The tientos y tarantos compás

How to count it

A tientos compás is 4 even beats, with the accents on 1 and 3, as in tangos. What changes is the feel: they go so slowly that you can feel every half-beat, and the hit that falls on the second half of the second beat arrives ahead of the third and gives the compás its weight.

In the app’s backing, knuckles on wood mark the first beat, the second half of the second and the third, and a drier hit falls on 2 and 4. The melody rests on the accents and the percussion pushes on the others, just as in tangos.

Two palos, one compás

Tientos grew out of tangos: a slow, deep cante that often ends por tangos, raising the tempo without changing compás. Tarantos are the taranta, the cante of the mines of the Levante, in eastern Spain, set to compás so that it can be danced.

Both are counted the same way, in 4 beats with the accents on 1 and 3, which is why they are a single palo in the app. Where tangos are played at 144 beats per minute, tientos and tarantos are played at 66. They can be played slower or faster, but this gives us an idea of their average tempo.

What tempo they are played at

In the app you can set them to any tempo from 40 to 100 beats per minute. The first time you open them, they start at 60.

How to practise them with the metronome

A sequence that builds up step by step:

1. Count in groups of 4

   Choose Full and count out loud with the wheel. At this tempo there is time to feel each number and what happens between one and the next.

2. Split each beat in two

   Count ‘one and, two and’ and listen for the ‘and’ of the second beat: that hit, arriving ahead of the third, is what gives them their weight.

3. Separate melody and percussion

   Clap on 1 and 3, then move to 2 and 4, where the backing gives its dry hit. Feeling both at once is what gives you the groove.

4. Finish por tangos

   When the cante ends por tangos, the compás does not change: the tempo doubles. Play a few turns at 60 here, then switch to tangos at twice the beats per minute.

5. Build up gradually

   Start at 40 and turn on the Speed trainer: the tempo goes up on its own every few compases. To focus on the percussion, switch to Instruments and keep only the knuckles.

What you can practise them with in the app

In Full you hear the whole backing, including an off-beat version; in Instruments, each instrument separately, with its own volume: the knuckles on wood, the cajón, the palmas, the palmas sordas, the pitos (finger snaps), the tinaja and the frame drum. The palmas include an off-beat pattern. They are all real recorded hits, placed one by one. With Fills turned on, every few compases one of the instruments plays a fill: here there are fills on cajón and tinaja.

Full

4 accompaniments

Palmas

3 patterns

Palmas sordas

3 patterns

Frame drum

3 patterns

Tinaja

3 patterns

Knuckles on table

1 pattern

Cajón

1 pattern

Pitos

1 pattern

Frequently asked questions