Listening Practice
Now that you're able to pick out the slap stroke and open tones easily, you may have noticed that there are gaps in between the two rhythm markers. These gaps are the theme of this lesson but in order to explore them, we first need to develop the little trick of listening to what isn't there.

That may sound a little strange but bear with me a moment.

The absences are there deliberately for you to fill. To crystallise the “presence” of these absences, there is a practice you should use as you listen to the rhythm: you're going to fill the space with sound and remove it again to make the gaps obvious.

Listening to a “tumbao_without_clave” track, you should hear:

Open Tones - Slap - Open Tones - Slap - Open Tones -…

I'd like you to clap your hands once in between the rhythmic markers, so you get:

Open Tones -clap- Slap -clap- Open Tones -clap- Slap -clap- Open Tones -clap-…

Try to keep your clapping even.

Once you're comfortable with the rhythm, alternate between clapping and not clapping. Even when you're not actually clapping, listen for the gaps and clap your hands mentally, so you come to perceive the rhythm as:

Open Tones -(gap)- Slap -(gap)- Open Tones -(gap)- Slap -(gap)- Open Tones -(gap)- …

You'll need to master this exercise at different tempi, because it is a key component of the Salsa practices later.
 

Rhythm Principles
Much of African-descended music has a rhythmic structure where certain beats, called backbeats are accented (see Extras). The tumbao moderno, being of African descent, is no exception. The rhythm structure of salsa has its backbeats accented by slap strokes and open tones.

The absences that you've been training yourself to recognise fall on the rhythmic counterparts of the backbeats, called the downbeats. Clapping your hands on every absence (i.e. downbeat), as you have been doing, creates a complementary pattern called the pulse. Try the practice again and listen to how the pulse meshes with the tumbao moderno.

Being able to identify the position of the pulse is the key to dancing salsa in time. It's crucial for you to understand that in African rhythm, absence is defined as the presence of nothing. Hence from listening to the tumbao moderno, the pulse is identified by the absence of rhythmic markers.

It's easy to understand why people unaccustomed to African drumming have difficulty identifying the start of the tumbao moderno. That's because it's marked by the absence of a marker. Beginners often make the mistake of listening for something marking the beginning of the cycle when none exist. To complicate matters further, there are two absences and to tell them apart, you would have to listen to the marker preceding it.

Hence the start of the dance cycle is marked by an absence preceded by the double open tones. If you understand this point, then you should also understand why we began the first tutorial addressing the double open tones.

I hope this explanation places the importance of the listening exercise in context. We shall now proceed to the long awaited…
 

Salsa Practices
[Using the “tumbao_without_clave” tracks.]
Our exercises are divided into two sections: the first addresses the pulse rhythm, the second addresses salsa's dance rhythm.

Internalising the pulse

Exercise 3.1
Pulse practice, solo, sitting down, and using any track tempo that you're comfortable with.

Begin with clapping the pulse (as detailed in the listening practice section earlier):

Slap -clap- Open Tones -clap- Slap -clap- Open Tones -clap-…

Exercise 3.1.1
Every time you clap your hands, tap your foot (your choice of which one):

Slap -tap- Open Tones -tap- Slap -tap- Open Tones -tap-…

Exercise 3.1.2
Tap using alternate feet:

Slap -(left)- Open Tones -(right)- Slap -(left)- Open Tones -(right)-…

Exercise 3.1.3
Stop clapping, and tap/stamp your feet on the floor a little harder, such that the sound previously generated by your hands is now provided by your feet.

Exercise 3.2
Pulse practice, standing (this practice is an extension of Exercise 3.1.3). Substitute the tap with a step (i.e. include a weight transfer) on the spot:

Slap -step- Open Tones -step- Slap -step- Open Tones -step-…

You are effectively performing a merengue walk pattern to the tumbao moderno and are well on the way to being a percussionist dancer. Imagine yourself as a drummer playing the pulse and complementing the tumbao moderno, except instead of using your hands on a drum, you're using your feet on the floor. Close your eyes and feel how your steps mesh with the tumbao moderno.

Exercise 3.3
As in Exercise 3.2, substituting steps on the spot with travelling ones. Try to keep your steps regular to reflect the pulse. You may find it easier to “drum-walk” the pulse to a higher tempo at first.
 

Creating the salsa dance rhythm
Salsa's dance rhythm is constructed from the pulse with the addition of a step coinciding with the slap stroke in-between the pulse beats. As we've just covered the pulse, and have already addressed the slap stroke in the previous lesson, we have all the components necessary for assembling the salsa dance rhythm.

Exercise 3.4
Solo, sitting down. This is identical to exercise 3.1.2 except: you use the same leg twice on either side of the slap stroke, in alternation:

Open Tones -(right)- Slap -(right)- Open Tones -(left)- Slap -(left)-…

Exercise 3.5
Solo, sitting down, identical to Exercise 3.4, tapping with the other foot on the slap stroke:

Open Tones -(right)- (left) -(right)- Open Tones -(left)- (right) -(left)-…

Exercise 3.6
Solo, standing, identical to Exercise 3.5, but stepping (i.e. adding a weight transfer onto every tap) instead of tapping:

Open Tones -right- left -right- Open Tones -left- right -left-…

Stay focused on maintaining the pulse with your feet.
 

Core conclusions
You may have noticed that we have studiously avoided learning the rhythm to a count within the core content. This is entirely intentional since we believe that you should learn how to trust your ears instead of reducing rhythms to a numerical abstraction.

You should now have the ability to discern the four beats of salsa, but we have one thing left to do; we have to correlate everything you've learned with beat numbers. Yes, I know that goes against what I've just said, but the practical truth is that most instructors still teach to a count, and you may find yourself in such a class sometime soon.

So here's the tumbao moderno summarised in terms of beat number:

Beat 1: presence of nothing, preceded by double open tones;
Beat 2: slap stroke;
Beat 3: presence of nothing, preceded by slap stroke;
Beat 4: (first of) double open tones.