The whole salsa rhythm section on the eight-count. Press Play and switch instruments off one by one to hear each part.
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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 |
Salsa is in 4/4, and dancers count it in eight: two bars of four beats. The foundation of the rhythm is the clave, a pattern of five strokes over those two bars. The other instruments play their own repeating parts, and all of them fit the clave.
The usual tempo is 160 to 220 beats per minute, most often 180–200 at parties.
The clave sets the two-bar pattern. The congas play the tumbao: a slap on “two” and “six”, two open tones on “four” and “eight”. The campana, the bongo player's bell, marks 1, 3, 5 and 7 with an open stroke. The timbales play the cáscara on the shell of the drum, or the mambo bell in the loud sections. The güiro keeps an even pulse: one long scrape and two short ones.
The piano plays the montuno, a repeating syncopated figure, and the bass plays a tumbao that reaches the note of the next chord a little before the strong beat.
Start with two parts: the clave and the instructor's count. Once you remember the clave pattern, add the congas, the campana and the bass one at a time, and find the “one” again in each new sound.
Then switch the count off and check yourself: can you count from the instruments alone? The scheme on this page shows which beat every stroke falls on.
Because both the clave and the basic step take two bars. The steps on 1-2-3 and 5-6-7 mirror each other, and the clave has two strokes in one bar and three in the other, so the bars are not the same and it is easier to count them as a pair.
More topics: Clave 2-3 and 3-2 · Counting in eight · Salsa metronome · Congas: tumbao · Campana · Timbales: cáscara · Montuno and bass · the whole trainer and general questions