TRUE STORY: Some instructor from a city in Florida wrote me about 45 minutes ago the following message: Mr Josue Joseph .. my students are excited about you but I had to straighten out the confusion youve put into their heads. You say in your movie that the melody has no bearing on clave syncopation. But this is very false, mister. You should learn and someone should have taught you already that you must listen to the melody to know the clave because the melody goes to the clave like a tick-tock clock .. Tito Puente even wrote that when he hears a melody being hummed, he has to listen to see where he wants to place it, to see which one feels better to him. Any song where you hear the clave, then thats what it is. There is no guesswork .. You just have to open your ears and listen .. Every dance teacher out there listens to the clave and we syncopate ourselves to it. Im sorry to inform you that you need to go back to your basics and re-learn clave. Youre teaching wrong to many, and Im forced to clean up your mess .. I responded with this, I appreciate your sentiments regardless of how misplaced they are. It sounds to me like you got your schooling from a booklet or from youtube. I congratulate you on your desire to self-educate. I also wish to congratulate you for bearing the title dance instructor on your Facebook profile - an amazing accomplishment. If the source of your knowledge that youre passing on to your students is a book or youtube, or a musicality class from another who proudly bears the title dance instructor, then the disservice you are doing to your community has only two benefits: your pockets & your ego. If you grew up with the influences of Tito Puente & Israel Cachao Lopez & Machito & Johnny Pacheco .. IF you grew up with this as YOUR schooling & education - in addition to the many hours gone & relationships lost because of your devotion to being precise in your approach to Latin music & dance from professional instructors and teachers, THEN I would gladly discuss this further with you. However, I couldnt look in the mirror unless I shed some light for you so that I feel that I at least left you some very basics to guide you in the right direction although I have a feeling you think you already know it all. Now, youre right about the text in that book featuring Tito Puente in which it is written that when he heard someone humming a melody - he had to listen to see where he wanted to place it, to see which one felt better. This is absolutely correct - and this is exactly the message in the movie. Youre arguing - making the exact same point: that the melody has no bearing on clave-syncopation - that we can put any melody to any clave pattern. Its free-floating. The key-word there is where he WANTED to place the melody. Its not written where he MUST PLACE the melody OR that the melody bears ANY clave signature at all. No, it means that the melody does NOT determine clave and that clave does not determine the melody. This is EXACTLY what I said in my movie - exactly what your students challenged you about because in my movie - I encourage dancers to politely challenge their instructors - and from what you wrote - they followed my guidance. Purely for my entertainment, Im very curious as to how you would answer this: what if my melody consists of only 2 notes over an 8-beat count - what then? Hmmmm? Are you really going to tell me that a 2-note melody has a clave syncopation???????? What if I only have a 3-note melody or a 4-note melody repeated over the 16 measures or 32 measures of the Mambo section of an arrangement???? If this question went over your head then the Mambo section that Im referring to is not the rhythm but instead a section in an arrangement where the trumpets are playing - an arrangement means song, by the way. So, answer that. Well, I can answer it for you: a 2-note melody has no clave syncopation. A 4-note melody has no clave syncopation. A 10-note melody has no clave syncopation. MELODY DOES NOT HAVE A CLAVE SYNCOPATION. The one exception to this is the rare case in which the arranger has specifically arranged a song to playfully hit on those 5 beats which is extreeeeeemely rare! But, this is perhaps 1/3,000 songs. If you watch my movie, which your students watched called Part II Re-Edited La Epoca - The Lost Rhythms in Salsa (2013), and it certainly sounds like your students have - then youll learn the actual arithmetic of how the clave is written and recorded INTO the different songs. You wrote that one has to listen to the clave in the songs where one can audibly hear the clave sticks but once again, you are completely discounting the fact that most songs today do not have an audible clave-sticks sound which requires the listener to know the one and only instrument that (a) determines the clave pattern and (b) when dancers are to charge and (c) when musicians are to play AND (d) which rhythm the song is - Mambo, Son-Montuno, Guaguanco, Guajira, Danzon, Bolero. Hint - that instrument is NOT the clave-sticks In addition to this, you think that every instructor syncopates to the clave??? Maybe the instructors who taught you what you know syncopated to what THEY wanted the clave to be, but if I had $10 for every instructor who didnt even own a pair of clave sticks or couldnt identify what they look like - Id be as rich as Bill Gates. I strongly encourage you to continue self-educating and I suggest taking my 2-hour Instructor/Performer Musicality Online Private as your first step There are too many wanna-be generals and not enough soldiers. Generals are not born overnight. Each has a history. Know your history!
Posted on: Sun, 19 Jan 2014 14:46:41 +0000