A quick course in 10 steps!

Our website www.tangodiario.com offers interviews with the greats of tango. These are interviews with musicians and singers who have dedicated their lives to tango. They reveal some of their secrets in these interviews. They tell with fervor of their great love: tango.

Many people respond to these interviews with passionate reactions. Some comments deserve to be mentioned separately. For example, we received the following message from Juan Carlos Roldán:

We have just received the following message from Juan Carlos Roldán :

” Connoisseurs of tango music have known this for a long time: is there any subject that has not been treated by tango? That the hand of a poet has not touched?

The old people, the boy, the girl. The streetcar, the streetlight, the curb, the neighborhood, cities of the world. The poor, the rich, the drunkard, the cool. Sports, sportsmen and sportswomen. Politics, social protest. The countryside, the river, the sunrise, the night. The mine, the one who was lost, the innocent, the cruel one who broke his heart.

And the endless list of those dedicated to love. Love, to the one who left, to the hope that he will return, spite. Your eyes, your lips, your perfume, your betrayal, your oblivion.

Is there anything Tango hasn’t said? Do you know of any other music in the world that has such vast poetry? But also, his music! Danceable, whistleable, singable. And if you don’t do any of that, you sit down with a drink and a cigarette and listen to it, and dream and cry, and remember… and you’re even reborn. “

But what if you are not yet familiar with tango music, with what simple 10 steps can you quickly become a specialist? To make it easy for you, we have also created a Spotify playlist for you.

The 10 steps…

1. Listen to tangos from the Guardia Vieja era (1905-1917), for example the music of Roberto Firpo and the songs of the legendary Carlos Gardel. It pays attention to the phrasing of the singing and the music;

2. Then listen to tangos from the Guardia Nueva period (1918 – 1938), for example the music of Julio de Caro and Osvaldo Fresedo.

3. Then listen to tangos from the golden age (1939 – 1955), for example the music of Aníbal Troilo, Osvaldo Pugliese and Juan D’Arienzo.

4. For a very different vision, listen to tangos from the modern era (since 1955), especially the music of Astor Piazzolla and Horacio Salgán.

5. Tango is still developing in new directions, especially listening to the music of Gustavo Beytelmann, Rodolfo Mederos, Marcelo Nisinman.

6. Watch lots and lots of documentaries and videos about (and with) music and dance.

7. Search for websites that contain translations of lyrics, for example lyrics by Enrique Cadicamo .

8. Take a dance class and visit a real milonga, a dance hall.

9. Listen to podcasts and watch videos on the website www.tangodiario.com .

10. Travel to Buenos Aires and Montevideo! And there live, move and dance like a true “tanguero”. In other words, you have to stand in a long queue at the bank, you have to put money in letters to do your paperwork, you have a job where your income suddenly stops. But your great consolation is the TANGO, the music, the lyrics and the dance. In tango all these setbacks are sung and thus become light.

Helena Rüegg & Rob Bangert

Add : Spotify playlist

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