Clave Singles

Today's mini-lesson includes a little "wrist twister" that I've been messing around with lately as a warm-up. This is an exercise that combines hand-to-hand single strokes in the context of a 3-2 Son Clave pattern:









Of course you could also play this pattern as a 2-3 Son Clave or 3-2 Rumba Clave as well. Try the same concept with any 12/8 or Bossa Nova Clave too.

You could even up the ante a bit and add flams to each of the accents:

As always, I'm a big proponent of not only practicing the rudiments and rudimental types of patterns but also playing them with some sense of a melodic structure and musicality involved as well. Using various Clave patterns (thank you Billy Martin!) will undoubtedly help you achieve this. At the end of the day, you'll get a lot more mileage out of your rudiments if you organize and think of them this way. And of course there are many of doing this as well...

*Sorry for the handwritten examples today but I hope these make sense. I'm currently upgrading my computer and my handwriting will have to do for now!