Music Corner - Q&A on clave and more
Submitted by sbowman on Sat, 05/03/2008 - 18:15.
By SalsaSteph (revised Dec 2008)
Why does salsa sound more complex than, let’s say, pop music?
Salsa is one of the few musical forms where there are actually “two heartbeats” that form the musical structure, instead of one. In pop music, you will generally hear beats, which are the underlying foundation of music. Then, you lay instrumental patterns on top of that. But in salsa, musicians not only have beats as reference points, but also clave. It sounds more complex because clave isn’t even a regular pattern; it sounds uneven, and it doesn’t match your salsa steps evenly either. Plus, in a modern salsa orchestra, there are between 8-14 different instruments doing their thang! In rock music, there is one rhythmic instrument and four melodic instruments. Drums keep the beat, guitars and synthesizers are melodic. In salsa, you have clave, bass, timbales, cowbell, maracas/guiro, sometimes piano (montunos), congas (as rhythmic) - then voices, horns and sometimes piano as melodic instruments! Not all instruments sound out throughout the entire song…..and you don’t always hear the clave! You have to imagine it’s there! So, it takes some time to be accustomed to these sounds and patterns to distinguish between salsa, merengue and cha cha, etc.
Where does the clave come from?
It is said that these clave rhythms were brought to the ports of
How do you know and hear which clave it is?
Hmmm… well, it’s actually not easy at first to an untrained ear. That is why you have to make a game of it as you listen to a salsa song. If you listen carefully, especially to older salsa, the instruments will point the clave out by adding stresses or highlights. Another clue is when the singer highlights it - say, the last two hits in a 3/2 part. Of course, once you’ve figured it out, it might have changed again. Generally speaking, it changes only one, two or four times in a song.
Clave comes alive - or finds life - in contrast. Notice how the hits do not all fall precisely on a main beat. Rather, some fall in between; let’s say 2 and 3, creating syncopation. Considering the clave is like the heart - or the pulse - around which all other salsa instruments revolve, one must know clave well in order to dance with feeling. When instructors tell you to “just feel the music” - they’re trying to say to listen to the clave and what happens in between the beats. They may not know how to explain it to you, but hopefully you can practice on your own. If you’re not sure, ask someone who knows!
Why does salsa have a 3/2 and a 2/3 clave?
To understand clave, one must understand that music is made up of 8-beat phrases (call it a sentence if you like.) In salsa, Clave is another kind of structural foundation that makes up a musical building. You will hear a 3/2 clave in relation to the first beat of the 8-beat phrase, called forwad clave. You will hear a 2/3 clave in relation to the second beat of the 8-beat phrase, called reverse clave.
3 2 3 2 3 2 3 2 etc
3 2 3 2 3 2 3 2 etc
Let's make a diagram instead of explaining it:
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 (musical phrase=8 beats)
5 6 7 8
x x x x x (clave hits)
This is how you hear 3/2 clave in relation to the counts:
5 6 7 8 5 6 7 8
5 6 7 8 5 6 7 8
The phrase can change the direction at any point in the song. However, even though the phrasing of the music may change, the clave always starts and continuously plays 3/2. It's like an illusion in how you hear .
An orchestra is seen as being 'off clave' (cruzado) if they play the clave so it goes: 3 2 2 3 (it should be 3/2: 3/2) I only know of one song, by Gilberto Santa Rosa, who does this out of experimentation. Nothing is ever really wrong. When you know the rules, you can break them, I suppose.
Do the rumba and son clave rhythms ever mix in one song?
No. Again though, if there is a song out there that does it, it exists and the musicians are giving themselves permission to break rules.
How do I learn to “feel” salsa music? Or ANY music?
The most important thing about dancing salsa is feeling the cadence of the main beats. Cadence means: “Rhythmic, balanced flow or movement as in marching.” (Pace.)
Rhythm is defined as, “a movement or action marked by regular recurrence of elements; a recurrent pattern formed by notes of different stress and duration.” (Webster’s Dictionary)
Once you “feel” or predict the recurring patterns, you establish a frame of sorts, or a march. You must feel equal time between each heartbeat, ie know where the 1 starts and the 8 ends. Once you can feel this momentum without thinking, you can start adding variety, like stresses and accents, much like adding exclamation points to a plain sentence to add expression and excitement!
Then, you can play in between the main pulses. Once you've truly defined a salsa basic, you can play in and out of it, which frees you from the frame or structure. Who-hoo! That is when you let your personal style flow out, and dance in thr moment, without holding back. That is when you assert yourself, when your identity is expressed, when your feelings become unleashed and unblocked. You can get out of your head, and just sense your body going to the flow of the music. This is called musicality.
Something magical and trance-like happens not only when you establish a recurring pattern, but also when you come outside of 'the box'. Not only can you come outside of a salsa basic, but also with the rhythm of the 8 instruments you typically find in salsa. That is the ultimate goal: Learn to dance sensing all instruments while you dance and focus on 1 at a time.
The true essence of salsa lies in understanding the clave while you dance salsa. I’ve asked some of the salsa world’s best musicians and dancers how they’d describe clave. All of them immediately clap it, for lack of words, or tell me “You just have to feel it.” Luckily, clave is getting more attention among salsa dancers.
How do I know where the ‘1’ is in the music?
This takes some ear training…and I actually hold 2-4 hour workshops on this question…but the quickest answer I can give you is to listen for the horns, the lead singer, and especially the chorus. They all usually start their phrases right on the 1. You can also listen for phrases that repeat themselves. Anticipating recurrences will also help to hear or feel where the 1 is. With training - hearing, seeing, feeling and anticipating all become one sense!
What about all this talk concerning dancing to the clave? Dancing on 1, on 2?
My take on this is that people are getting way too serious and technical about what is right and wrong. This is dangerous, as it forces people to take sides - causing division among salsa lovers. Now that mambo (dancing on 2) has gained worldwide popularity, there is talk that when you dance on 1, you’re not dancing to the clave. This is absolutely not true!
As Felipe Polanco (world-class mambo dancer) explained to me, it doesn’t matter what beat you choose to dance on, as long as you dance consistently (repeating the pattern or structure), and as long as you feel the clave, you’re dancing salsa. What about knowing which clave it is? He suggests that as long as you feel one or the other, it doesn’t really matter.
I would have to agree with him for several reasons: When you start learning how to dance, you just want to be able to build enough confidence to get out on the dance floor and have fun. That takes a small while to do. When you get passed that stage, you may feel bored with the little you know and want to learn more. It ends up taking a long time before your awareness can shift to listening to the music, or before a social dancer realizes the music actually tells you what to do! Some people may have a trained ear before learning how to dance, and since these people let the music carry them, they may dance more playfully, right from the beginning. As you become more advanced, you can educate yourself on the importance of clave and the magic of its rhythms. Knowing clave opens up doors to the soul! So, whether you’re dancing 1 through 8, just have fun! The important issue here is learning how to let go and be yourself without fear. Praise clave!
