The piano, the bass and the clave play. Press Play; the key is changed in the control bar.
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 montuno is the short repeating figure a pianist plays in salsa. It is syncopated: most of its notes fall between the beats rather than on them, so the piano sounds like one more rhythm instrument.
The figure takes two bars and repeats for as long as the harmony holds. In SalsaBeat the montuno runs over the chords I–IV–V–IV, one chord per half bar.
The bass plays the tumbao: two notes per bar, on the “and” after the second beat and on the fourth beat. Both reach the note of the next chord before it arrives and ring through the strong beat.
So on “one” the bass is often silent or holding a note it has already played. If you are used to finding the “one” from the bass, as in pop music, rely on the congas and the bell in salsa instead.
The piano has two: Montuno I-IV-V-IV, the full figure, and Chord stabs, short chords between the beats. The bass has two as well: Tumbao I-IV-V-IV with the anticipation, and Roots on 1 and 3, where the chord roots sit on the beats; it is easier to count to.
Yes, to any of the twelve: the key is switched in the control bar or with the left and right arrow keys. The piano and bass parts change, the drums stay the same.
More topics: Salsa rhythm · Clave 2-3 and 3-2 · Counting in eight · Salsa metronome · Congas: tumbao · Campana · Timbales: cáscara · the whole trainer and general questions