Afro-Cuban · timba · 2/2 son-clave

Timba piano tumbao (2-3)

200 bpm Loop: all
16ths
Clave
Kick
Hi-hat
Rim
Bell
Conga (high)
Piano
Bass

Mixer

Keyboard

Timba is the Havana dance music of the 1990s (NG La Banda, Issac Delgado, Los Van Van's later records): salsa harmony with funk bass, drum kit and a piano tumbao that is longer, more chromatic and more percussive than a son montuno. This four-bar figure is Scivales's "salsa dura" montuno in C minor, which already has the timba habits: a melody in the top voice that leaps across the clave, chromatic neighbour tones (the b6 and the b9 of the dominant), and a left hand that doubles rather than comps. The bass tumbao stays classic (and-of-2, 4) so the piano's displacements are audible against it; the kit adds a quarter-note bell and the kick on the tumbao. Play it slow first: the hands move in parallel but the accents do not.

Sources

  • Scivales, Play Latin Piano Like a Pro, ch. 27 Ex-134-2 (Ex. 49, "Salsa dura, 2-3 clave"), piano as written in C minor (Cm(b6) and G7(b9) simplified to Cm / G7b9 symbols); timba-style bass and drums standard practice

Keyboard

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