First of a mini-series of Afro-Cuban grooves o’ the day, transcribed from the history of Songo video below. Grooves are by Changuito, the percussionist who created the Songo drumming style playing with the Cuban band […]
Category: Afro-Cuban
Bass drum rhythms for Latin
These bass drum rhythms are lifted from a page of Songo independence exercises I posted a few years ago. I thought it would be good to have them presented by themselves, apart from all the […]
Page o’ coordination: Afro 6/4 – triplets
Here we have our standard Afro-Cuban bell pattern extended a couple of beats to put it in 6. This page will work well with that Jimmy Garrison loop from the other day. Pairs well with […]
Best books: Rhythms and Techniques for Latin Timbales
UPDATE: I just realized we’ve already shared another excellent free-online book by Rendon, Timbale Solo Transcriptions. Get that too, if you haven’t. Rhythms and Techniques for Latin Timbales by Victor Rendon is sort of the […]
Page o’ coordination: Afro 6 – “African”
Quite of flurry of POCs lately— a plague of POCs. I like this format. It’s good for working on more complex independence; things too hard to do with a melodic line interpretation, which is my […]
Page o’ coordination: Mozambique – hands only – 01
A page of technical independence patterns for a Mozambique bell part— a hip, very useful bell rhythm. For more practical left hand parts for this bell rhythm, see my updated Page of Mozambique. Also see my […]
Page o’ coordination: linear pattern for Latin soloing
The 5+3 note phrase is one of the easiest and most useful of Gary Chaffee’s basic linear phrases. If you start phrase on the a of 2, the bass drum part makes a Latin tumbao […]
Groove o’ the day: Ignacio Berroa 12/8
Another funk Afro 12/8 groove, played this time by Ignacio Berroa, on his record Codes, on the tune Woody’n You. From the intro: As you can probably see he’s playing rumba clave on the cowbell. […]
Simultaneous clave triplet pull exercise
Here’s something you can do with that silly “both clave directions at the same time” idea. In clave-based Latin music, the clave rhythm is often not played with a strict march-like execution; the 4/4 version […]
Best books: Timbale Solo Transcriptions by Victor Rendon
Just a link share today for anyone interested in Salsa, Cuban music, and related musics. From Unlocking Clave‘s Facebook feed, here’s a nice free book, Timbale Solo Transcriptions by Victor Rendon. Do give Unlocking Clave and Rendon […]
Page o’ coordination: triplet pattern with cymbal variations – 01
A slight variation on our usual page o’ coordination thing; here we’re doing a set triplet pattern on the snare drum and bass drum, along with various cymbal parts— some are standard rhythms, and some […]
Page o’ coordination: Afro 6 across the barline
We haven’t seen one of these in awhile— seriously, I have posted more stuff on this Afro 6 groove than anybody in the world, and if you have thoroughly practiced any three or four of […]