the claves fascinating instrument perhaps one of the first that humans picked up two sticks strike them and they've evolved a lot what's important about the claves is the concept of the clavich there's a lot of variations of rhythm and sound the cloudberries you know if you if you hold them correctly by making a little cup with one hand like a little bit of a resonating chamber and sitting the clave up there like so as opposed to grabbing it it's a big difference in the sound because then the wood resonates here's the difference between this and this now that kind of a pattern also comes into um latin american music through african music through african sacred music because a similar pattern would be played usually in triple meter on a bell on some kind of a metallic instrument a bell of some kind and that is used as the timeline to accompany most sacred music in the congo tradition yoruba tradition arana tradition that that's that's a commonality so you could take a rhythm usually played on bell that sounds like this for example that's used to accompany sacred music um [Music] oh [Music] the rhythm of the melody it's very important how it adheres and it uses the bell pattern as its base basis it's a very specific way that the song fits rhythmically with the pattern that idea has made its way into popular music into the rumba into the song and into the idea of composing and arranging that's where it's really evolved so the melodies of these traditional sacred songs carry the rhythm of the clavi and if i play that slow you could kind of see that if i go like this you could see how the rhythms are interlaced [Music] with [Music] right on top of this rhythmically and if you try to mess with that you're you're you're wrong you're out of you're out of clavi so to speak if you try to play that on the other side of the rhythm it won't fit it fights you know if you put it anywhere else on the rim it's going to fight so basically that's the concept with clavi in cuba the term clari and the use of this instrument really took a big height and in a lot of other countries it didn't go as far and even in the united states it's very present in what we do in the united states because it's a western central african phenomenon that the rhythms are based on this kind of yin-yang thing that there's this side of the clave and this side [Music] and the and the melodic rhythmic figures adhere to this kind of balance people get very upset if you mess up the cloudy and other people say oh i don't care about the club and the club is like this restriction i don't need to have that and other people from other countries will say no our music doesn't have cloudy but it does you know a lot of times it happens in i hear it happen a lot with brazilian music the brazilian musicians don't study clave per se as part of their music but their music is very much inclavi the music it makes sense with the concept of the clave the rhythms they play adhere to the melodies and they're very conscious about it and if you play it wrong they'll stop you in a moment and say you got the rhythm wrong they won't tell you you're out of clave because that's a term that's a terminology that kind of comes out of the cuban music tradition but the music is in clave that's where the concept of the klavi becomes important that it's about matching melody to the to the rhythm of the clavi so in a nutshell you have to take your melody figure out the best way the clubbing goes with it lock it into that then you're free to build your arrangement around that and and counterpoint is very important you could put counterpoint rhythm but you can't mess with the idea of the melody and the collaborate that has to be a certain way you can't mess with that now in new orleans the club is there but they often cross the clavi because it didn't get hammered home the way it did with the more african tradition and african instruments that happened in cuba for example so in new orleans music you hear it played all over the place in in second line music they played on the on on the snare in mardi gras with the accent on the klamath and the music though is in clave again some of you may have heard this song before a new orleans thing that goes on my grandma and your grandma sitting by the fire my grandma said to your grandma [Music] that was a big hit when i was a kid and then somebody made a hip-hop version of it a while back but that melody is totally in cloudy and sometimes you'll hear um in new orleans music you know they don't they're not paying attention so much to the collaborator the music is automatically naturally enclaving and they'll play it that way but sometimes it'll be crossed and they're not tripping on it in cuban music if it gets crossed somebody's gonna like stop you or give you a weird look or something because it it's really paramount in cuban music that said there's some cuban music that's out of clave too but just understanding the concept of the clave and as a composer a ranger you have to keep the clavi in mind you can't randomly write parts that rhythmically don't have the clave in mind and there's an idea of writing in clave where a certain section of the tomb the clavic can change but you have to build your arrangement so it happens naturally so that if you were playing clobbering through the piece you wouldn't have to stop or jump the clave or change the rhythm in order to adhere it to the melody instead the composition works around the rhythm of the clavi one of the most amazing things is that in the cuban roomba groups the clavier is essential and who plays it usually the lead singer it's amazing the lead singer has to improvise rhythmically and melodically while holding this rhythm [Music] well the phrasing is like you know all around but the clarity has to be solid locking with the drums so you find a degree of independence that's created by learning rumba songs that are kind of free you know sometimes from the clavi but when you come to the antiphonal part the column response that response has to be in the right place with the klavi and if it's not immediately almost before the words out of your mouth they're like no you know montauk you know like be careful you know you're you're out of line if you come out with the kalama in the wrong spot [Music] you