Basics of tango DJ'ing - for beginners

The first song in a tanda is a promise to the dancers – if they like it they go to the dance floor, that’s their commitment. A good DJ keeps his promise and makes sure that the following songs in the tanda are connected to the first song either by rhythm, tempo, melody, nerve and ambience. Thats the commitment from the DJ and thats how trust is build up between dancers and DJ.

Tandas  

Make your tandas with songs, that in one way or another fit together. This is often done with some basic rules. A tanda:

• consists of four songs from the same orchestra 
• is build up with songs from the same time period
• feels more homogeny if the fours songs are from the same recording or at least with the same sound quality
• must consist of fours songs in same tempo

These are the basic rules, now the DJ has to give his own fingerprint and nerve to the tanda by selecting which songs to put together and in what order. This is the artistic part of the DJing where personal taste and preferences makes the difference.

Sometimes new DJ’s, or dancers with the wish to become a DJ, ask me about the rules of DJ’ing and how to make a good DJ set. Often they focus on orchestras and ask something like: “is it good to play Di Sarli after waltz?” or something similar but unfortunately it is not that simple.

There is no set of rules that will ensure a good evening for the dancers – if that was possible the DJ would not be necessary, it would be enough with a playlist made by these rules. What makes a good DJ set really has got to do with:

• the skills and musicality of the DJ
• his or her CD collection, it’s difficult to make good DJ’ing from a poor CD collection even though I will say that a good DJ can make a lot out of little, just like a good cook can do surprisingly good food from the leftovers in the fridge

Anyways, if you are a beginner, here are a few guidelines that will help you to get the basic of tango DJ’ing under your skin.

A good team for DJ beginners - 007 Bond is responsible for cortinas...

Trust

Each good DJ has his or her philosophy about that, so do I and I don’t want to reveal it here. Only I want to say that it is very important to understand that The first song in a tanda is a promise to the dancers – if they like it they go to the dance floor, that’s their commitment. A good DJ keeps his promise and makes sure that the following songs in the tanda are connected to the first song either by rhythm, tempo, melody, nerve and ambience. Thats the commitment from the DJ and thats how trust is build up between dancers and DJ.

Trust turns in to goodwill, and that you can rely on late if you make a bad choise or other mistakes. It also allows you to experiment later in the evening. The dancers will be much more willing to join you in your experiment once you have gained their trust.

T T V T T M

A traditional milonga is build up after a very strict system, and I strongly suggest that you as a beginner DJ stick to this system. It’s like this: after two tandas with tango comes a tanda with waltz or milonga. Then two tandas of tango and then a tanda with either waltz or milonga:

• Tango
• Tango
• Waltz
• Tango
• Tango
• Milonga

Cortinas

Play cortinas between the tandas, it helps the dancers to find new dance partners, to go to the bar or to go to the toilet. And don’t underestimate the power of the cortina, you can really change the mood of the dancers by playing either energetic, funny or slow cortinas. I use the cortinas very actively to create a good ambience.

Don’ts

• The DJ must not lose himself in his own favorites
• The DJ should not be dancing unless it’s a very small and local milonga
• The DJ should not be away from the DJ box when the Cortina is playing

Together these things make a DJ more trustworthy but I repeat: this is really the basics of the basics, and just like karate Kid there is a lot of waxing on and waxing of before you’re a full-blooded tango DJ so just get started. 

Enjoy it and good luck.