Rhythms like son clave are often introduced to drummers when they see it on a high school jazz chart or when their teacher suggests exploring Latin beats. My introduction was similar, and I never stopped learning how to adapt these rhythms on the drum set.
Son clave can be played on a drum set in a variety of ways. It’s one of two important fundamental claves in Afro-Cuban and widely used in popular music from all over the world. Although clave is a traditional rhythm, it finds its way into funk, rock, jazz, and many other styles.
The cycle is two bars and is played by starting with either the bar with three hits or the bar with two hits. The first example below is 3:2 because it starts with three hits.
For more information on clave, this article goes through the history, different types, and musical contexts.
The following beats incorporate son clave as a cymbal pattern, accents among other subdivisions, and as the rhythm voiced on the kick and snare. But before we get into the grooves, let’s try some exercises to help connect son clave with your inner sense of time.
How to Develop a Feel for Son Clave
Clave is starts to feel great when you can internalize the rhythm. This means starting by feeling how it relates to the beat. In the exercise and examples below, the beat is the half note because this is written in cut time.
Not sure what “cut time” or some of the other aspects of notation mean? Check out this article on how to read drum music.
Drum Set Notation Key
Exercise 1
This exercise places the beat on the half notes played with your hi-hat foot pedal. It doesn’t need to be your hi-hat. It could be your kick drum foot, too. The goal is to keep time with a foot while playing clave.
Practice the 3:2 clave several repetitions at different tempos, and then try the 2:3 the same ways.
Exercise 2
Like exercise 1, this one places the beat against clave, but this time the beat is played with cross stick.
Try playing these exercises with a song that’s in 3:2, like “El Cantante,” or 2:3 son like “La Vida Es Un Carnaval.”
Exercise 3
These exercises incorporate the kick drum and cymbal patterns. These patterns are simple and not typical of a traditional Afro-Cuban style, but they still work for a lot of songs and certainly for learning.
Play each of the three variations repeatedly several times at different tempos.
Other Exercise Ideas
Read a page from a book like Syncopation to develop independence. Try playing son clave as a cross stick, choose a cymbal pattern from the three above, and read the kick drum line.
Son Clave Drum Beats
Each one of these beats is either more or less traditional. The first few examples are more traditional and the list gradually becomes more about using the clave rhythm as a guide for voicing grooves on the drum set.
1. Mambo Bell 2:3
The drum set often takes on the role of the timbales. If there is no conga player, drum set needs to do that, too. That’s why I included a variation on mambo bell with the slap conga part.
To place this rhythm into a specific context, a timbalero would play the mambo bell pattern, often with clave in the other hand, during the up section or the louder section of the song.
Like clave, the mambo bell has a 2 side and 3 side. The 2 side, like the piano montuno, is recognizable because it starts on the downbeat of best 1.
It’s important to play the crescendo by moving across the mambo bell as you play the pattern.
2. Cascara
This pattern is another one from the timbales. The cascara is played on the shell of the timbales and can be played on the shell of your floor tom, on a ride or crash cymbal, or on the hi-hat.
Notice that the accents do not always line up with clave. Practice the cascara pattern without the accents to see how it lines up with clave. Then, add the accents and work on internalizing the rhythms as they sound together.
3. Bongo Bell
This pattern is played by the bongo player during the up sections of the song, so it’s played when the timbales are doing the mambo bell. Some timbale players will play the mambo bell and the bongo bell at the same time if there’s no one else who can play the part.
The accents on this pattern are very straightforward because they land on the half-note pulse of the groove. The 2 side of clave is outlined by the bongo bell.
4. Slap Conga
The slap conga beat was mentioned earlier under the mambo bell. The example below combines it with the cascara. Notice how the variation only plays one tom hit on the 3 side of son clave. This is a common way to phrase this pattern on congas.
You can add the tumba drum part on a lower tom, too. The tumba falls on the second hit of the 3 side of son clave. This is also called the bomba.
5. Bo Diddley Tom Groove
This groove is has accents that follow 3:2 son clave. The drummer plays an accent pattern that includes the clave accents and a couple more. The example below sticks to just the clave accents.
Many songs have used this beat since “Bo Diddley,” the self titled song by the late great American songwriter. Buddy Holly used it on “Not Fade Away,” Bow Wow Wow on “I Want Candy,” and George Michael used it on “Faith.”
6. Funk – Kick, Snare, Cymbal
If you take the Bo Diddley beat and voice it on kick drum and snare, you may get something like the example below. This groove can be played with different cymbal accent patterns, and it works with a lot of street beat type songs.
Consider combining this beat with others on the list to phrase a song. For example, an intro could use the tom groove, a bridge or interlude could use the clave march.
7. Clave March
The clave march is an idea that you hear a lot, but this one is something that I play when I think about a more march approach to the Bo Diddley beat. It includes a shuffle feel with the inner subdivisions and rolls and flams where you think they sound good.
The variation below adds rolls and flams. This march beat is something that has a lot of potential to make unique and adapt for many different songs or phrases. Additionally, the kick drum could be varied a bit to funk it up, make it heavier, or open up the groove with fewer kicks and more space.
8. With Your Foot
Not everyone can be Heracio Hernandez or Antonio Sanchez, but practicing son clave with your foot can take your coordination and independence to a new level. If you’ve already tried several of the beats on this list, you should have a head start on making your feet work a little harder.
Being able to play clave with your foot allows beats like the slap conga to include more of the traditional rhythmic context. Add improvising while you play it with your foot, and your Afro-Cuban drum set playing will level up, for sure.
9. Surdo Kick Drum
I was on a kick with this groove the summer before my freshman year in college. But this all stopped when a peer said, “You sure do play the surdo kick drum thing a lot.” It got under my skin in ways I couldn’t explain. It took a little embarrassment to knock me out of it.
The surdo kick drum rhythm is usually the 3 side of son clave repeated. Let’s open up the phrase and add the 2 side to the kick pattern. I like to let the kick drum shine a bit and just play hi-hat and accent it with some toms and the occasional snare drum.
Out of all these grooves on this list, this is the one that ventures to Brazil a bit.
10. Pop Rock Shuffle
Think of Jeff Porcaro’s shuffle on “Rosanna.” The example below is close, but it’s one kick drum off. The fourth kick drum is an eighth note earlier on “Rosanna” than in the example below.
As mentioned earlier in this list, try different cymbal patterns. Shuffling every beat is cool, but you should be able to play a basic swing pattern or just quarter notes or half notes and make it feel good.
Final Thoughts
Son clave is just one of several bell pattern based rhythms from Africa. Filtered through the Caribbean and on the airways of jazz, rock, and other popular music airwaves, it’s recognizable yet sophisticated. Whether you use it explicitly or as an implied theme or influence, clave rhythms will hold down the foundation of almost any song.
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