The bell and the clave play. Press Play: the low open strokes of the bell fall on 1, 3, 5 and 7.
Once installed, SalsaBeat opens from your home screen like an app and works offline.
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 | ||||||||||||||||
| Cáscara cáscara | ||||||||||||||||
| Piano montuno | ||||||||||||||||
| Bass tumbao |
The campana, or bongo bell, is a large hand-held cowbell. The bongo player, the bongocero, plays it: in the calm sections of a song he plays the bongos, and in the loud ones, when the chorus and the horns come in, he puts the drums down and picks up the bell.
The bell has two sounds: a low open stroke on the mouth and a higher closed stroke on the body.
The open strokes fall on the strong beats: 1, 3, 5 and 7. Closed strokes sound between them, and their placement follows the clave, so the two bars differ slightly.
In SalsaBeat the bell has three patterns: Bongo bell is the full one, Quarters has a stroke on every beat only, open and closed in turn, and Every beat is the same stroke on every beat, like a metronome.
Its low stroke is the most reliable landmark in the loud section of a song. It sounds on 1, 3, 5 and 7: the first and the third step of each three. Once you hear the bell, you can check your step against it even when the other instruments blur together.
The bongo bell is held in the bongocero's hand, and its pattern is sparse and heavy. The mambo bell is mounted on the timbales and played by the timbalero, and its pattern is busier. In the loud sections both bells sound together and interlock into one pattern.
The mambo bell in SalsaBeat is on the Timbales card, the Mambo bell pattern.
More topics: Salsa rhythm · Clave 2-3 and 3-2 · Counting in eight · Salsa metronome · Congas: tumbao · Timbales: cáscara · Montuno and bass · the whole trainer and general questions