BookatlasPiano Rabbit Hole: Improvisation Theory & Practice
6243 / 18210 · Workshop 45 — Afro-Cuban Piano: Son Clave, 2–3 vs 3–2, Tumbao, Montuno, and Learning to Place Every Note *Around* the Clave← prev⊞ allnext →

45.5Why it matters

Imagine a sentence:

question → answer.

If you start from the answer and then put the question after it, the words may be the same but the phrase feels different.

Clave orientation is somewhat analogous.

The two halves have different rhythmic tension.

You should eventually feel:

“we are on the three-side”

without doing arithmetic.