RE: Practice with 4/4 time or Clave - musings of a beginner ...

[limberic]

Caveat: Reader Beware – This is my own, self-instructed interpretation of things musical …

Kracker was wondering about clave … As a beginning student conguero, I would advise Kracker to practice Afro-Cuban music with Clave (emphasis on PRACTICE) and, we’re talking Son Clave, here, which underlies and tempos a whole lot of Afro-Cuban music.

Son Clave IS 4/4 time (you’re mixin’ your metaphors, bro’) – In 4/4 time, measures have 4 quarter notes, 8 eighth notes, 16 sixteenth notes, etc. Standard 4/4 music has its emphasis or pulses on the DOWNBEATS, 1-2-3-4. Afro-Cuban phrasing, uses the OFFBEAT & SPACES where-you-expect-a-downbeat, to give its phrasing its breath. That unexpected space & offbeat gives Afro-Cuban its spark! its life! its zing! its flavor! Its part of what gives Afro-Cuban music its cool / kool / kul; its hot tropical nights aspect doesn’t hurt, either.

Clave puts a syncopating pulse and rhythm into the music that makes us humans just have-to-move our bodies. I think it somehow synchronizes our physiological / muscular / cognitive aspects and can engulf our being, at times. Peace and well-being often follow.

The Clave called Son puts 5 pulses into 2 measures. Either, 3/2 (forward) & 2/3 (backwards, if you must). See: Eric Stuer’s WOODSHOP. You can learn a lot, many good exercises (see: Bembe Wheel, too). (Q: does son clave fit 6/8 time? .. haven't tried it)

When I crash-coursed-myself on clave, I kept (still do) a castanet in my car. I’ve got nearly a 3 h commute most days. Sitting in traffic is a great place to practice. The castanet has a perky, penetrating sound that you can hear, it’s private, and you can do it with one hand if you can drive with the other. You’ll soon be hearing it, even when its not there. In trying to lay clave onto the music on the radio – you find that sometimes both 3/2 & 2/3 work, sometimes one or the other works, and sometimes neither works (which probably relates to styling?). You can work on bell patterns this way, too. It’s certainly helped me.

Kracker mentioned consistency, too. I don’t know what you mean. Consistency in your handing & sounds? You mean tempo - speeding-up? slowing down? Becoming arrhythmic? Loosing your handing all together? Whaa..t?

Well, you gotta develop independence to do those palm-touch, slap, touch-palm-touch, tone-tone transitions & executions, just like Mike mentioned. Through deliberate action (practice) they can become integrated in your brain and you learn them. I have been pleased with my own humble improvement on tumbao, week-to-week since I got my Matador. My left hand still lags the right but it is coming along. And I do have distinguishable tones, slaps, and palm-touches most of the time – though my left hand really has a tough time with slaps; I’m working on it.

Singing clave with ‘Ka’, however, “Yikes! I find it nearly impossible right now. I just started it and I loose my hands in the first measure every time! I’m working on it.

I’ve gotten a lot from Dom Moio’s Latin Percussion in Perspective (Mel Bay Publ, ร.95 w/ CD). You’ll note with Dom, that he never counts one-two-three-four to establish the tempo & introduce the music – it’s always clave beaten out. Your practice would benefit if you can find someone to beat out clave for you while you drum. In lieu of that, learn to voice it and hand it at the same time.

My 2-cents worth. Thanx for listening to my long-winded tirade, hot air from Pocatello, Idaho. Land of warm spuds & scared sheep. Drum-On! Eric

[paul]

I hope this post helps those of you who are looking for a way to practice clave with your rhythms. Dancinghands.com a site that has many interesting books for the aspiring conga player offers a cd with son clave played slow medium and fast tempos. Rhumba clave played the same way, and 6/8 cowbell played slow med and fast. The cd is titled Conga Drumming Practice Partner. Each track lasts about 5 minutes and I direct my cd player to just repeat the track automatically . Cost is about ű.00 .
P.S. I want to thank every one envolved in this site for sharing what they have learnt. It's very difficult for an aspiring conga player like myself to find quality information, and this forum and site has helped me greatly

[paul]

Where can I find information on Eric Stuer's Woodshop?. Thanks

[limberic]

URL to Eric Stuer's Woodshop:

http://rhythmweb.com/shed/index.html

As you will see, it's part of RhythmWeb - really excellent source of free learning materials. Sorry I forgot to post the URL in my original post.

Best Regards,
Eric

[carlitos]

Thanks Lim, that really helped me nail down a different way to understand clave.
Carlitos

[congabebe]

I love clave. But when I get my hands going... clave is not singable, so your description helped. I want to learn how to play clave with my right foot so I can play cow bell. I think maybe slow and one 8th note at a time. I can break it down like when I learned to play the piano. "That left hand" eventually played without me watching it. I am not so sure about my foot. It is too far away to watch closely. Ha. So, I have been looking for some insight. How do you start working on independence? What do you tell your students?? I am not a percussionist, and I have learned alot from videos, but I haven't seen very many method books on this for conga's.

clave blues,
Congabebe

[KingKongas]

I too have difficulty in getting the independence between the hands and the foot in order to play a foot pedal clave (box or bell). Funny though, I can play the Left+Right Hand on Guaguanco exercise in the Conga Book. The left hand on quinto plays the clave and the right hand plays the conga and tumba in a Guaguanco pattern. Now when I finally was able to play this exercise... it literally blew my mind!!! All of a sudden I felt the rhythm much different then ever before. Once I was comfortable with all this, I switched the clave hand to be the right hand on either the conga or tumba and just had ALOT of fun with it. I still cant get my foot to do a clave though... Very frustrating. If anyone has a trick of the trade I'd be happy to hear you out. Thanks.

[Simon B]

1st stage: play the clave with your foot pedal for a good while WITHOUT hands - perhaps play along to a record.

2nd stage: play clave with your foot and repeated quarter/eighth notes on bell/congas, etc - no accents, just da-da-da-da etc.

3rd stage: try and evolve slowly into the pattern you are trying to overlay over foot clave - if tumbou for example just play the 2 section of the tumbou and repeat.

WITH INDEPENDENCE YOU HAVE TO BREAK EVERYTHING DOWN INTO STAGES! IT IS LIKE LEARNING TO WRITE!

Simon B

[Fish]

Dead right, Simon

The way I learnt to improvise over a foot ostinato (pattern) on drum kit (an area I haven't even begun to explore fully) is to play the foot pattern until it becomes automatic. Then once you get it on autopilot begin to play simple stuff with the hands and gradually make it more complex. Eventually you'll be able to play triplets, quintuplets etc. over a sixteenth feel with the feet. If you lose it just stop and begin again.

And limberic, you can play clave along with a 6/8 feel - at least you can with other 4/4 patterns (I haven't tried clave yet) but it has to be perfectly in time or it will just sound like random notes. You'll also tend to find yourself swinging the clave (playing it in 6/8) or playing the hands straight. Just stop and begin again.

Have fun,

Fish