Clave Con Chi

MOVING CON CLAVE

Quick-quick-slow…quick-quick-slow, we all know how it goes (or are hoping to learn), this basic salsa step—but how do we get from there to really dancing all the tensions, dialogues, and passions we hear bursting from salsa songs? The short but deep answer, rhythmically at least, is clave (cláh-veh). One of its meanings in Spanish is “key,” with all the associated connotations in English, like a keystone of an arch, or a key that lets you break the code and understand something previously enigmatic. Let it be yours.

A clave is also the smooth cylindrical piece of dense wood that, hit reciprocally with another clave, fills the air with a sharp, cutting sound. Together they play the rhythm called clave, which is at the polyrhythmic pulse of all salsa music, cha-cha-cha as well (and even, though more understatedly so, of merengue). Cuban soldiers carried claves in their pockets during the 1898 War of Independence with Spain, ready to accompany guitarist’s songs with the same rhythm that dancers clap to get a salsa show going today—as a Conjunto Cespedes song says it, “For a party all you need are claves.” And maybe a little Cuban rum.

Every single rhythmic element of salsa music is done in conjunction with the clave or “en clave.” The piano, bass, horns, percussion, and even the vocals weave clave into their rhythmic delivery, as rhythm is the primary force behind the music. While most western music is melodic at heart with rhythms added, salsa music is fundamentally rhythmic with melody woven over it.

It’s hard to overstate this distinction. For imagine having not one drummer in a band, but a trio of congas, timbales, and bongos, or even a quintet if you count the singers playing maracas and clave. It gets complex, as Latin instruments perform rhythm, harmony and melody all at once. Pianists are percussionists and conga players play melodies, and newcomers to the music can find it hard to disentangle the seemingly impenetrable cross-rhythms. But each rhythm and instrument intimately, instinctively links through the polyrhythmic swing and snap of clave.

At ClaveConChi we believe in honoring the clave as the key that it is to move you beyond basic steps and into truly grooving with deep feel and dynamic conversations of the music.

All of the primary Latin percussion instruments, congas, bongos, timbales, tamboras, batás are played in pairs or have twin heads, allowing players to converse not only with each other but also between their left and right hands on drumheads of higher or lower pitch. Songs unfold in a series of conversations and ad-libbed solos, most often in a call-and-response structure descended from African song.

Clave is itself a call and response, a conversation of two and three in its five notes across eight beats. For most salsa music, the clave has two notes in the first four-beat bar (called the 2-side of clave) and three notes in the second bar (the 3-side of clave), together called 2-3 clave. Here it is for the musicians out there:

½ ½ ½

For non-musicians, though motivated salseros, here it is in a box pattern, two boxes per beat, the entire base phrase of salsa music:

You may hear this two-part phrase many ways, but always in dialogue: the sharp march or cut, linear two, against the looser question, or elevated answer, some smoother, rounder, more funkular rolling going on in three. Or hard versus soft; the stable and secure versus the unknowing of motion… Any way you put it, it’s a rhythm of relation, creating a dialectic or dynamic of tension and relief propelled in ongoing cycle.

Here’s the rhythm again, but “piled up” so we may better appreciate the asymmetrical balance of the parts, and relations with your steps (S = step, T = Tap).

1,5	&	2,6	&	3,7	&	4,8	&
		X		X
X			X			X
S		S		S		T

See the asymmetrical balance? Set on the ground, even flipped over, it would stand, though of unequal parts. Clave, on the 2-side, anchors your salsa steps on 2 and 3, keeps ‘em very “straight” or solid, while on the 3-side it falls right around those steps, even creating a new tap on 4 (or 8), and with its middle note splicing both the wider 1 & 4 (5 & 8) and tighter 2 & 3.

What that can mean for your dance is immense. Though students often learn the two halves of their basic as equal on both sides, they’re NOT! They’re different, and in dialogue. Dancing the clave you will begin to feel the conversation not just with your partner, but with the parts of your basic, half of it anchored, another half stretching elsewhere, hanging. Just as salsa is rich in tensions for its use both of a linear “slot” base, and another that is round (most dances are one or the other), clave sets its own “straight” line curving to encompass the elastic of anticipation and snap of release.

If you’re starting to appreciate the ways of clave, great. But the proof is in the puttin’-into-action in your dance. As you do, the bad news is you will not hear clave in every song. Some salsa starts out with one, then lets it fall, a few will carry it all the way through, and many do not play the clave rhythm outright at all. But EVEN THESE songs ARE STRUCTURED on the clave. The base (2-3, or 3-2) can be deduced from what other rhythm section instruments are doing, and very often from clues in the main vocal and horn melodies as well. These key rhythms can help you find the “direction” of clave and your steps.

