.” But often the music, even “good” music, played at the wrong time, or juxtaposed less-than-optimally against other “good” music, can affect people’s moods and what kind of time they’re having.

Presumably, most people come to a milonga to dance. So it becomes the DJ’s job to facilitate getting (and keeping) them on the floor. For me, this is largely accomplished by managing the energy through

1. A good working knowledge of the music,
2. Thoughtful preparation and organization of the music, and
3. An innate ability to choose an orchestra at the moment that matches the energy of the moment.

Most of the songs that are regularly played are quite familiar to most experienced tango dancers.  The “top few hundred” most often played Argentine tango tunes are in that group for a reason. They work, and they stand up to repeated hearings. While industrious DJ's are continually unearthing and re-mastering more tunes from the golden era orchestras (which is really cool), the bread of butter of a lot of DJ’s (including myself) is in organizing a lot of already familiar tunes in a compelling and fresh manner. A good working knowledge of the music is necessary, but it isn’t something that necessarily sets the DJ apart.

Whereas, preparation of the music (what I’d call the grunt work), is where a DJ can earn his (or her) stripes.  For me, there is so much more to successful DJ’ing than the collection of a bunch of favorite tango tunes a putting them on CD’s, or in a folder in one’s laptop.  There’s even more to it than organizing these favorites by orchestra, period, or whatever. For me, a primary element of preparation is sequencing.

I believe sequencing has a significant impact on the dancers’ subconscious. And for me, this is the biggest time consumer in the preparation of music for DJ’ing. Sequencing determines the order in which tunes are set up to be played (usually within tandas).  Typically, I’ll isolate the last 10 or 15 seconds of a certain tune (one that’s already been selected, which we’ll call “Tune A”), and have a half dozen “candidates” for the next tune. I’ll alternate playing the end of Tune A with the beginnings of Tunes 2, 3, 4, and so forth, until I find a transition that’s most pleasing to my ear. The most pleasing (or compelling) transitions usually involve some sort of key change, so the next song doesn’t sound three more minutes of the same tune. Yet not so abrupt a transition that it sounds like a different orchestra (or even a totally different era of the same orchestra). Thus the selected next song becomes “Tune B,” and the same procedure starts again with the isolation of the last 10 or 15 seconds of that tune.

Over the course of an entire CD, this process takes several hours (always more than I think it will), and usually most of a day. The process often includes cortinas, but I find that cortinas (like “alternative” tangos), have a shorter shelf life than the classic tangos from the golden era. So I'm inclined to change them more often.

And while a well-prepared order of tunes makes DJ’ing in the moment of the actual dance a lot easier, the job ain’t over.  It’s at the actual event where the DJ’s intuition and sensibilities come into play. Even with well thought out pre-burned CD’s, the DJ does well to read the situation of the room and choose orchestras that create an ebb & flow of energy. My most successful milongas have been when the next orchestras haven’t been chosen until the middle of the previous tandas. Being flexible and present “in the moment” facilitates satisfying energy management.

I've recently been to a couple of festivals where certain DJ's chose each individual tune (within tandas, if they used tandas at all) "on the fly", and did it impressively well. It showed incredible familiarity with their repertoire, and an admirable "in the moment" connection with the dancers.

Personally, I stick with pre-constucted tandas, because of the sequencing work I've done within each tanda. I don't believe an "on-the-fly" decision would be an improvement over my pre-figured-out choice. On the other hand, the choice of which orchestra to play next usually comes as late as possible, allowing what-ever energy-management thoughts to come into play.