Latin rhythm, any tricks?

[Alvaro Martín Gómez A.]

VERY good information . . . como siempre has hecho, Alvaro.

I'm glad it helps, man.

Hmm... I've just noticed that the audio samples I uploaded to Wikipedia were deleted. Here they are:

Link Removed (according to my explanation)

Link Removed (same as above)

 

[T-MOST]

No tricks to be had. It comes from practice and developing your sense of rhythm. For those things there are no substitutes or short cuts. Just keep playing.

 

[manicbassman]

Learn the basic Salsa step.

You might blow this off, but I'm dead serious.
Two of my bass teachers told me that. And two of the most in demand bassists in Canada can't be wrong.

The basic step will help you feel where the beat lands.
Watch some Latin guys play. especially the percussionists. They're ALL dancing.

+1 on learning the dances...

 

[mambo4]

what really helped me was learning to clap the clave while singing the bass tumbao.

I started singing the basic Son pattern : 1 + 2and + 4 (which as stated is identical to the "3" side of the clave

then I moved to the "anticipated downbeat" version: 2and + 4

It doesn't take too long to get the hang of it, and you can do it at the bus stop no gear required.

Know the clave, learn to play rhythms of the conga tumbao, the piano montuno, and other rhythms section patterns if possible. The more of the other patterns you learn, the mores solid it'll be,

 

[bullshark]

Thank's guy's. So far I've made some headway by playing on the 1, seems to help as I don't get lost as much; at least I can play a few bar reasonably on time when yesterday I couldn't at all, even simple things similar to what Alvaro posted. I'm gonna check a dancing school also, there's one on the next street from where I live, good idea and it should be fun (and next time I go to Cuba, maybe I'll do more than just sit and stare...).

 

[Mystic Michael]

No tricks to be had. It comes from practice and developing your sense of rhythm. For those things there are no substitutes or short cuts. Just keep playing.

+1

Trix are for kids...

MM

 

[Funkateer]

Thank you for taking the time to put this detailed example online. Simple but very musical example. The kills on beat 2, and the return to beat one in the turnaround are especially cool.

 

[damianerskine]

Also, a GREAT book is Oscar Stagnaro's (old teacher of mine) book called, "The Latin Bass Book". 3 great cds and every track written out with brief explanations (have your reading somewhat together, tho. I also recommend this book for people wanting to brush up on their reading skills!

 

[Bass Momma]

what really helped me was learning to clap the clave while singing the bass tumbao.

I started singing the basic Son pattern : 1 + 2and + 4 (which as stated is identical to the "3" side of the clave

then I moved to the "anticipated downbeat" version: 2and + 4

It doesn't take too long to get the hang of it, and you can do it at the bus stop no gear required.

Know the clave, learn to play rhythms of the conga tumbao, the piano montuno, and other rhythms section patterns if possible. The more of the other patterns you learn, the mores solid it'll be,

Please don’t laugh - literally what do you sing when you sing the tumbao? (I am NOT a singer!) I’m trying to sing tumbao against clave and then cascara, and not doing well. I “bop”, “tcha” or similar. I can clap them against each other, but vocalizing one of them gums up the works.
The brain is a strange thing!

 

[enricogaletta]

Love this thread guys, because I simply love latin and latin jazz rhythms since I started to played it.
In my honest opinion every bass player should start learning and playing a bit of latin, the boost this style gives to your time keeping skills is second to none, that's why it's one of the topics I always add to my bass lessons.
The first and probably best suggestion for me to help solve your problems is to learn and develop your counting and rhythm reading, it's the only key man, Latin has no shortcut and it's the only style of music where all the instruments fit into each other like a jigsaw puzzle and if you're just a bit behind or ahead the click; everyht falls through like a domino.
But counting and consequently rhythm reading, it's not only important for you to improve the way you play the groove correctly, tumbao is only one of them (montuno, guaguanco, samba, mambo, cha, songo and many more), but MOST IMPORTANT to help you to play the specific groove and be INDEPENDENT of what others are playing, especially piano and other rhythm instruments, because in 90% of the scenarios you are playing groove lines that wedge into the others open spots.
Now it's easier than it seems, so my suggestions are
- Learn to count with your voice while playing, always with the standard click,
- start with a slower tempo, learn your latin grooves from 60 bpm, then jump by 20bpm, for example 60-80-100-120 etc, this will help you to improve your time keeping jumps, especially as most latins are cut times, and you will be faced with very fast rhythm grooves,
- Then, after you have played a groove correctly, switch the metronome to a clave click, 3:2 or 2:3, no matter, you have to feel completely natural when you play it,
- last but not least, test your playing with the mp3 etc., if you have done the previous steps correctly, you have definitely improved your skills.
Here's an example of playing a Latin jazz groove with a clave click.
I hope my suggestions help you and if you need more, just let me know.
Let's clave

Here's with the clave click
Enrico Galetta on TikTok

here's with a rhythm section

 

[Kerem Koseoglu]

Here is a quick and dirty hack...
On the first half bar, use this pattern: XooX ooXo
On all following (half) bars, use this pattern: oooX ooXo
Go to pattern 1 (only once) on significant spots.
(X = 16th note, o = 16th silence)

Hear it in action (during the intro only):

 

[Bass Momma]

My tumbao keeps landing on the 3, rather than the + of 2. So I’ve slowed right down, I’m counting like a maniac. That 3 has a gravitational pull. I’ve pretty much just started Latin, so I gather this isn’t unusual. But frustrating! I can play a Charlie Parker head but can’t consistently land on the 2+? It’s a disease, I tell you. In jazz, though, there’s a solid 4/4 to grab onto. In Latin there are multi-layers of rhythm; my ears aren’t locking solidly yet. Sigh.