TANGO TIPS – 11 October 2026
The following is a copy of the notes prepared for a “Tango Tips” musicality interlude at the Toca Tango Practilonga in Auckland.
Vals Duplets and Other Rhythms
Vals Music and Dance
The thing that differentiates waltz or vals from other genres of dance is the pair of 2 and 3 beats positioned equally between each accented 1 beat.
The vals music played at milongas, almost always has a clearly accented “1 beat” to start every group of three beats, and usually has either the 2 beat more prominent than the 3 beat, or vice versa.
In social tango, dancers tend to step on nearly all of the accented 1 beats, and frequently add either a step on beat 3 ahead of a 1 beat, or add a step on beat 2 after a 1 beat, as appropriate to align with the music.
Occasionally a small number of dancers will also step on all three beats, but this is far less common.
A Vals Practice Exercise
An exercise to practice these four options without (or with) music, is to count “1 2 3 1 2 3 …” out loud, continuously, and evenly as you land with a step to match each number in the table, with no step for each dash in the table:
1 – – 1 – – 1 – – 1 2 3
1 2 – 1 2 – 1 2 – 1 2 3
1 – 3 1 – 3 1 – 3 1 2 3
Vals Duplets
In some vals tandas, the music can have an added level of sophistication involving the substitution of a single beat for the usual pair of 2 and 3 beats. These substitutions (called duplets) can be found in numerous forms of non-tango music including classical music of Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and others, chacerera and other South American folklore music, Dave Brubeck’s, Oscar Peterson’s and nearly all other USA jazz waltzes, Edith Piaf’s and other European musicians’ waltzes, etc. In tango, duplets can be found in the valses of Canaro, Troilo, De Angelis and especially Gobbi.
To understand duplets in a vals, it is easiest to count the number of half beats between two accented 1 beats, thereby changing the counts from 1 2 3 whole beats, to 1 2 3 4 5 6 half-beats (at double the tempo).
Refined Vals Practice Exercise to include Duplets
The practice exercise is unchanged but the counting changes as follows:
From: 1 – – 1 – – 1 – – 1 2 3
to: 1 . . . . . 1 . . . . . 1 . . . . . 1 . 3 . 5 .
From: 1 2 – 1 2 – 1 2 – 1 2 3
to : 1 . 3 . . . 1 . 3 . . . 1 . 3 . . . 1 . 3 . 5 .
From: 1 – 3 1 – 3 1 – 3 1 2 3
to : 1 . . . 5 . 1 . . . 5 . 1 . . . 5 . 1 . 3 . 5 .
This change is desirable because the new duplet beat (replacing beats 2 and 3 or half-beats 3 and 5) will be on half-beat 4 which is easier to find than beat 2.5.
The practice exercise for duplets is then:
1 . . 4 . . 1 . . 4 . . 1 . . 4 . . 1 . 3 . 5 .
Musical Alternatives to Dance Duplets
While some may want to understand and practice all of this and to dance duplet rhythms as and when they arise, it is also fine (and hopefully useful) to simply have an awareness that duplets can happen from time to time and to know that it is totally musical to keep dancing on “the 1s” through each duplet section (or even 1-2, 3-1, 1-2-3, or other combinations to generate poly-rhythms).
Stu 11 October 2026
