12/8 bell

The standard West African / Afro-Cuban bell: seven strokes over twelve pulses, x.x.xx.x.x.x (long-long-short-long-long-long-short... felt as 2+2+1+2+2+2+1). It is the timeline of Ewe, Yoruba and bembé drumming, the Cuban 6/8 clave and the ancestor of the son clave (compress the twelve pulses to sixteen and the same shape appears). Count it in four dotted-quarter beats or in three half-note-plus-eighth hemiola beats; both are correct, which is the point of the pattern.