Acknowledgements
I would like to thank the salsa band 'Cuatro de Diciembre' (4de12) for their kind permission in providing me with excerpts and partial mix tracks for this tutorial. All music ©2005 written by Loo Yen Yeo and Jeremy Wise. All rights reserved.
 

Bongó Bell Rhythm

Listening Practice
The below tracks are listed in order of increasing number of instruments. The first is the simplest, comprising just the bongó bell rhythm with the conga pattern as a reference so that the bell tones are at their most obvious. The second has an additional clave rhythm, providing a second reference point to synchronise your dance rhythm. The third adds the rich complexity of the piano to establish the context of a modern son track; the bongó bell tones are still audible but you have to understand where to locate them.

Listen to each in turn:

• Bongó bell and conga (3.6Mb)
  ©2005 Loo Yen Yeo and Jeremy Wise. All rights reserved.
• Bongó bell, conga and son clave (3.6Mb)
  ©2005 Loo Yen Yeo and Jeremy Wise. All rights reserved.
• Bongó bell, conga and piano (3.6Mb)
  ©2005 Loo Yen Yeo and Jeremy Wise. All rights reserved.
   

Take the time to make sure you can pick out the bell tones confidently. Outside of this tutorial listen to the salsa songs that you have and pick out the bell tones, which you should find in the latter half of the song called the montuno section.

Note: Typically two or more bells might be played in the montuno section. The bongó bell's open tone has a deeper, more resonant sound played on the pulse (see below).
 

1. Identifying the Open Tones
Using the tumbao moderno of the first track, tap out the pulse rhythm with your foot. You will find that the rounded resonant sound of the bongó bell coincides with it - these are called the open tones. They articulate the pulse and can be represented visually like this:
 

Figure 9.1. Bongó bell open tones and pulse
 

Vocalise the open tone with the syllable "gung" while tapping your foot. Over a complete clave phrase you should get:

gung, gung, gung, gung
 

2. Identifying the Closed Tones
Still using the first track, listen for the two high-pitched metallic sounds played before the bongó bell open tones. These are the closed tones and, combined with the open tones, form the full bongó bell rhythm:
 

Figure 9.2. Complete bongó bell rhythm and pulse
 

Vocalise the whole rhythm using "ki" for the closed tones and "gung" for the open tones, while tapping your foot on the pulse. You should get:

gung, ...-ki-ki-gung, ...-ki-ki-gung, ...-ki-ki-gung, ...-ki-ki-
 

3. The Bongó Bell Rhythm In Context
If we substitute the pulse pattern of the foot with the dance step rhythm, we can represent the conga's tumbao moderno, the bongó bell rhythm and the dance step rhythm visually like so:
 

Figure 9.3. Bongó bell, conga and step rhythm
 

In the previous tutorials, we learned how the salsa dance rhythm complemented the conga's tumbao moderno. As you can see and hear, the bongó bell rhythm complements and agrees with both the conga and the dance step rhythm. I like to think of it as 'rhythmic glue' - strengthening the relationship between the dance rhythm and the tumbao moderno.

Its key features are:

• the dance rhythm is a literal interpretation of the bongó bell rhythm - the first, second and third steps fall on open, closed and open tones respectively (dance-bell agreement).
• every other set of bongó bell closed tones coincide with the tumbao moderno open tones, therefore reinforcing the conga open-tone cue (bell-conga agreement / dance complement).
• the first of every other set of closed tones coincides with the conga slap stroke and a dance step (full agreement).
• the bongó bell pattern forms a rhythmic bridge from the second to the third dance step by sounding the upbeat in between - where a note of the traditional bass tumbao would be located.
• the cycle of repetition is half the length of the tumbao moderno and dance rhythm, and a quarter that of the clave phrase. The increase in cycle speed gives an greater sense of drive in the rhythm section.
• there is no indication of clave orientation (see Extras).
   

Note: This track is taken from an actual song where, like all good bongó bell players, Nathan of '4 de Diciembre' plays fluidly around the theme of the regular bell pattern.

4. Rhythmic Attack
At this stage you will have developed well beyond the point of requiring the pulse simply to calibrate your internal metronome. Indeed you will probably be asking the question, "on which part of the (bongó bell) open tone might I be dancing on?":

• when the beater first strikes the bell to initiate the tone (early on the beat a.k.a. fast attack);
• when the bell's shell resonates to its loudest (middle of the beat a.k.a. medium attack); or
• when the open tone has just started to fade (late on the beat a.k.a. slow attack).

