The Five Pause Types Methodology & Primer

What are the 5 Pause Types ?

The 5 Pause types are in every piece of tango music you have ever heard from the golden age. They are best described as ‘musical rests’ or a simply a ‘pause’. However unlike normal musical pauses, a Tango Pause is slight different and has very specific characteristics that makes them easily identifiable.

Using the 5 Pause Types = Simplified Musical Interpretation!

Before we get into identifying the pauses using the example of Juan D’Arienzo’s “Nada Mas”, you’re going to ask “Miles ? Why the ‘F’ do I care about this sh1t ?”. The reason has to do with Musical Interpretation. Note what I said there. “MUSICAL INTERPRETATION”, and NOT “Musicality”. That word, does not mean what you think it means. We’ll get into that in another post. However, the long story short here is that the reason you want to play with this stuff is that it not only greatly simplifies Musical Interepretation but actually frees you up. Furthermore, and this is huge, it not only changes your dance for the better and cleans up the ronda, BUT it creates a clear 1 to 1 relationship in what you’re hearing in the music with what you’re seeing on the floor.

So theoretically if you’re hearing the 5 Pause Types AND you’re dancing them as intended, your dance SHOULD resemble the music! Which frequently DOES NOT happen!

There are 13 Pause Types ?

There are in actuality, a of total 13 types of pauses that I have identified. Meaning that there are 8 more types of pauses. So why not list the other 8 ? Because they are orchestrally specific and they don’t happen as often. The remaining 8 pauses are really categorized as ‘Orchestral’ pauses and are all lumped together.

The Five Types are … ?

Type 1 is a Stop or Cessation of Music. Sometimes this is quick, sometimes it last for a whole beat, but it’s clearly identifiable.

Type 2 is an Instrumental Flourish. Sometimes this is a Violin Flourish, or more often in certain orchestras a Piano Flourish or Trill.

Type 3 is an Orchestral Pause. This one is an ODD Pause Type, it doesn’t happen all that often. But it does happen here in this example, and we use it here as a marker, a placeholder for the remaining 8 pauses that are identified. However in this example it’s called ‘A Diminished Note’. This one sounds like a the music drifts off for a beat and then immediately comes back.

Type 4 is a Paragraph Marker. This is what gives the music structure as you’ll see in a bit. This pause type serves 2 very distinct purposes. It is a Pause in its own right. BUT it is also a marker between two very different musical ideas. Which is clearly identified as a sharp shift in the musical direction. So how do you know you’re hearing a Type 4 ? It’s the ‘BUM-BUM’. These only happen 4 to 5 times in a song. And they usually mark the end of one musical idea and the beginning of the next. That ‘Bum-Bum’ that you hear is indicative of the the ‘Shave and a Haircut’ idea that happens at the end of every piece of tango music! Listen to the ends of the every tango you’ve ever heard, with 2 exceptions (Rodriquez and Tanturi), and you’ll hear a ‘Bum-Bum’. However if you go back thru the song, you’ll also hear those ‘Bum-Bum’ happen as well. Those are PARAGRAPH Markers!

Type 5 is the Singer’s Breath. Put simply every time that the singer breathes, that’s a Pause! It also, if you’re listening closely, reinforcing a pause that ALREADY exists in the music.

Some Variations!

As always with this stuff there are some variations. What’s below is a very late addition to what I was calling v3. And is now v4 of the work or Version 4. In this version, we add some needed nuance, but the basic structure and format still exists. We’re just adding a bit of nuance to the typing scale above.

The Type 2 Pause has 4 variations that you’ll hear with some frequency depending on the orchestra.

Type 2/1 – Piano <- means that you’ll still hear the piano but it’s specified as such.
Type 2/2 – Violin <- specified as the violin.
Type 2/3 – Bando <- specified as the bando.
Type 2/4 – Notes <- this is a series of notes that trail off, usually these are piano notes.

The Type 4 Bum/Bum has 3 variations that are very infrequent but again, depending on the orchestra, you’ll hear it and wonder.

