Clave (rhythm)

Music of Cuba
General topics
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Genres
Afro Afro-Cuban jazz Bolero (filin) Canción Chachachá Charanga Conga Contradanza (habanera) Criolla Cubatón Danzón Descarga Guajira Guaracha Hip hop Mambo Mozambique Nueva trova Pachanga Pilón Pregón Punto guajiro Rock Rumba (guaguancó, columbia, yambú, batá-rumba, guarapachangueo) Son (montuno) Songo Timba Trova
Specific forms
Religious music	Abakuá Arará Iyesá Makuta Palo Santería Yuka
Traditional music	Changüí Coros de clave Kiribá Nengón Tumba francesa
Media and performance
Music awards	Beny Moré Award
Nationalistic and patriotic songs
National anthem	La Bayamesa
Regional music
Anguilla Antigua and Barbuda Aruba and the Dutch Antilles Bahamas Barbados Bermuda Bonaire Cayman Islands Curaçao Dominica Dominican Republic Grenada Guadeloupe Guyana Haiti Jamaica Louisiana Martinique Montserrat Puerto Rico St Kitts and Nevis St Lucia St Vincent and Grenadines Suriname Trinidad and Tobago Turks and Caicos Virgin Islands

The clave is a rhythmic pattern used as a tool for temporal organization in Afro-Cuban music. It is present in a variety of genres such as Abakuá music, rumba, conga, son, mambo, salsa, songo, timba and Afro-Cuban jazz. The five-stroke clave pattern represents the structural core of many Afro-Cuban rhythms.

The clave pattern originated in sub-Saharan African music traditions, where it serves essentially the same function as it does in Cuba. In ethnomusicology, clave is also known as a key pattern,guide pattern,phrasing referent,timeline, or asymmetrical timeline. The clave pattern is also found in the African diaspora musics of Haitian Vodou drumming, Afro-Brazilian music, African American music which is known as Hambone and also found in Louisiana Voodoo drumming as well as Afro-Uruguayan music (candombe). The clave pattern (or hambone, as it is known in the United States) is used in North American popular music as a rhythmic motif or simply a form of rhythmic decoration.

Anglicized pronunciation: /ˈklɑːveɪ/ CLAH-vay

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