5. Affirmative Physical Interpretation
But let us not forget the closed tones. If you consider the open tones as the sonic climax, then the closed tones are the build-up - the rhythmic beginning of the crescendo. Steps or adornments that fall on them should be danced as a physical interpretation of this build-up leading to the steps that fall on the pulse.

Then again this is just one possible interpretation...

6. Inverse Physical Interpretation
You might consider a different approach where: the first of the closed tones is the climax, with a decrescendo through to the open tone, an increase in rhythmic tension as the open tone fades away, building up into the closed tones again. This interpretation is still in rhythmic agreement with the bongó bell pattern, but its physical expression is inverted.

Irrespective of how you choose to dance the rhythm, it should be clear to you how important the closed tones are in elevating the interpretation of the pulse to the sublime. You should be aware that the timbale bell is often played (see following tutorial) during the latter part of a salsa song at the same time as the bongó bell. This has the effect of obscuring the latter's closed tones and hence the cues to the first and third steps. Vocalisations come into their own when this happens, allowing you to play mentally the closed tones to maintain rhythmic dimension in your dancing.
 

Maraca Rhythm

Listening Practice
Play the following track:

• Maracas, piano and conga (3.6Mb)
  ©2005 Loo Yen Yeo and Jeremy Wise. All rights reserved.
   

Maracas are shakers that come in 'sexed' pairs - a high-pitched one called macho [male] for its aggressive tone, and a low-pitched one called hembra [female] for its mellower tone. The rhythm interpreted by the maracas in this example is depicted visually below, where the macho is denoted by the larger cross, and the hembra the smaller cross:
 

Figure 9.4. Maracas, conga and step rhythm
 

Vocalise the whole rhythm using "chik" for the macho's high tones and "ah" for the hembra's low tones, while tapping your foot on the pulse. You should get:

chik, ...-chik-ah-chik, ...-chik-ah-chik, ...-chik-ah-chik, ...-chik-ah-
 

Maracas, Güiro And The Bongó Bell
The rhythm expressed on the maracas and bongó bell is the same, merely interpreted on different instruments. This is also true of the güiro [gourd scraper] which I will describe later. The purpose of the rhythm has been outlined already, but the manner of its manifestation differs for several reasons. The bongó bell is a more louder, more intrusive instrument. It is played more in the latter end of a song where its open tones set up a regular and obvious structure in which other instruments may improvise. Were the bongó bell to be played in the opening section of a song, it might detract from the expressiveness of the vocals in the verse and chorus. In the early sections the maracas and/or güiro interpret the rhythm, handing over to the bell as sonic energy increases.

Validate the rhythm by vocalising the bongó bell pattern to the maraca track and vice versa (independent expression of rhythm). It would be ideal if you were able to dance the step rhythm at the same time.
 

Güiro Rhythm

Listening Practice
Play the following track:

• Güiro, piano and conga (3.6Mb)
  ©2005 Loo Yen Yeo and Jeremy Wise. All rights reserved.
   

The güiro is a gourd with close evenly-spaced horizontal grooves carved into it, held in one hand and scraped with a small stick in the other. The majority of percussion instruments in the world have two states: 'sound' and 'no sound' (i.e. digital response), and one needs to listen to at least two consecutive beats to glean tempo. With the güiro, the qualitive aspects of sound generated by the scraper running over the grooves (i.e. analogue response) play a part in indicating tempo: the higher the tempo, the higher the pitch of the sound. It is necessary to understand this to appreciate how the güiro expresses rhythm:
 

Figure 9.5. Güiro, conga and step rhythm
 

Vocalise the whole pattern using "aauuw" for long low-pitched tone and "ee" for the short high-pitched tones, while tapping your foot on the pulse. You should get:

aauuw, ee-ee-aauuw, ee-ee-aauuw, ee-ee-aauuw, ee-ee-
 

Validate the rhythm using vocalisations to the bongó bell and maraca tracks.
 

Three Interpreters, One Rhythm

Aggregating the rhythm arrays of the bongó bell, maracas and güiro, we can clearly see how they all interpret the same rhythm - a rhythm which emphasises the downbeats: establishing the pulse, and complementing the tumbao moderno.
 

Figure 9.6. Downbeat interpreters, conga, pulse and step rhythm
 

And we can hear them in place:

• Bongó bell, maracas, güiro, piano and conga (3.6Mb)
  ©2005 Loo Yen Yeo and Jeremy Wise. All rights reserved.

The pulse beats are important but so are the beats occupying the rhythmic location of the bongó bell's closed tones. Make sure you can identify the positions of both and can mentally fill in the closed tone beats when inaudible, as necessary.