Rhythm Basics
Things to help you get started, and to help practice new patterns/basics, skills, and breaks.
You can play along with these tracks, but you could also download them to your mp3 player, or burn them to a CD.
Click Tracks
These are tracks to play along with. Just like a metronome, they keep the beat, with a louder click every 4th beat. Some are fast, some slow.
Find the best speed to practice patterns/basics and breaks. Note that the clicks are 1/4 notes.
Click track: 60 beats per minute
Click track: 80 beats per minute
Click track: 100 beats per minute
Click track: 120 beats per minute
Click track: 140 beats per minute
Click track: 160 beats per minute
Click track: 180 beats per minute
Surdo Tracks
More tracks to play along with at various speeds. Click tracks plus a surdo. Note that the clicks are 1/8th notes.
Surdo track: 40 beats per minute
Surdo track: 50 beats per minute
Surdo track: 60 beats per minute
Surdo track: 70 beats per minute
Surdo track: 90 beats per minute
Clave Rhythms
This PDf has the son (or 2-3) clave, the Rumba clave, and the Bossa Nova clave. It has the music, but also examples you can listen to - just click on the boxes at the left of the music in the document.
Raz's percussion pad - Clave patterns (PDF 2MB)
Note that the clicks on these 2 samples are 1/16th notes.