Salsa City Forum » Salsa Music and Dance » Rhythm feel

Hey.
I’m quite new to Salsa (only few lessons done), but I’ve found some good advices on this forum.
What my question is, which is the best way to feel the rhythm? Sometimes I get lost in all those cowbells, 3/2 claves, timbala’s and I have to take a little to catch up with it again. As I figured out, variety of different instruments hitting different beats dictate the rhythm?

I’m planning to write an article on this very question, but, for now, here are three tips:

• listen to as much salsa as you can, not just in the clubs. Here’s a good internet salsa station (scroll down the page a bit).

• listen out for the “tumbao” (the beat pattern) of the conga drums. The most emphatic beats are a slap on beat two and a bu-bum (two beats) on beats four and four-and-a-half (of each bar). You won’t hear it on every track but it is the most characteristic sound of salsa.

• don’t try to dance to music that’s too fast for you. Some people who start dancing off-beat to music that’s too fast never learn to dance on-beat.

There was also some useful stuff posted on the London Salsa forum which can be found here:
http://www.londonsalsa.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=67.0
Best thing to do though is to listen to as much salsa as you can. Initially it’s easier to just find the beats rather than trying to track down exactly where the one is. Once you’re happy with that then it makes it a lot easier to find all the other bits.

Brendan

Thanks very much on your replies.
I already picked up DVD full of salsa music from our dance instructors. Well, now I find it easy at some songs, especially with cowbells hit... but also very difficult to catch on some particular ones. Judging from the forum Brendan linked, its not something to worry, just to hang out with salsa as much as possible (and pleasant) :).
And soon there is Son Cuba Son playing here... so I’ll definetly give it a go.

PS. I’m not from UK, and this page looks very usefull. Keep it rollin guys!

PPS. If anyone hits more links considering the beat, and doesn’t know where to put them, just stick ’em here ;)