Type 4/1 – Bum/Bum – Notes <- This is where you’ll hear the BUM/BUM and series of notes that trail off.
Type 4/2 – Bum/Bum – Violins <- This is where you’ll hear the notes of the BUM/BUM but their with the violins
Type 4/3 – Bum/Bum – Bando <- Bando playing the BUM/BUM

The Type 5 Pause is the Singer’s Breath and this one requires a bit of clarity. Typically what happens UNDER the Singer’s breath is a paragraph is being repeated. Usually it’s the 1st or 2nd musical paragraph that’s being ‘sung’. As a result the pauses that are sitting there haven’t gone away. They’re still there. And the singer is emphasizing those pauses when they take a breath which also happens to reinforce those existing pauses. So when you see these marked up in the archive as such, it’s still a type 5 pause but if you listen closely you’ll hear the specificity of the STOP, PIANO, ORCHESTRAL, or BUM-BUM under their BREATH.

Type 5/1 – Breath/Stop
Type 5/2 – Breath/Piano
Type 5/3 – Breath/Orchestral
‘Type 5/4 – Breath/Bum-Bum

You Need Practice!

The reality is that that hearing this stuff for a few minutes IS NOT GOING TO CHANGE anything about what you’re doing. This stuff requires DAILY practice. So with that in mind, you know it would help if you had a resource that you could practice along with, right ?

I got you boo! > https://tangotopics.com/musical-pause-library/

This is a library of a few songs from my archive that have been VISUALLY typed for you. There are literally hundreds of songs like this in the archive that are only open to my intensive level students, sorry premium users. Where I have gone thru and typed a song for them so that they can practice on their own. And now you have access to a VERY modernized and updated version of this idea in the Pause Library. I will be adding to this library on a daily basis. So check back often.

A Few Important Facts of the Method!

There is NO 8 Count here.

None. Zero.

You do not need to count beats.

Never.

As a matter of fact if you’re counting beats, then you’re doing this wrong.

Let me stress with absolute clarity so that you hear it:

YOU DO NOT NEED TO COUNT BEATS, EVER!

Are we good ?

Another fact: There are times when an 8 count will land on a pause. Sometimes. However, this does not mean that this is always true. The reality is that it’s not as you’ll see with some songs. Pauses happen with greater, seemingly, UNSTRUCTURED frequency than the typical musical 8 count beat methodology. The 8 Count Beat Methodology is consistent. The Pause Methodology is NOT consistent. Which is what gives it its ability to appear improvisational. And this is what gives the Methodology one of its core strengths over the other 3 competing methodologies of musical interpretation. There is structure and there is consistency in the method.

Another ? > The A/B Methodology which is what most people are used to seeing in phrasing charts, does NOT work here. There is a patterning that does occur with some orchestras, but that patterning IS NOT CONSISTENT across EVERY orchestra. It’s an anomaly more often than not. Which is to say, recognize it, acknowledge it, and then move on to the overall idea of structure.

Last one > All Pauses are ALIGNED with the beat. Meaning that if you’re tapping out the beat with 1 hand, and tapping out the pauses with the other, your pause and beat should align on the pause! There are times when this is NOT true, and it occurs when the singer is singing. When this happens, sometimes their quick phrasing which necessitates them taking a quick breath to fit everything in, forces an unaligned pause/beat. Treat it as anomaly and a feature, not a bug.

The A/B Rhythmical Method and The 5 Pause Types.

While there are places where repeating rhythmic structures occur, those structures typically START and END with a pause! Which is to say that you can still utilize what you’ve acquired with that methodology. It’s just that now you have a superstructure to put them into place. Meaning that one of the problems of the A/B methodology is that there is no overriding superstructure. And now there is one > The 5 Pause Types acts as a overlaying lattice work to the individual A/B methodology!

The Beat is STILL King!

Do not think for an instant that you do not need to be aware of the beat. You do. You must. And in fact, you must be hyperaware of it. Even more so. Your sense of musical time with this methodology must be unforgiving – AT ALL TIMES. Put simply ? The Beat is KING! The Pauses are secondary to the Beat. The Pauses are ‘Markers’ really. They are just places for you to re-gather yourself and generate clear structure. However, the base unit for when that happens, is still the beat.

A Warning!

Once you are able to hear the pauses, that’s where the fun begins. However, I am not going to lie to you, that it’s going to take a little while to hear the pauses reliably and consistently. But once you do, you will never hear tango music the same way again. Furthermore you will never dance to tango music the same way again either.

