Hola Salseekers and all lovers of this music and dance. In these next three installments I’ll be going over everything you need to know about the clave. Enjoy!

By Raul Avila

Clave is a relatively simple rhythmic phrase, and yet it is the heart and soul of salsa music.  It is the matrix from which springs forth the logic and structure that is salsa rhythms. Clave is the reason salsa music exists the way it does. It is a primal rhythmic force that generates the infectious swing that inspires bodies to movement.  

This is how important clave is: when a song is composed and arranged, the song and the arrangement must be “in clave.” Everything in the music has to be “in” and “flow” with the clave. To not be “in clave” is to create a disruption in hearing that is sensed as something being out of place, which is described in Spanish as being cruzado (crossed or out of balance). To not be in clave is not just being off your timing, it is going against the entire organization of the music.  
 
Clave became associated with dancing through the idea that, if dancing is an extension of the music, and the music is “in clave,” then it follows that the dancer must also be “in clave.”  But, to hear a dancer say, I dance in clave, is to evoke an air of reverence mixed with ambiguity.  It sounds deep, but what does it mean? This question will be addressed in the following columns.

Although many dancers associate “clave” specifically with salsa, clave is not unique to salsa rhythms.  There are many African and Afro/Cuban rhythms that have a “clave” associated with it. For example, you find clave in 6/8 rhythms, Mozambique, rumba, and Brazilian rhythms, to name a few.  The clave form used in salsa music is referred to as son clave.  Son is a musical genre that developed in the rural hills of eastern Cuba (Oriente). Son is the mother of modern salsa

The word clave means “key” or “code” in Spanish, and it relates to that which is essential or fundamental.  Applied to African derived rhythms – like salsa, it is a general term that signifies the basic essence of that rhythm. The word is said to be derived from the Spanish word clavija, which refers to a wooden peg.
The word clave can be used in the following ways:
1 - To describe the instrument (two wooden sticks)
2 - To refer to the rhythmic pattern it plays
3 - To refer to the concept and function of the clave

Clave is traditionally played on two hardwood sticks that create a high-pitched sound. These two sticks are also referred to as male and female. The female stick, which rests (receptive) in the players’ palm, is hit with the male stick, being held in the other (active) hand.  
Clave is a five-part rhythmic phrase that takes eight beats to complete.

The following chart shows the clave accents in relation to the beats in the music. An interesting aspect of the clave is that each of its five accents occurs on a unique or separate beat in the music.
        
 

Using the 4 beat count you can see that the clave is played on the following beats:   2, 3, 1, 2 ½(directly between the 2nd and 3rd beat), and 4. In other words, it does not play on the same beat twice.

The origins of the clave in Afro/Cuban rhythms are found predominantly (if not entirely) in Africa.  

The clave associated with modern salsa is known as son clave. Son clave is strongly connected with the clave used in rumba. There are many musicians who believe that the clave used today in salsa music evolved out of the rumba tradition in Cuba, which in turn, evolved from African rhythmic patterns.  Rumba is a secular musical form that grew out of the need for recreation and social occasions in an oppressive social and political climate.  Rumba evolved into three main forms: guaguanco, columbia, and yambu.  Of these three, the guaguanco is the most popular, and is also the form where the clave can be readily identified as it is played today.