Salsa

The steady groove under the singing. Clear clave and congas: the best place to start.

View

How fast the music plays. Normal is the usual tempo for this rhythm; start slow while learning.

The count the music is on right now. 1 and 5 start each half of the 8 counts: listen for them.

12345678

165BPM

A voice counting along: just the numbers, or with “and” between them.

hit
slap
open
heel
toe
low
high
rim
short
long
5th
push
root
3rd
chord
dyad

Block 1

1&2&3&4&5&6&7&8&

Two wooden sticks. Their pattern (3-2) is the backbone the whole salsa band follows.

Tall hand drums. Heel and toe rock quietly on the drum; the open tones on 4 and 4& are the heartbeat of salsa (the tumbao).

Two small joined drums. Steady eighth notes that keep the band moving.

Two metal drums played with sticks. On the shell they play the cáscara pattern.

The bongo player's hand bell (campana). In the montuno it replaces the bongos: the mouth on the beat, the neck in between.

The bell mounted on the timbales: the mambo bell in the montuno, the cha-cha bell in cha-cha-chá. Higher than the bongo bell.

Shakers. A soft, even pulse on every eighth note.

A ridged gourd scraped with a stick: long and short scrapes.

Plays the low notes of the chords. In bachata it marks the 1; in salsa it plays the next chord early, on 4, and skips the 1 (the tumbao).

The montuno: a repeating, syncopated piano figure locked to the clave. "push" plays the next chord ahead of the bar.

The Cuban tres: three pairs of strings struck with a pick. It plays the guajeo, a repeating figure locked to the clave. Played here from guitar recordings.

The trumpets: in the montuno they play the moña, a short riff that ends by pushing the next chord early. "hit" is a short stab on the whole chord.

The trombones: lower and darker than the trumpets. In the montuno they answer the trumpets’ riff with stabs on the other side of the clave.

Join up to 32 counts of sections, e.g. verse → montuno, to hear how a song changes from one part to the next.

Start with one instrument and add the others one at a time, to hear what each one plays.

Keys: Space — play/stop · ← → — tempo (Shift: by 5) · 1–9 — switch instruments on and off