Listening Practice
You have a choice of two tracks:

• Piano montuno higher pitch, conga, and 2-3 son clave 148bpm (2.0Mb)
• Piano montuno lower pitch, conga, and 2-3 son clave 148bpm (2.0Mb)

Two different pitches have been provided, and you should select the one in which you find easiest to distinguish the notes and tones.

Listen to the piano, and tap your thigh or a tabletop with your fingers whenever you hear the piano play a note. As you become used to the rhythm, gradually turn down the volume of the speakers so that you can comfortably hear the drumming of your fingers as well as the piano. Keep on doing this to strengthen your sense of the rhythm played on the piano.

You'll find it to be a repeated pattern one clave phrase long, which can be represented visually like this:
 

Figure 8.1. Montuno-Guajeo rhythm
 

Feature One: Couplets
The first thing I'd like for you to notice, is that there are two pairs of consecutive notes or couplets:
 

Figure 8.2. Two pairs of consecutive notes in the montuno rhythm
 

Continue with the listening and tapping exercise until you can confidently identify this motif.
 

Feature Two: Regular Singles
Another important feature is that all the single notes are regularly spaced one beat apart:
 

Figure 8.3. Evenly-spaced single beats in the montuno rhythm
 

Listen for this using the listening and tapping practice, and feel how smoothly and regularly your fingertips contact the surface. Match the feel and sound of your fingers with that of the piano; as if you were playing the pattern yourself.

Absorb the rhythm drummed by your fingertips in its entirety, being aware of these two key features. Listen to the piano and understand where these two features are. When you're comfortable and ready to move on, emphasise the second beat of the first couplet:
 

Figure 8.4. Accenting the start of the montuno rhythm cycle
 

This is the actual beginning of the cycle (all will be made clear soon). Next tap your foot at the same time as you emphasise the beat:
 

Figure 8.5. Tapping your foot at the start
of the montuno rhythm cycle
 

Now practice this exercise to the faster tracks:

• Piano montuno higher pitch, conga, and 2-3 son clave 175bpm (2.0Mb)
• Piano montuno lower pitch, conga, and 2-3 son clave 175bpm (2.0Mb)

If you're feeling adventurous, you can try it with any salsa tracks you have lurking around the house. This will help you become proficient in a real-world context. Don't be too concerned if what the pianist plays doesn't always fit neatly in the box, there are many variations but the basic montuno remains largely the same (see Extras).
 

Rhythm Principles
The start of the cycle, as perceived by non-AfroCubans, is the second beat of the first couplet. If we overlay a count on the rhythm we've been playing, we'd have:
 

Figure 8.6. The montuno rhythm expressed relative to a count
 

The first beat of the first couplet (beat 8+) is called a pick-up beat. That is, it cues the beginning of the cycle in a manner similar to the open tones of the tumbao moderno played on the congas.

When we "rectify" the diagram to tutorial standard by moving the pick-up beat from the beginning of the diagram to the end, and add the son clave orientation, we get:
 

Figure 8.7. The montuno rhythm with clave direction, "rectified"
 

Notice that there are two points of agreement with the son clave: the first beat of the 2-side, and the bombó. This is where the non-superimposability aspect of the clave comes in handy; if you understand clave well and happen to hear the piano playing on the second beat or the upbeat of the second beat of the bar, you can easily discern which side of the clave you're on (2-side and 3-side respectively).
 

Timing: Complementing Contratiempo
The montuno rhythm does not lend itself readily to effective time-keeping with respect to the modern salsa step rhythm (for time-keeping with classic son montuno, see Extras):
 

Figure 8.8. The montuno rhythm with step rhythm
 

As you can easily see from the figure above, much of the montuno is played contratiempo [literally 'against the beat', i.e. with up-beat/off-beat accentuation] which causes most of the step rhythm to fall in-between the montuno beats, particularly all of those on the clave 3-side. Hence we can say that modern salsa's step rhythm tends to complement the montuno.

Were we to try and dance to the montuno without any other reference rhythms, we would be presented with a very steep challenge even for experienced dancers, since we would be spending most of our time stepping on the 'absence' of the beat.

A more successful strategy is to learn how to dance to the montuno via easier intermediary rhythms.
 

Figure 8.9. The montuno rhythm with clave, conga and pulse
 

The Cunning Plan

• Ignoring the piano for the moment, tune into the sound of the clave and the conga.
• Once you can make out the clave rhythm and tumbao moderno, tap your foot to the pulse (as per Tutorial Stage I).
• Gently let the sound of the piano slip into your perception. Let in as much piano as you can without sacrificing the stability of the pulse. Should you lose it at any point, regain the pulse rhythm by tuning into the clave and conga first, and then slowly let the piano in again.
• Be patient. What you're developing is the simultaneous perception of independent rhythms, a valuable skill that can add multiple dimensions to your interpretation of music as a dancer.
• Eventually tune out the congas and clave, and maintain the pulse relative to the montuno. You would only need to tune into the intermediary rhythms every once in a while to avoid rhythmic drift.
• To take your rhythmic independence to the next level (optional), tap out the montuno rhythm with your fingers as you maintain the pulse with your foot. This is the simultaneous expression of independent rhythms.
• Once you know where the pulse and clave are relative to any rhythm, you can dance to it. Revisiting the material of previous tutorials as necessary, you can make the transition from tapping pulse to performing the salsa dance rhythm, to the montuno.
   

Figure 8.10. The montuno rhythm with clave, conga and step rhythm
 

Dance Phrasing: Clave Feeling
There is more to the montuno than time-keeping. The main role of the piano is to provide the rhythmic current of notes upon which are carried the lyrics and the melodic instruments. The montuno is highly significant to a salsa dancer because of how it influences phrasing to music.

Possibly its greatest significance is how it communicates clave feeling to the dancer. The lack of coincidence between montuno beats and salsa step rhythm on causes the 3-side to feel 'flatter' or 'smoother' to the dancer than the 2-side which feels comparatively 'solid' or 'anchored' due to two the coincidences of the beat.

But we have to be mindful of the ever-present fundamental principle of the clave relationship with the pulse, contributing a weak and a strong side due to rhythmic stability and tension (see: Dancing a Percussive Counterpoint tutorial).

Considering all these rhythms - clave, montuno, tumbao moderno, step rhythm and pulse (implied in the step rhythm) together, the dancer should experience:

• a square, solid feeling on the 2-side
  [ rhythmic stability (clave-pulse), coincidence (montuno-step rhythm) ]
   
• a driving, smooth feeling on the 3-side
  [ rhythmic tension (clave-pulse), complementary (montuno-step rhythm) ]
   
• a strong feeling of response to the music throughout. Notice how the montuno coincides with the tumbao moderno at the end of every bar (beats 4,4+; and 8,8+); and how this motif is complemented by the dance step rhythm. As we learned in the first tutorial, the open tones of the conga cue the dance step rhythm, and the montuno fuses with it to make the cue more insistent.
   

Notes About Clave Orientation And Flavour

1. Should the orientation of clave change from 2-3 to 3-2, the basic montuno would also change to reflect this.
2. If beginning in 3-2 orientation, the pianist might opt for a more powerful opening by choosing to enter on beat 1 (instead of 1+) with an additional note on the first bar of music.
3. The montuno rhythm remains the same in rumba clave (see Interpreting Rumba Clave tutorial).

All three points are represented below: