|
 This
lesson
is the first lesson in "The
Conga Drummer's Guidebook " by Michael
Spiro
Although this is not a text specifically about Cuban music, you cannot write
about conga drumming without talking about the Cuban concept of clave.
And even though at this point most drummers have at least some awareness
of its importance, it doesn't hurt to review. In Timbafunk (Warner
Bros, 1999) which I co-authored with fellow talking Drums members Jesus
Diaz and David
Garibaldi, we wrote:
"The clave comes to the Americas (include the United States)
from Africa. It is the 'key' that determines how the complex
rhythms and syncopations of African-based music are to be assembled,
arranged, performed, and even improvised. Learning to hear clave
takes many patient hours and can be a confusing concept to those who
didn't grow up with it, but it is not a mystery."
DEFINITIONS AND CLARIFICATIONS
Of course, clave is the name of an instrument. More importantly
however, it is a rhythm which can be played with sticks, bells, and/or
handclaps. There are two claves, "Son" and "Rumba."
Why are there different claves? Because traditionally son clave
was the choice for popular Latin dance music, and rumba clave was played
in the Afro-Cuban folkloric styles. As you can see, they are
very similar, but they do indeed sound and feel very different. Moving
the third not a half-beat later makes rumba clave more syncopated,
and thus it feels "funkier" (though more difficult for most
of us to play!). Since the folkloric styles are rooted in the
African music brought to Cuba during the slave trade of the 19th century,
the rumba clave fits them better, as the music is much more syncopated
than traditional Son and Salsa. These days however, there has
been so much interaction between the popular and folkloric styles that
there are times where the choice of clave changes ever within a single
piece of music.
In either case, in order to communicate with each other when writing,
arranging and playing music, Cuban musicians have actually "named" the
two bars-the bar with three notes in it is called the "three side",
and the bar with two notes in it is the "two side."
Though it may seem obvious, be clear that the definition is based
on how the notes are distributed within the bars. This is important
because there frequently is confusion around this matter. That's
because in son clave, the sounds of the clave part are organized very
clearly in a 3-2 grouping, which matches with what you see on the printed
page. But rumba clave can trick you if you're not clear that
the definition is based on Western music notation, because what you
hear sonically doesn't necessarily line up with what your see. The
first two notes can easily be hard as grouped together, followed by
the last three notes, which would make you think you're in 2-3. But "officially" you
are still in 3-2 clave because of how fall within the bar. As
long as you remember this, you won't be confused when talking and playing
with other musicians.
SO WHAT IS 2/3 CLAVE?
One of the critical things to understand not only Afro-Cuban music,
but also all Afro-centric music for that matter, is that it does not
necessarily always start on the three side of the clave. In fact,
the music can just as often start on the two side. The "directions" are
thus reversed, and so now the claves would look like this:
Do you see we have simply reversed the order, or the direction, of
the bars in example 1? These are not different claves, but simply
the same ones starting on the other side. So the other misconception
we need to clarify is the idea that there are four claves. There
are not four claves: there are only two claves, but each one
can start on either side, depending on how the music is written and/or
arranged.
Let me give you an example of a basic conga part to further demonstrate
this idea. Here is the conga drum timboa written out in 3/2 clave.
If the music starts on the other side, you would play:
Once again - do you see how it is the same part simply turned around?
DETERMINING THE "DIRECTION"
So what determines which side comes first, or which "direction" to
play the clave? Believe it or not, it's the melody of the song. The
rhythm of the melody will determine which clave direction fits best,
and frequently that is determined by simple trial and error. Sing
the melody while you clap the clave starting in each direction and
see which one feels the best. Usually you'll decide pretty quickly
which direction works better.
SETTING UP THE HALVES
Regardless of which clave is played, it is the rhythm within which
al the other instruments and voices must fit. It is the key which
determines how all the rhythms and syncopations of the music are put
together into a cohesive whole.
