# Salsa — Authentic 3-2 Son Clave / Mambo groove # Reference: Tito Puente ("Oye Como Va"), Ray Barretto, Willie Colón, # Giovanni Hidalgo (congas), Nicky Marrero (timbales), # "The Latin Real Book" (Chuck Sher), "Salsa and Related Genres" (Sublette) # The clave is the immovable rhythmic law of salsa. Everything else orbits around it. # This pattern uses the 3-2 son clave (3 strokes in bar 1, 2 strokes in bar 2) # approximated as a single-bar repeating cell: hits at pos 0, 6, 10 (the "3-side" # subset — in a 2-bar context bar 2 would have hits at pos 4, 12). # # Three groove variations model the main salsa sub-styles: # son_montuno — classic son-montuno: timbale cascara, tumbao congas, cencerro bell # guaguanco — Afro-Cuban guaguancó: sparser, more polyrhythmic, no timbale # mambo — driving salsa dura: all instruments at full force # # Tumbao (conga): bass stroke on beats 1 and 3 (low conga), muted on 2 and 4, # open tone on "and-of-2" and "and-of-4" — the essential conga "melody" in salsa. # Cascara (timbale shell rim): syncopated 8th-note pattern keyed to the clave. # Cencerro (mambo bell / cowbell): marks the main salsa time-feel reference. # # GM notes: 75=claves, 65=hi timbale, 66=lo timbale, 62=mute hi conga, # 63=open hi conga, 64=low conga, 60=hi bongo, 56=cowbell (cencerro), # 36=kick, 49=crash # # ── Step grid notation ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────── # Each character in a step grid represents one subdivision of the bar. # Resolution controls how many steps per bar (16 = 16th notes in 4/4; 12 = 16th notes in 6/8). # # X Strong accent — velocity = base_velocity × 1.00 (full hit / downbeat) # x Medium accent — velocity = base_velocity × 0.75 (firm stroke / upbeat) # o Soft hit — velocity = base_velocity × 0.55 (brush / light touch) # g Ghost note — velocity = base_velocity × 0.28 (barely audible, mostly felt) # . Rest — no note fired at this step # # Beat positions — 4/4 at resolution 16 (one char per 16th note): # pos 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 # 1 e1 +1 a1 2 e2 +2 a2 3 e3 +3 a3 4 e4 +4 a4 # (1/+/2/+/3/+/4/+ = quarter beats; e = "e of"; a = "and-a of") # # Swing / feel: the 'feel' field shifts odd-indexed steps (1,3,5,7…) forward in time. # straight — no shift (all steps exactly on the grid) # ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── name: Salsa family: latin bpm_range: [160, 220] time_signature: [4, 4] resolution: 16 feel: straight instruments: clave: { note: 75, base_velocity: 95, velocity_range: 8, timing_jitter: 0.008, duration_beats: 0.06 } timbale_hi: { note: 65, base_velocity: 82, velocity_range: 12, timing_jitter: 0.010, duration_beats: 0.07 } timbale_lo: { note: 66, base_velocity: 90, velocity_range: 10, timing_jitter: 0.010, duration_beats: 0.08 } conga_mute: { note: 62, base_velocity: 75, velocity_range: 12, timing_jitter: 0.012, duration_beats: 0.07 } conga_open: { note: 63, base_velocity: 88, velocity_range: 10, timing_jitter: 0.012, duration_beats: 0.08 } conga_lo: { note: 64, base_velocity: 92, velocity_range: 10, timing_jitter: 0.012, duration_beats: 0.10 } cowbell: { note: 56, base_velocity: 88, velocity_range: 10, timing_jitter: 0.010, duration_beats: 0.07 } kick: { note: 36, base_velocity: 90, velocity_range: 10, timing_jitter: 0.012, duration_beats: 0.12 } crash: { note: 49, base_velocity: 100, velocity_range: 8, timing_jitter: 0.010, duration_beats: 0.22 } humanization: timing_jitter: 0.012 velocity_jitter: 12 velocity_drift: 0.05 sections: