Clave Rhythmic Study - Book

THE CLAVE MATRIX
AFRO-CUBAN RHYTHM:
ITS PRINCIPALS AND AFRICAN ORIGINS - BY DAVID PEÑALOSA

book description
publisher: Bembe Books
book type: softcover
pages: 304
included media: 2 CDs

For the first time in print, Afro-Cuban clave music receives an in-depth analysis that shows, in a logical, step-by-step manner, precisely how all its rhythmic elements relate. For beginning students, performers, or music teachers, The Clave Matrix unlocks the rhythmic secrets of this extraordinary music.

Chapters
• The Primary Beat Cycle
• The Secondary Beat Cycle
• The Standard Pattern
• Clave Patterns
• Clave Sequence: The 3-2/2-3 Clave Concept
• The Lead Instrument
• Issues of Notation, Terminology and Theory
• How Pulse Notation Corresponds to Standard Notation

Special Features
• musical notation displayed in pulse and standard notation
• chapter summaries
• extensive graphics and photos
• 10 page discography
• 2 CDs with 117 tracks of examples
• bibliography

Price: $45.00

At last, the definitive book on clave -
the rhythmic foundation of Latin music!

"As long as I can remember, musicians have argued about or been confused by “the clave” and its role in Latin music... How can I as a dancer, musician, listener... understand the great attraction and complexity of Afro Cuban music in the deepest, most definitive and thorough manner possible? Answer: embrace, study, and absorb the teachings and concepts presented in The Clave Matrix."
Zeno Okeanos (read the complete review below)

about the author
A preeminent clave theorist, David Peñalosa is credited with conceptual guidance in several music instruction books, including The Tomas Cruz Conga Method, Volumes 1-3 and Conor Guilfoyle’s Odd Meter Clave.

standard bell pattern graphic

sample music notation

Clave: A Spanish word meaning code, or key—as in the key to a mystery or puzzle, or keystone, the wedge-shaped stone in the center of an arch that ties all the stones together. Clave is the key pattern that decodes the rhythmic structure of Afro-Cuban music.

Matrix: The point of origin from which something takes form and develops, or a grid-like array of elements—an inter-woven pattern.

The Clave Matrix: The complete array of elements that give structure to clave music and their interlocking relationships.

reviews of the book

Conor Guilfoyle
author: Odd Meter Clave, Rhythmic Reading
“I highly recommend David’s common sense method to this much underdeveloped area of Cuban music. This is THE standard of the genre.”

Dr. Eugene D. Novotney
Professor of Music, Humboldt State University
“If you have been waiting for a text that breaks down the concept of clave and its related complexities to a level of practical and useable detail, this is your book.”

Kevin Moore
author: The Tomas Cruz Conga Method Vols. 1-3, Beyond Salsa Piano, The Cuban Timba Piano Revolution
“Everyone knows that Latin music is based on clave, but what is clave itself based on? The answer - a revelation to me, is one of many to be found in this meticulous study of Afro-Cuban rhythms.”

Zeno Okeanos
Associate Producer, Boogalu Productions
"As long as I can remember, musicians at various levels have argued about or been confused by “the clave” and its role in Latin music generally and Afro-Cuban music specifically. I’ve listened to, collected, studied, and played this type of music for over fifty years and I’m still surprised whenever a new revelation comes upon me, revealing my understanding to be misguided, incomplete, or simply wrong. Being misguided is likely when navigating through a mysterious maze where the guideposts previously erected are not necessarily reliable. If only there were some really good maps maybe we would have a clearer idea about this territory.

How can I as a dancer, musician, listener, fan, performer, or musicologist understand the great attraction and complexity of Afro Cuban music in the deepest, most definitive and thorough manner possible? Answer: embrace, study, and absorb the teachings and concepts presented in The Clave Matrix by David Peñalosa, who I believe is the foremost expert on the subject. I would recommend first reading some of the introductory paragraphs to several chapters and then listening to the accompanying CDs. I am sure you will feel like you are in the confident hands of a master teacher and then you will want to proceed further toward understanding and grasping the vital lessons contained throughout the rest of the book.

This is only Volume One. It’s a great foundation for getting the most from the forthcoming volumes on more specific practices. As you proceed, you will undergo “quantum” shifts and “AHA!” experiences regarding the most essential concepts in the world of rhythm. You will see how each clarification is the stepping stone to the next development in the progression and in the end you will have an understanding that may have taken many practitioners most of their lives, to sense intuitively and pass on by “osmosis.” Peñalosa’s approach employs both the intuitive and the precisely articulate. No one has researched the subject of clave and sorted out its rhythmic labyrinth to the extent that this author has.

A great bonus is the two accompanying CDs of audio examples. Now I totally get it! It is clear as a bell. There is nothing better for retaining new ideas than to have both the telling and the showing at your fingertips and playable to your ears at the flip of the remote.

Peñalosa is careful to point out potential pitfalls. For example, after explaining everything you always wanted to know about 3-2 clave and 2-3 clave in popular music, he states: “When discussing clave in relation to Cuban folkloric music, or African and other non-Cuban genres, care should be taken as to not improperly project the 3-2/2-3 framework, or other popular music techniques and aesthetics.” Many old controversies get resolved: “In clave based folkloric music beat 1 is always the first stroke of the three-side. As we’ve seen, this is the point in musical time where the matrix is initiated, the moment of rhythmic “ignition”.

The author notes every major issue regarding the complexities and seeming contradictions that always emerge in clave theory. Furthermore, he has at last deduced a comprehensive system whereby all issues are resolved under “one tent.” Sooner or later, anyone wanting to be free of the frustrating confusions will have to confront Peñalosa’s system and conceptual foundations, which I see as the unavoidable truth of the matter.

Who should be interested in such a comprehensive and thoughtful approach to understanding clave? Who even entertains clave as a subject of contemplation? Answer: All those musically inclined who ever had an inkling that there was a certain “something” which made their favorite type of music from Africa, Cuba and the extended Diaspora, so engaging, mysterious, wondrous, and life affirming. The concepts, so clearly delineated in The Clave Matrix, are a basis for renewed creativity both with traditional approaches to playing and also for new musical composition.

The Clave Matrix articulates the structural relationships at the foundation of clave-based music, concepts that were always there but never before made so clear on a theoretical basis. You might say that these are “original” theoretical ideas, but David Peñalosa is simply clave’s long-awaited spokesman."