BEATS

CLAVE

CONGA

BASS

BELL

Key: H = High Bell Tone; L = Low Tone; S = Step; Sl = Slap; T = Tone, or Tap (Steps)

From the bottom up, the bell, or cencerro, played with variations by the bongo and timbale players, enters when the music increases in energy and drive, and is in large part responsible for that lift and drive. Its low notes provide an excellent downbeat pulse (1,3,5,7) to anchor both the break step and the pause, while the high notes (played closer to the bell’s closed end) give an upbeat swing and are key to deciphering the clave, particularly the single sharp, high note on 2. This note marks the start, or 2-side of clave, and can be a source of an accent in the dance, whether a drop, or hip-snap, or traveling step.

The bass line, also called bass tumbao, is a very spare, syncopated rhythm, usually just four notes across the 8-beat phrase, which is excellent for a sense of calm on faster songs. Dancing the bass line, whether in fast or slow songs, will give you a “stretched” feel, as its “anticipated” nature can draw you early in to the pause, helping to create dramatic tension with your partner. Its second notes on 4 and 8 also help prevent the most common problem of “salsa clunk” on 1 and 5, by cutting off that stretched energy right beneath you before taking that break step. Notice how it mirrors clave almost exactly on the 3-side, and steps right around the sharper 2-side.

The conga along with those high bell tones provides an excellent source of the “upbeat” pulse of salsa, (2, 4, 6, 8), which is especially pronounced in swingin’ boogalu styles but always present. A conga player will gradually add the lower tones (&7), which is also anchors the swinging 3-side of clave. Anchors the swinging? Yes, by tying the “&” to the next downbeat, and your pause step, on 7.

It’s challenging to put into words what is essentially an ear-training exercise, best guided in person, in group or private class with plenty of examples at hand. But with these brief notes in mind, listen closely to whatever salsa songs you’ve got. Find the one (see below) and listen for the individual parts, then clap or snap or tap clave along with them. Even if you’re just guessing, one way (2-3 or 3-2) will feel better than the other, and as probably 90% of salsas are 2-3 clave, that’s a good first guess. All these rhythms have slight variations across the course of the song, but keep listening and start cracking the code, unlocking possibilities for truly musical dancing.

Any salsa musician will attest to the importance of clave for playing in the salsa groove, and for dancers dancing that groove it is the same. As Cuban trumpeter Jesús Alémany, has said it, “Clave is the vertebra of my musical feeling, the crucial way that the bass line, percussion and chorus, and of course the dance itself, link together.” New York conga player Joe Cuba, put it a little more bluntly “If you’re off clave, you’re off rhythm” (Steward). To put it positively, dancing well means in large part to Honor the Groove, to get it into your marrow, and in the case of salsa that key, core groove is synonymous with clave.

While you’re tapping into these maybe sacred energies keep in mind there’s no “right” way to express them. Your goal is not to imitate a teacher but to honor what’s in the music while adding the charm of your own take, your fresh personal inflection, stirring excitement like a good soloist might do, improvising and surprising on the clave base. For this reason it’s maybe better said that your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to Honor and Improve the Groove.

Finding the Clave? How About Just Finding the One? A Postscript.

Every dancer is different, some able to hear well but not move as well, while others are natural at motion, but have a hard time finding the beat at all, while some lucky others have natural talent for both. For those challenged on the listening side, here are some tips to find the “1” before you find Oneness with Clave.

— Listen to the lead singer, as he or she will almost always start singing on the “1” beat.

— Similarly, the chorus of a song generally will begin on the “1.”

— Listen for layering or repeating structures, as when a new instrument enters the mix (usually on “1”) or a phrase you’ve heard before comes around again. These almost always can tell you right where the “1” is.

— Finally, many of the strong accents or “hits” in the music tend to happen on the “1.”

Often, students are able to “feel the music” yet don’t understand the counting. That’s great, and if you can keep the beat, starting anywhere, that’s the main thing. I recommend trying to learn the counts, even so, as this will help you get a more intimate picture of the relations of the music. Either way, immerse yourself in salsa songs—in the car, while jogging, while washing the dishes or in the tub—listen to as much salsa as you can stand to absorb it in a pre-verbal fashion. Along with a little analysis, you’ll start feeling the clave in your pores and deeper, moving you and moving through you into something new.

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