intro: type: count_in hits: 4 note: 75 groove: bars: 1 variations: - name: son_montuno weight: 3 # Classic son-montuno salsa groove (Tito Puente / Willie Colón style). # Clave: 3-side approximation — hits at pos 0 (beat 1), pos 6 (and-of-2), # pos 10 (and-of-3). The "2-side" hits (pos 4, 12) would complete the full # 2-bar clave cycle; the single-bar loop implies the 3-side throughout. # Tumbao (congas): low conga bass on 1 and 3 (pos 0, 8), muted on 2 and 4 # (pos 4, 12), open tone on and-of-2 and and-of-4 (pos 6, 14). # Cascara (timbale shell rim): syncopated 8th pattern — x on beats, # X on strategic upbeats derived from the clave. # Cencerro (mambo cowbell): X on beat 1, and-of-2, beat 3, beat 4, and-of-4 — # the "campana" pattern that every salsa pianist and bassist locks into. clave: "X.....X...X....." timbale_hi: "x.X.x.x.X.x.x.X." conga_lo: "X.......X......." conga_mute: "....X.......X..." conga_open: "......X.......X." cowbell: "X...X.X.X...X.X." kick: "X.......X......." - name: guaguanco weight: 2 # Afro-Cuban guaguancó (Celia Cruz, Los Papines style): slower, more African, # less timbale, more conga improvisation. The clave is the same but the # texture is sparser. No timbale cascara — the guaguancó originated before # the timbale became a salsa standard instrument. # Congas carry the entire rhythmic conversation: the low conga "bass" on 1 # and 3 plus the open "slap" tones on the offbeats create the guaguancó feel. clave: "X.....X...X....." conga_lo: "X.......X......." conga_mute: "....x.......x..." conga_open: "......X.......X." cowbell: "X.......X......." kick: "X..............." - name: mambo weight: 2 # Driving salsa dura / mambo (Machito, Mario Bauzá, Tito Puente style): # all instruments at full force. Timbale plays the full cascara rim pattern # while the low timbale accents the clave 3-side beat 3 (pos 8 → crossover hit). # Cowbell drives with the complete campana pattern. The kick anchors beats 1 # and 3 underneath the percussion ensemble. Maximum energy. clave: "X.....X...X....." timbale_hi: "x.X.x.x.X.x.x.X." timbale_lo: "........X......." conga_lo: "X.......X......." conga_mute: "....X.......X..." conga_open: "......X.......X." cowbell: "X...X.X.X...X.X." kick: "X.......X......." fill: bars: 1 variations: - name: timbale_break # Classic timbale break (paila): 16th-note run on hi timbale into a crash. # The low timbale punctuates every beat for maximum impact — the "remate" # (punch) that tells the whole band a section change is coming. timbale_hi: "XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXx" timbale_lo: "X...X...X...X..." kick: "X..............." - name: clave_accent # All instruments strike clave positions simultaneously — the "clave hit" # that signals section boundaries in big-band salsa arrangements. Very # dramatic when everyone lands together on the 3-side positions. clave: "X.....X...X....." conga_lo: "X.....X...X....." cowbell: "X.....X...X....." kick: "X.....X...X....." - name: remate # The "remate" (ending/punch): timbale builds 16th-note density then # everybody hits the downbeat together. A crowd-pleaser in every salsa concert. timbale_hi: "x.x.x.x.X.X.X.X." conga_lo: "X...X...X...X..." kick: "X...X...X...X..." crash: "X..............." crash: bars: 1 variations: - name: standard crash: "X..............." timbale_hi: "x.X.x.x.X.x.x.X." cowbell: "X...X.X.X...X.X." conga_lo: "X.......X......." structure: fill_every: 4 break_every: 0 break_length: 1 crash_after_fill: true dynamic_build: false