Timelines on the Kit
A timeline is a short pattern that repeats all the way through a piece, and everything else is felt against it. Clave and the bossa nova pattern are timelines. On a kit it is a part for one hand, over a pulse the feet and the other hand keep.
The setup
Each groove has a Wheel under it: the same pattern bent into a circle, one ring per limb, with twelve o'clock as beat one and an arm that sweeps round as it plays. The shape each limb draws is the pattern; two grooves that look different on the grid are often one shape turned.
Play the timeline on the snare (as a cross-stick if you can; here it sounds as a plain snare hit). Keep the hat on every quarter and the kick on 1 and 3. The only thing that changes from one groove to the next is the snare line, and it is written exactly as the Rhythm room lists it.
Tresillo, the 3-3-2 cell
Eight eighths grouped long, long, short. The cell inside most of the others.
Son clave, 3-2 and 2-3
Two bars, three hits in one and two in the other. Swap which bar comes first and the same pattern is 2-3. Everything that plays with it has to know which way round it is.
Rumba clave
Son clave with the third hit of the three-side pushed one step later. It is the small difference that makes it feel less square.
Bossa nova clave
Same two-bar shape, a different spacing, and the one you will hear most often in Brazilian music.
Three from West Africa and Central Africa
Same setup, different timelines. Shiko is the plainest of the three, gahu comes from Ghana and soukous from Central Africa. Each is two bars, like son clave.
Bembé bell, in 12
The same idea in twelve: three beats' worth of triplets, four beats to the bar, and a bell pattern that leans on the offbeats. Here the bell is the ride's bell, with the hat on every beat and the kick on 1 and 3.
Four more cells
Not every timeline is a two-bar clave. These four are shorter patterns from the same family: the Charleston is half a tresillo, the cinquillo is a busier cousin, and the other two stretch the 3-and-2 grouping over longer bars. Same setup: hat on the quarters, kick on 1 and 3, the cell on the snare. The Rhythm room has them in its Off the beat and Groups of 3 and 2 lessons.
Charleston
Two hits: beat 1 and the & of 2. It is the first half of the tresillo, and it is the lightest syncopation there is.
- Set BPM to 70. Play the hat and kick alone for two bars.
- Add the snare on 1 and the & of 2 only. Say “1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &” and hit the bold words.
- The second hit lands between the beats, so let it sit exactly halfway between two clicks.
Cinquillo
Five hits in the bar: 1, 2, the & of 2, the & of 3 and 4. It is busier than the tresillo but it has the same limp in the middle. It is the “five” in Spanish, and a Caribbean dance drum part in its own right.
- Clap it first against the click. Count “1 & 2 & 3 & 4 &”. The hits are 1, 2, the & of 2, the & of 3 and 4.
- The pair 2 and & of 2 sit next to each other. Make them even and light.
- Move it to the snare with the hat and kick underneath.
Double tresillo
Two bars, sixteen eighths, grouped 3-3-3-3-2-2. The first four groups feel like a bar of 6/8 sitting inside 4/4, and the two twos at the end pull you back. Learn it by counting the groups out loud, not the beats.
- Say “1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2, 1-2” and clap only each 1. Do it until you can do it without the click.
- Check against the beat: the second group starts on the & of 2, so it is already off the beat.
- Play the snare line with the hat and kick. The kick stays on 1 and 3 of each bar and does not care about the groups.
5/4 clave
One bar of 5/4 with four hits: two long (3 eighths) and two short (2 eighths). The hat counts five beats and the snare plays 3+3+2+2. It is the shape behind the “Mission: Impossible” theme.
- Count five to the click: “1 2 3 4 5”. The bar is five clicks long, so the pattern restarts after every fifth.
- Clap 1, the & of 2, 4 and 5. Say the eighths if it helps: “1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 &”.
- Play it on the snare with the kick on 1 and 4 (the 3+2 split of the bar).