Here at addicted2salsa, we try (when we can) to contribute salsa news, videos and information that can hopefully improve your overall salsa dancing and social lifestyle. We are glad to see many others sharing their passion and enthusiasm for salsa dancing and music on the internet. This weekend I found a good blog that DJDoubleC posted in our social site: the very recent Salsa-Musicality blog . I was very enthusiastic and impressed with the wealth of information that this author has posted. From his description, he wanted to become a better dancer by learning how to play the instrument, probably because it helps people find the salsa dance beat:
“I know about Salsa, Percussion, and how to mix the two! Here are my thoughts and findings related to salsa, salsa dancing, percussion, and musicality. After spending years and years looking like “just another gringo!”, I decided to learn how to dance properly. How did I do it? I learned percussion, and then it all just “clicked”!” – Salsa Musicality Blog
The author takes care in teaching you a few basics on reading music and timing for instruments with visuals. I find this an excellent beginner resource for those wanting to dive deeper into the structure of salsa music. I hope that he continues to share his knowledge with us so that everyone in the world salsa community benefits.
Here are a few of the articles that I really enjoyed and are must read by ALL salsa dancers:
- Musical Notation (great starter for absolute beginners)
- How different instruments affect you
- Different types of Latin Music
- How to play the Mambo Cowbell
[Read More @SalsaMusicality]
Well, Orion from the forums posted this video of Mongo Santamaria doing a precussion solo – and I just had to put it on the frontpage. Another great vintage video. The end part of the video talks about the african tribes, and how a new chief would would ask his expert craftsman to make an great instrument whose excellence would recognize the new Chief's greatness. Another interesting fact noted in the video (according to it), Elephant ears were used as the covering of the drum.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hH_kBEcJtEE
Regardless of whether you understand whats going on (or even how this video of a DVD tries to show you how to perform good percussion solos) – just listening to the solos are great! For those who dance On1 – , listen very carefully to the music here (because the clave and rhythm is isolated for you to hear). This is really what we (On2) dancers use in the music to dance to. You might say it sounds like cha-cha – well….you are correct, but you dance Cha-Cha On2, and the same instrumental fundamentals of clave apply to Salsa/Mambo. That’s why, people who dance salsa on2 can easily dance cha-cha correctly (and vice-versa) because all you are doing is replacing the pause with a cha-cha-cha step. There is no cha-cha On1 – it doesn’t make sense because the cha-cha-cha happens on 4-and-5 and 8-and-1 in the music (just listen to it) – meaning your break happens on 2-3 and 6-7… just like in…. Salsa on2 
.
While the beat is really a cha-cha beat, its still just amazing to listen to – I can literally listen to this beat, rhythm and solo melody of ‘guajira ‘ ALL DAY LONG! You can just feel and groove to it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePT_JQsnDKE
I added this next video in the set – more for completeness than for preference. It is more of a ‘Tito Puente’ style of latin ensemble, where you are mixing more new york jazz melodies with the traditional Cuban sound.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_jh3itipzs
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