The Clave De Sol

 

El clave de sol es una figura universal y musical para todo el mundo que simboliza la flor y el Sol, y en él se puede sentir un ritmo medio. Este pequeo objeto está sometido a un proceso artesanal de oxidación y posteriormente acabado mate, en nuestro pequeo taller de barrio Gracia de Barcelona.

Musical theory based on clave provides a framework that helps musicians understand how to play together. It explains the relationship between the guiding pulse pattern and the other parts of a song. The same concept is used in many other styles of music, from Latin jazz to African and Haitian rhythms. The clave concept and related terminology are sometimes confused with other rhythmic systems, such as those found in sub-Saharan Africa and Brazil.

The clave rhythm and concept are also used in some modern art music ("classical") compositions, such as the snare drum suite "Rumba Clave" by Cuban percussionist Roberto Vizcaino. It is also a common element in popular Cuban music, such as mambo and salsa.

While the clave rhythm is rooted in the musical heritage of Afro-Cubans, it has spread to the rest of the Caribbean, where it can be heard in Jamaican mento, Trinidadian soca and Martinique's biguine. It is likely that these smaller island nations adopted the rhythm from Cuban son recordings that began to circulate in the 1930s.

One of the most difficult aspects of playing clave-based music is that it often changes from a three-side (3-2) to two-side (2-3), or vice versa, as part of the harmonic progression. It takes a lot of practice to develop the flexibility to repeatedly reorder your point of reference while playing songs.

The first three strokes of the clave are called tresillo in Cuban music. They are named for the fact that they create a triplet, i.e., three almost equal beats in the same time as two main beats. Similarly, the second stroke of the clave is called a “cuchillo.” These are the names of two of the main forms of duple-pulse clave sequences that exist in Cuban music. Both are used in rumba, but the two-cuchillo form is usually associated with guaguanco and yambu, while the three-cuchillo form is more commonly used in timba and songo.

Several types of clave are incorporated into other Afro-Cuban music, including salsa and afrobeat. The afrobeat guitar part shown below is based on a 2-3 onbeat/offbeat clave pattern, and most salsa piano guajeos are Clave de sol  from this same sequence. The clave is also present in some Haitian and Brazilian music, but these uses are controversial because they do not fit the 3-2/2-3 concept of Afro-Cuban clave.