Tango in D major, Op. 165 No. 2, by Albéniz
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How to learn Tango in D major, Op. 165 No. 2
- Hear it through at Slow (38 bpm). Open it in the reader, choose Slow, and follow the page with your eyes without playing. As it plays, count 2 to the bar.
- Learn the right hand of bars 1 to 8 on its own, in D major. Say the note names out loud the first time through, then play it three times without stopping.
- Find the chords under it: A7, Bm7, Bm and G. Play each one as a block in your left hand and say its name, so you know what the harmony is before the left hand has to move.
- Learn the left hand of the same bars on its own. Keep it quiet and even: it is the floor the tune stands on.
- Put hands together at Slow, 38 bpm. Bars 1 to 8 only. Stop after every wrong note and play that bar again before moving on.
- Move up to Steady (57 bpm) once Slow feels easy three times in a row. Then learn the next 8 bars the same way: right hand, left hand, together.
- Play the whole piece (about 2 minutes) from the start, at whatever speed keeps it going. A steady run with a few slips beats a fast one that stops.
About this piece
The Tango from Albéniz's España, Op. 165 (1890) is his best-loved piano piece, a lazy, swaying habanera rhythm under a graceful, smiling tune.
How to play it
Feel the dotted habanera rhythm in the left hand, never hurried, and play the melody with a relaxed, singing tone.
Reading it, and printing it
The score opens in Artform's reader, which shows the music as engraved notation and plays it back so you can hear the line before you try it. You can slow the tempo down, loop a passage that is not working yet, and print the page when you would rather have paper on the stand.
The file itself is MusicXML, which MuseScore, Sibelius, Finale and Dorico all open, so the notes are yours to keep whatever you read them in.
More free Albéniz sheet music
Who Albéniz was
Spanish composer and pianist who, as a child, reportedly ran away from home more than once and stowed away on ships, a restlessness that never quite left his music. Iberia, his crowning achievement, a suite of piano pieces steeped in flamenco rhythm and the sound of the guitar transposed to the keyboard, is considered one of the most difficult and evocative works in the entire piano repertoire, a full portrait of Spain in sound. He wrote it while already dying of kidney disease, finishing the last of it only months before his death at forty-eight.
Learn the music behind it
Reading a piece and understanding it are different skills. If you want the harmony under this one, the chord trainer teaches chords the way songs use them, and the scale pages cover the fingering for every key, including D major.