Now that we know that there are two sides, or halves, to the clave,
we need to understand that each side has its own musical "character" and
function. The basic rule is that the 3 side contains more upbeats
and syncopated material, and the 2 side uses more downbeats. Furthermore,
ninety-nine percent of al Afro-Latin music is based on this idea in
which the rhythmic phrase where one of the bars has stress on the first
two downbeats, and the other bar has stress on the pick-up into it
and the upbeat after beat one (Note: even though the clave itself doesn't
start on the first beat of the downbeat bar, example 4 is based on
2/3 clave):
This sets up a very clear "call and response" feeling not
only to the rhythm, but also to the music as a whole. What makes
the music feel the way that it does is that there are these two "equal
but different" halves in juxtaposition to each other. The
sooner you get this "call and response/A.vsB./ question and answer" idea
in your body, the sooner you'll be in the right feel.
Now remember, the music can start just as frequently with the second
bar, which in this case would be based on 3/2 clave:
Now this can be very tricky for us, because we haven't really grown
up with music where the upbeat bar comes first, and is followed by
the downbeat bar. American R&B for example is usually a two-bar
drum phrase (disco excluded please!), but it almost always starts with
the downbeat bar. So the 3/2 example tends to be significantly
more difficult for non-Latins to feel, because we're not used to feeling
the syncopation so early in the phrase. In many ways, it's a
much funkier pattern, and more fun to play precisely because of the
upbeats falling in the beginning of the pattern, rather than at the
end.
Another Example:
So if the downbeat bar comes first, we're in 2/3 clave, and all the
other parts of the music will be arranged and/or performed to follow
this "direction". Thus for example, a standard Salsa
cowbell part would be played:
If on the other hand, the upbeat bar comes first, we're in 3/2 clave,
and all the players will have to adjust accordingly, the above cowbell
part would now look like:
It's not only the drummers that have to adjust to clave - all the
players in a Latin rhythm section have to do so. Here's the rhythm
of a basic piano montuno written out when you're in 2/3:
And here it is when playing 3/2:
It sure feels different when the clave changes direction, doesn't
it? But do you see that in a these cases, these are the same
parts, just 'turned around,' or played 'forwards instead of backwards'? Clave
truly is not as mysterious as some people tend to think. The
key is to understand that either half of the rhythmic phrase can come
first in this music, so you must learn all the parts twice - once starting
on the three side, and again starting on the two side. Most importantly,
you need to be able to begin on either side immediately, on command.
Now remember - sing the melody of you song while you clap the clave
starting in each direction and see which one feels the best. Then
arrange your percussion parts around that direction.
CLAVE AS A CONCEPT THROUGHTOUT THE AMERICAS
It is essential to understand that although clave is specifically
a Cuban musical term, it is still the organizing principle that exists
throughout almost all the African-influenced music of the Americas,
from Bo Diddley R&B grooves to the Brazilian Samba. Cuban
musicians speak and think about clave as a matter of course - it is
the expressed foundation of their music and thus the primary focus
when playing and arranging. However, Brazilian musicians do not
refer to the word clave in their musical vocabulary, nor is it an overtly
stated concept for them. Nevertheless, Afro-Brazilian music is
played in clave. Let's look for the example at one of the most
basic rhythmic components of Samba, which is general played on a tamborim,
but is also the basis for much guitar and piano comping in Rio-based
pop Brazilian-jazz groups.
Notice the obvious "downbeat" bar which clearly contrasts
with the "upbeat" bar that follows. Just in Cuban music,
the pattern can also be turned around and played in the other direction,
and all the musicians must make the appropriate adjustment.
Important Secret!
Now a very important issue needs to be discussed. Let's look
at the same tamborim part written our 3-2
Do you see that just like the cowbell pattern in example 6b, there
is no downbeat on beat one of the first bar when we play in 3-2? This
begs the obvious question then, of how to star Afro-centric music from
a dead stop when playing in this direction of the clave. Do you
enter on the "and" of four before one, or do you wait and
enter on the "and" of one after the downbeat? The answer
is neither of those. You would sound pretty foolish entering
either before or after the rest of the band once the tune had been
counted off, wouldn't you? The correct answer is that you add
a note on beat one when you first enter, and then you never play it
again. So the entrance to the first bar of the cowbell pattern
(example 6b) would look like this (the dash indicates an added note):
Add the first bar of the tamborim (example 8b) would look like this
(again, the note marked by a dash is the added note):
Remember, you only play the downbeat in the first bar. From
then on, you play the regular pattern.
To
purchase "The Conga Drummer's Guidebook" by Michael Spiro, please
visit: shermusic.com
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