Clave (inspirations from other sources)

 In this segment, I'll show you how to draw upon different rhythmic themes from the world of music. We'll explore percussion instruments as a source for ideas and we'll use our concepts about box notation and structure.  MP3 files will be used as examples. Clicking on the song sample links will open a new window to MP3.COM where you can stream or download the sample and listen while reading. If you are new to MP3.COM, you will be asked to provide your email address, age and language preferences. The worse thing that will result from this should be that you will get periodic newsletters from them about new releases and featured artists. These are not overly intrusive and I think most of you will like getting them.

 I'm often asked, "what do those stick things do?" My standard reply about clapping sticks or bilma is to say that they are struck together and used like clave in latin music. More often than not the reply is a blank expression. But I am glad to be addressing an audience which will understand my saying that clave are used like blima or clap sticks. And very much like bilma, there are set patterns of beats which are named and known well enough by performers to be recognized instantly by the exponents of their respective musical genres.

 Clave patterns are a great starting point for composition and quite useful to know in improvisational jam sessions. Useful because they will almost always fit into any 4/4 time signature. For our purposes, I'm going to paint a picture of clave in braod strokes. Speaking in generalities, generally speaking that is. In the generalist of terms,  these patterns are five hits spread over four beats, though it sounds more impressive to say, "four on five polyrhythms".  In broad stokes, they are often referred to as either 3-2 or 2-3 clave depending on the grouping of hits. If 3-2 is started with, often it is reversed at some point to 2-3 and back to 3-2. While that is all very fine, our song example is actually grouped more like 1-2-2, or dot-dotdot-dotdot. Here is the song example which features one didjeridu holding the clave pattern while the other is pretty much free rhythm:

 3-2-Didjeridu

 And here is the box diagram :

one	and	two	and	three	amd	four	and
Dah	----	dah	dah	----	dah	dah	----

 Note that didjeridu one starts out just playing the clave. No droning at first until didjeridu two comes in. Note also that I give the first "dah" in the pattern a little extra duration. This is stylistic as is the slight extra emphasis (which I notated by capitalizing the first character in the syllable.). Then didjeridu one picks up the drone but tongues the notes where they are indicated. This arraingement lets you hear the pattern clearly.

 The structure is pretty straight forward. Didjeridu two is totally improvised around the more constant clave pattern of didjeridu one. This is one way of doing it. Of course, in a live duet, didjeridu one and two may switch parts from time to time. Or the clave pattern of one player can change to one of the examples below and back. Finally, you could have each didjeridu playing a different clave pattern. An interesting effect.

Here is an example of 3-2 clave for you to experiment with :

one	and	two	and	three	and	four	and
Dah	dah	dah		dah		dah

And an example of 2-3 to alternate with 3-2 :

one	and	two	and	three	and	four	and
Dah		dah		dah	dah	dah

 Clave is Didjeridu Solo you can download which follows the 3 2 pattern farily faithfully while adding variations.

 Our next song example borrows from belly dancing music extensively and has a structure similar to Yael from the last article. That is to say, it has an A part which is an Introduction, a B part which is the main theme and a C part which is the finale. The A part starts out free rhythm with just droning and harmonics, and occasionally hints at the main theme. The main theme is a Baladi, or "country rhythm". On the Dumbek, this rhythm is expressed as Dum Tek Tek Dum Tek  Part A doesn't fit the box format. It's "outside" the box, so to speak. Parts B and C, very much, do. First, have a listen to the song and then I'll box out part B and A for you as well as the overall structure.

Balinda Baladi

Part A  (2/4):

(Note the Dum or low sound gets a little more emphasis than the Tek sound indicated by capitalization. I the breath on the One with a bounced "Dum" (ie a bounce breath which is simultaineously tongued.)

One	e	And	a	Two	e	and	a
Dum		tek	tek	Dum		tek

Part B(4/4):

one

e

and

a

two

e

and

a

three

e

and

a

four

e

and

a

Dum

Dum

tek

ka

tek

ka

Dum

tek

ka

tek

tek

ka