Salsa Musicality. The Heartbeat

A class by Angus Peters of ABANICO SALSA.

At the 5th Latin Festival, hosted by Latinobeat at the Carrington Hotel, Bournemouth 3-5th April 2009. The same place that inspired me to write poetry.

On the Saturday I went to eight classes and loved every minute of it. The seven classes “I chose” to attend were from 10 am – 5.30 pm with a small break for lunch.

One of the classes I wish I’d recorded and has created a hunger to know more, was the Salsa Musicality class led by Angus Peters.

I suppose the fact I am a newbie to the Salsa scene, meant that, what he had to say was entirely new to me and I was so busy soaking it all up that I forgot to take notes.

Maybe I’ll just have to get Angus to go over it all again for me. It’s a journey I suppose and it feels like standing on a hilltop and looking at the scene through the fog.

Here is Angus Peters at play.

Here is a good quote about the Salsa Heartbeat that I came across. Ideally you should read the whole article. Thanks godancemambo.com!

Why does salsa have a 3/2 and a 2/3 clave?

To understand clave, one must understand that music is made up of 8-beat phrases (call it a sentence if you like.) In salsa, Clave is another kind of structural foundation that makes up a musical building. You will hear a 3/2 clave in relation to the first beat of the 8-beat phrase, called forwad clave. You will hear a 2/3 clave in relation to the second beat of the 8-beat phrase, called reverse clave.

3 2 3 2 3 2 3 2 etc

3 2 3 2 3 2 3 2 etc

Let’s make a diagram instead of explaining it:

1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 (musical phrase=8 beats)
5 6 7 8
x x x x x (clave hits)

This is how you hear 3/2 clave in relation to the counts:

1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 5 6 7 8
x x x x x x x x x x

This is how you hear 2/3 clave in relation to the counts:

1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8 5 6 7 8
x x x x x x x x x

The phrase can change the direction at any point in the song. However, even though the phrasing of the music may change, the clave always starts and continuously plays 3/2. It’s like an illusion in how you hear .

An orchestra is seen as being ‘off clave’ (cruzado) if they play the clave so it goes: 3 2 2 3 (it should be 3/2: 3/2) I only know of one song, by Gilberto Santa Rosa, who does this out of experimentation. Nothing is ever really wrong. When you know the rules, you can break them, I suppose.