Listening Practice
Rumba clave shares an identical structure to son clave except the ponché, which is displaced fractionally further downstream. Though small, this change lends the rumba clave's rhythm stream a very different feel to that of the son clave, and has significant impact on its relationships with the other rhythm streams.

Listening to the rumba clave stream itself, and you can choose any of the "rumba clave only tracks" listed in the Index of Tracks page, the first thing we notice is that it is not as simple to group the beats into two distinct clusters. The second is the lack of the three evenly-spaced beats of the tresillo. Without these bearings, we are unable to identify the location of the pulse in the manner we employed in Son clave & the clave rhythm stream.

Luckily, we still have the ability to locate pulse relative to tumbao moderno, so that's where we begin. Seat your self comfortably and listen to the track:

Rumba clave over tumbao moderno (conga), 154bpm (2.9 Mb)

Paying attention to just the conga for the moment, tap out the pulse with your foot. Then tune into the clave whilst maintaining pulse. You will find that there are two points of rhythmic anticipation when the rumba clave and pulse streams interact. Because of this, songs based on rumba clave are regarded as being rhythmically more propulsive than those based on son clave. However, the more syncopated nature of rumba clave tends to render rhythms based on it less accessible to the newly initiated.
 

Rhythm Principles
Here's the rumba clave in 3-2 orientation (the key points are easier to see this way). Notice the two points of rhythmic anticipation; one at the bombó, and the other at the rumba ponché at the end of the 3-side leading into the beginning of the 2-side.

Figure 11.1 Rumba clave relative to conga tumbao and pulse

In rumba clave, the location of the ponché is closer to the first beat of the 2-side than it is to the bombó. When listening to the clave stream on its own, it is easy to associate the ponché with the two beats of the 2-side and mistake it as a tresillo.

Although from the diagram below, the beats of the 'Pseudo 3-side' are clearly uneven, the 'pseudo-bombó' is only one-sixteenth beat late off the equidistant; listeners would have to have good bombó stability to tell the difference, and people of such rhythmic resolution would probably be aware of rumba clave already.

Figure 11.2 Clave misperceived

The example above illustrates the necessity of knowing the location of the pulse in order to maintain the correct clave framework. That's where we'll begin.
 

Salsa Practices
Instead of re-inventing the wheel, I'm going to assume that you're already familiar with our course pedagogy and terminology from previous tutorials. You may want to revisit the Dancing a Percussive Counterpoint: Core page to refresh your memory.

Acquired mode
Exercises:

• Clap rumba clave and tap pulse while seated
  (Using any of the rumba clave over tumbao moderno tracks.)
   
• Clap rumba clave and dance pulse
  (Using any of the rumba clave over tumbao moderno tracks.)
   
• Clap rumba clave and dance salsa step rhythm
  (Using any of the rumba clave over tumbao moderno tracks.) The cucaracha is the most appropriate place to start, followed by the salsa walk.
   
• Clap rumba clave and dance pulse
  (Using any of the rumba clave only tracks.)
   
• Clap rumba clave and dance salsa step rhythm
  (Using any of the rumba clave only tracks.)
   

Learned mode
Like the bombó, rumba ponché stability is essential for creating rhythmic anticipation and hence to conveying the feel of rumba. Should you want to develop rumba ponché stability, then below is the diagram for the hands-only practice as detailed in Son Clave & the Clave Rhythm Stream: Extras. Note that it's in 2-3 clave orientation.

Figure 11.3 Playing rumba clave to a count

We can then proceed to clapping clave and dancing pulse as we've done before in Dancing a Percussive Counterpoint: Core this time using rumba clave:

Figure 11.4 Playing rumba clave and dancing pulse to a count

From there, all it takes is a simple step to dancing the salsa step rhythm to rumba clave.

All of the skills you developed from the son clave tutorials are transferrable to rumba like discerning clave orientation and implied clave. The most important thing to take away from here is a profound feeling for rhythmic anticipation; which is the hallmark of rumba clave and rhythms based upon it.

All that remains now is your personal voyage of discovery of the rhythms of rumba and where they can be found in popular Latin culture.