Now What ?

Ok so once you are able to hear the pauses reliably what do you do with that information ?

There are 3 things we want to and the first one of insanely easy, and there’s a good reason for it.

1.) Tango’s Reset Button. This comes in two parts.

a.) Resetting the Couple. Have you ever been dancing along and you notice that your partner starts to drift or it becomes increasingly difficult to keep them in front of you, or they end up in your armpit ? Using the pauses stops that from happening. It gives you time and space to logically, rationally, reasonably reset your partner. Also that reset doesn’t look haphazard or random but well placed, and more importantly, it FEELS like the right spot for it.

b.) Resetting the Embrace. Again, dancing along, and you notice that your partner’s embrace becomes more and more rigid as if trying to hold you in place. It can become uncomfortable over time. However, if we reset the embrace in a logical place, using the pause, then it’s not uncomfortable for too long.

Using the pause allows us, to reset things back to a state of comfort AND usability so that we’re always always in front of our partners, not creating discomfort with our embrace, and we’re at the ready.

To be fair, there is another way to engage a full reset while dancing and that does NOT require using the pause, but instead requires the application of the “2 Millimeter” Methodology and Practice which most people don’t do. This is a very deft hyper-awareness and activity that requires you to be constantly aware of body position and placement and adjust on the fly WITHOUT disturbing the embrace OR your partner or making them aware that you’re doing exactly that, while in the moment. This sounds easy, but trust that it’s not. These are micromovements, microchanges in pressure and more importantly body position, and body placement each and every step. However, using the pause to engage in a reset is a good practice to get into.

Now that that’s out of the way, here’s the deep reason why we play with pauses!

2.) Vocabulary Change! This a logical place to change your vocabulary choice as a Lead or as a Follow. For the Lead its’ changing walking systems to turns, or crosses, or sacadas (etc). For the Follower it’s a wonderful place to drop in a well timed Adornment! Not an Embellishment, but an Adornment. Because you’re rightfully adorning the music!

And the 3rd reason why we engage the pause, is that it gives us the ability to create VISUAL STRUCTURE!

3.) Structure! This the beginning of Musical Structure. Employing the Pauses and the Musical Paragraphs, we begin to see and hear that there is structure. Only now we can access it thoughtfully and carefully! Whereas before you were haphazzardly randomly sort of hitting it. Or more importantly you were copying and pasting someone else’s idea of musical interpretation and pasting that onto you. Which 9 times out of 10 didn’t really fit the space, the partner, or the music.

Want more info ?

First and foremost, I lead a weekend workshop (see the link) that goes over this stuff. Come and I’ll show you a much easier way to engage in Musical Interpretation that creates options and opportunities for you to express yourself! This isn’t about learning technique, or my idea of some step, pattern, or figure. No. This is allowing you to do you, only musically!

Secondly if you can’t attend a workshop, and who has time for that, then there’s always this website. I actually go over this stuff in a 15 part video series that shows you how to play with this ideas. You can see bits and pieces of it right now, for free (and who doesn’t like ‘free’ ?). However, you do have to subscribe. 🙁 You do eventually have to pay for the soup.

Final Thoughts.

I’m not going to lie to you, if you haven’t figured it out by now, Tango is hard. It’s not fun. If you’re serious about the form and most people are not, then for a long time it’s not going to be fun. The reason is that there is an enormous amount of information to process, correct, interpret, re-correct, and re-process over and over and over again.

And buried in all of that is the process of Musical Interpretation. And the way that it’s taught today is specifying an Orchestra and or a set series of patterns that can be applied ONLY to a specific orchestra as if that is supposed to evoke or elicit some kind of magical experience. The problem, as was stated previously, is that you’re copying and pasting a teacher class dancer’s solution onto you. And 9 times out of 10, it doesn’t work for a whole bunch of reasons. Most notably is that’s them and you’re not them!

However, using the 5 Pause Types Methodology is far easier than the 8 Count Beat – A/B Methodology that passes for Musical Interpretation most of the time. It allows for greater control as well as greater flexibility because you’re not tied to a specific exacting series of steps, but instead you’re tied to the idea of the music and what it inspires. And that very change is what opens up options and opportunities for both roles.