From theory — Western theory · Note values. Rhythm room: Groups of 3 and 2 · Timelines · Catalogue. The patterns are the rhythm; the bass is where the notes land.

Tresillo and clave bass notes that land on the pattern

Latin and Afro-Cuban bass is built on one idea: the bass plays its notes on the same counts the drums are accenting, so the whole band lands together. This page gives you a root and fifth figure for each of the short patterns in the Rhythm room: the tresillo, the habanera, the cinquillo, a common tumbao, and a two-bar figure that follows son clave. You need only two fretted places: the open A string and the E on the D string, fret 2.

Play becomes Stop on the same button. Tempo follows the metronome in the practice bar. All five figures are in A.

Count eighths first

Each TAB below has eight columns for a bar, one for every eighth note: 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &. A dash is a column where you do not play. Only columns with a number are notes.

  1. Set the metronome to 70. Tap your foot on each beat.
  2. Say “1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &” out loud for four bars, with the & exactly halfway between two foot taps.
  3. Find your two notes: the root is the open A string, and the fifth is the D string at fret 2 (an E). Pluck each once, slowly, so you know the sound.

1 · Tresillo, 3-3-2

Three notes: beat 1, the & of 2 and beat 4. The gaps between them are 3, 3 and 2 eighths, so say “1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2” and play on each 1. The first two are the root and the last is the fifth.

G|-------------------------
D|-------------------2-----
A|-0--------0--------------
E|-------------------------

  1. Clap the three hits against the click until you can do it without looking.
  2. Play the root only on each hit. Let the first two ring until the next one.
  3. Change the last note to the fifth. It lands on beat 4, one eighth before the bar ends.
  4. Play four bars with no pause between them.

2 · Habanera

The tresillo with one more note. Four notes: beat 1, the & of 2, beat 3 and beat 4. The extra note on 3 is the fifth, so the bar reads root, root, fifth, root. This is the bass line under the tango and a great deal of Cuban music.

G|-------------------------
D|-------------2-----------
A|-0--------0--------0-----
E|-------------------------

  1. Start from the tresillo and add one note on 3. Hear what the extra note does to the middle of the bar.
  2. Keep beat 3 and beat 4 short and clean. The note on 4 should not run into the next bar.

3 · Cinquillo

Five notes: 1, 2, the & of 2, the & of 3 and 4. The three roots in a row on 1, 2 and the & of 2 are the busy part, then the fifth on the & of 3 and the root back on 4.

G|-------------------------
D|----------------2--------
A|-0-----0--0--------0-----
E|-------------------------

  1. Count the five hits on your knee first: “1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &”.
  2. Make the pair on 2 and the & of 2 even and light. The limp is in the gap after them.

4 · Tumbao: leave out beat 1

In son and salsa the bass often leaves the downbeat empty and plays just two notes, the & of 2 and beat 4. The silence on 1 is part of the groove. The bass notes arrive a half beat before the chord seems to want them. This is one common version, with the root first and the fifth on 4.

G|-------------------------
D|-------------------2-----
A|----------0--------------
E|-------------------------

  1. Say “1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &” and play only on the second & and on 4. Keep your foot on every beat so the empty 1 is felt.
  2. Play eight bars. The groove has to feel as if beat 1 was there.

5 · Land on the clave

Now the bass follows a whole two-bar clave. In son clave 3-2 bar one has three hits (1, the & of 2, 4) and bar two has two (2 and 3). The bass plays a note on every one of them: root, root, fifth, then root and fifth.

G|------------------------|-------------------------
D|-------------------2----|-------------2-----------
A|-0--------0-------------|-------0-----------------
E|------------------------|-------------------------

  1. Clap the clave with the click for four rounds before you touch the bass.
  2. Play bar one alone, then bar two alone, then join them with no gap.
  3. Turn the click down. If a drum-machine groove is nearby, play along: your five notes should sound exactly where its clave sounds.
  4. Try it as 2-3: start from bar two and play bar one second. Same notes, other bar first.

Ready when

Move on when all of these are true on a normal day:

  • You can play each of the five figures for four bars at 80 without losing the click.
  • You can play the tumbao with beat 1 left empty and still feel it.
  • You can play the two-bar clave bass in 3-2 and in 2-3.

The same rhythms live in other rooms: Drums · Timelines, Guitar · Bossa nova and Latin comping and Piano · Rhythm in the hands.

Text twin: latin.md