The bongos and the clave play. Press Play and find the low open tone on “four” and “eight”.
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Bongos are a pair of small drums joined together. The smaller one is called the macho, the larger one the hembra. The bongo player, the bongosero, holds them between the knees and plays with fingers and palms. In a salsa band the bongos are the highest-pitched drums: you hear them above the congas and the timbales.
The martillo, Spanish for “little hammer”, is eight even strokes to the bar, one on every eighth note. On the dancer's count that is a stroke on every beat and on every “and” between the beats. Almost all the strokes fall on the small drum. One, an open tone on the large drum, sounds lower than the rest and falls on the fourth beat of the bar: “four” and “eight” on the dancer's count.
The bongos are heard in the quiet sections of a song: the intro and the verses. Listen for a fast, even tapping high above the other drums and a low stroke at the end of every bar. It sounds in the same place as the open tones of the congas.
▶ Bongos, congas and the count
In the loud section of a song, when the chorus and the horns come in, the bongosero puts the drums down and picks up the campana, a large hand bell. That is why the bongos and the campana do not usually sound together, and the change from bongos to bell tells the dancer that a new section has begun.
The martillo divides the bar into eight equal parts, which makes it a good check on how evenly you step. The open tone on “four” and “eight” falls on the pause in the basic step and helps you not to rush the next step.
This is how the parts of the rhythm section fall on the dancer's count: eight beats over two bars, steps on 1-2-3 and 5-6-7. Clave 2-3: two strokes in the first bar, three in the second; in 3-2 the pattern starts from the second bar, and both bells and the cáscara shift with it. The timbalero plays the mambo bell instead of the cáscara in the loud sections, together with the bongo bell.
| Count | 1 | & | 2 | & | 3 | & | 4 | & | 5 | & | 6 | & | 7 | & | 8 | & |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clave clave | ||||||||||||||||
| Bongo bell campana | ||||||||||||||||
| Mambo bell campana | ||||||||||||||||
| Congas tumbadoras | ||||||||||||||||
| Bongos martillo | ||||||||||||||||
| Güiro güiro | ||||||||||||||||
| Maracas maracas | ||||||||||||||||
| Cáscara cáscara | ||||||||||||||||
| Piano montuno | ||||||||||||||||
| Bass tumbao |
The martillo is the basic bongo rhythm in salsa and Cuban son: eight even strokes to the bar with one open tone on the large drum on the fourth beat. The name is Spanish for “little hammer”.
On “four” and “eight” of the dancer's count, that is, the fourth beat of every bar. It is highlighted in the scheme on this page.
Bongos are small and high-pitched and play the martillo. Congas are large and lower and play the tumbao with a slap on “two” and “six”. The open tones of both drums fall on “four” and “eight”.
On this page the bongos are already on. On the home page they are off: press the Bongos card and the martillo joins the other instruments.