Clave Percussion – Music
The claves are two round sticks of hardwood. Struck together, they give a high, sharp click that cuts through the whole band. On the claves you play the clave rhythm, the pattern that Cuban music is built on.
🪵 The instrument
- Size: about 20 to 25 cm long and about 2 to 2.5 cm thick.
- Wood: traditionally hardwood such as rosewood, ebony or grenadilla. Some claves are hollowed out in the middle to make them louder. There are also claves made of fiberglass or plastic.
- Sound: high and bright, with a definite pitch. The exact sound depends on the type of wood and the finish.
⚓ Origin
The claves are an Afro-Cuban instrument. According to tradition, they come from the wooden pegs used to fasten the timbers of ships. In the Cuban shipyards they marked the rhythm of the work. From there they moved into dance music, and later into the concert orchestra.
✋ How to play them
- La hembra ("the female") rests loosely in your non-dominant hand, palm up, on the thumb and fingertips. The cupped hand works as a resonating chamber. The less skin touches the clave, the better it sounds; resting it on your fingernails makes the sound even clearer.
- El macho ("the male") is held firmly at one end, like a drumstick. With it you strike the hembra in the middle.
- Players use these names even when the two sticks are identical.
🎤 Who plays the claves?
In son and guaguancó the claves repeat the same figure: the clave rhythm. In salsa bands the singer often plays the claves while singing. In many modern bands you don't hear the claves at all, but the pattern still counts: everyone plays to it.
How the pattern itself works (son clave, rumba clave, 3-2 and 2-3) is explained on the page about the clave rhythm.