Salsa clave: 2-3 and 3-2

The clave is both an instrument, two wooden sticks, and the rhythmic pattern played on them: five strokes over two bars. Every other part leans on this pattern: congas, bells, piano and bass.

One bar of the clave has two strokes and the other has three. Which bar starts the phrase gives the direction: 2-3 or 3-2.

The order of the bars. On the dancer's count, clave 2-3 sounds on “two”, “three”, then “five”, “six-and”, “eight”. Clave 3-2 starts with the bar of three strokes: “one”, “two-and”, “four”, then “six”, “seven”.

The pattern itself is the same; what changes is which of its bars falls on the start of the musical phrase. The song sets the direction.

One stroke: in rumba clave the last stroke of the three-side comes half a beat later. In the 2-3 direction son clave ends on “eight”, and rumba clave on “eight-and”.

Salsa almost always uses son clave. In SalsaBeat you choose the pattern on the Clave card: Son clave or Rumba clave.

On a recording the clave is often not played by anyone: the musicians keep it in their heads, and the pattern is implied by the other parts. So learn it on its own first. Switch on the clave with the count and clap along until your hands land by themselves.

Then switch the instructor off and count silently, then add the congas and the campana and keep clapping the clave over them. After that you start to hear the pattern in real music.

To dance the basic steps it is enough to hear the count. The clave helps further on: to understand where a musical phrase begins, why the first and the second four sound different, and to place your accents in the music.