Tango & flamenco · milonga · 2/4 tresillo

Milonga

108 bpm Loop: all
16ths
Clave
Piano
Guitar
Bass

Mixer

Keyboard

Strums

1
↓↑↓↑
2
↓↑↓↑

Milonga — tango's quick, rustic cousin, in 2/4 and built on the habanera: a dotted eighth, a sixteenth, then two eighths (1, the a of 1, 2, the and of 2). The first three of those hits are the tresillo, which is why both cells are tagged; the fourth, on beat 2, is what makes it a habanera.

How it sits: the left hand plays the habanera as a rising arpeggio — low root, fifth in octaves on the sixteenth, then root and third — the shape Scivales uses for the habanera section of Sueño y Pasión; the bass doubles it. The right hand marks 1, the a of 1 and the and of 2 (the 3-3-2 half of the figure). The guitar plays the milonga campera strum: thumb on the bass note, then up-down-up chord strokes on the remaining three hits.

Listen for the sixteenth being late and light, almost a grace note into beat 2.

Practice: loop the clave layer and clap it, then play the left hand alone until the sixteenth stops rushing.

Sources

  • left hand after Scivales, Play Latin Piano Like a Pro, ch. 17 Ex-91-1 (habanera bass, Bb), rhythm normalized to the standard habanera grid; right hand, guitar and bass: standard practice; no transcribed source

Keyboard

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