Salsa music is sometimes referred to as Latin jazz, Afro-Cuban or Afro-Carribean music. Played in dance clubs or performed in concerts, this is the sound of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Colombia, Venezuela and New York. This is Cuba’s musical legacy that rose from its street culture, which shaped the country’s popular music throughout the past several decades.

Literally meaning “sauce” in the Spanish language, salsa is the type of music requiring the perfect amount of essential ingredients. To its enthusiasts, the spicier, the better.

The music starts with a clave rhythm, which commonly is eight beats long and has a 2-3 or 3-2 pattern. This serves as the heartbeat of this genre. The clave should be learned, applied and felt in order to play or dance this colorful and spicy music. Other ingredients in the salsa music recipe are montuno, tumbao and guaganco, among others. These are ostinattos, or patterns, played by the piano, bass, strings and horns all throughout or in certain parts of the song.

This Cuban original music has landed in different parts of the world years ago. Later on, its powerful tunes influenced its various destinations and vice-versa. This Latin music has evolved as it toured several countries. While it is one of the most famous genres today, it is, at the same time, one of the most specialized, since a certain level of musicality and skills is needed for it to be played, sung or danced. Once it is learned and owned, endless jamming and dancing fill the place with the distinctive energy that characterizes Latin culture.

Dance clubs around the world use salsa music frequently. The ballroom dancing boom worldwide only added to the demand for this Latin beat. Salsa clubs and Latin dance federations have grown in number internationally. Schools and universities in all continents of the world started to have dance and music organizations dedicated to teaching the fundamentals of the genre to the extent of flying in bands and instrumentalists from Cuba and Puerto Rico.

The heat of salsa became unstoppable like wildfire and influenced other genres, even classic jazz. Jazz performers and composers started to utilize Latin music in their pieces, either in a certain part of a song or for a featured solo section. The great Dizzy Gillespie, for example, did this in “A Night in Tunisia,” an ingenious mix of Latin and jazz standard.

Other genres influenced by its contagious rhythm are disco, funk, pop and even one of its roots, African music.

Salsa bands use a smorgasbord of percussion instruments including the clave, guiro, maracas, bongos, timbales, conga drums and many others. Their rhythm section is usually a party of bass, piano, guitar, strings or horns, a chorus and a lead vocalist. In some groups, they use a special type of guitar, either a tres or a quarto, a guitar that has three or four strings only.

The next time you listen to these bands, listen very well and you will hear them infuse other music styles into their salsa tunes. Other genres you may hear within a salsa piece are cha-cha-cha, bolero, guaganco, Cuban son montuno, Puerto Rican bomba and plena, and Dominican merengue.

If you are a fan of salsa or Latin music, you would love favorites like “Che Che Cole” (Willie Colon and Hector Lavoe), “Hechicera” (Oscar D’ Leon), “Congo bongo” (Larry Harlow) and “El rey del mambo” (Tito Puente), among others. If you would like to try listening to this genre for the first time, some recommended tunes for you would be “No Sabes Como Duele” (Marc Anthony), “Campina” (Afro Cuban All Stars), “Juliana” (Coco Valoy) and “Melao de Cana” (Oscar D’Leon).

Belly dancing has been popularized over the years as a joyful womans art, and why not, after all it has all the essential ingredients that make it worthy to be cherished at moments of joy or woe. Now days belly dancing is not only practiced by female dancers, even male dancers all over have taken a deep interest in this form of art. This dance form was made popular by the Arabs, who called it raqs sharqi (oriental dance). With the passage of time, Belly dance has witnessed several alterations in its form, style, and costume and the same goes for its music.

When it comes to Belly dance music, its those grooving beats with their upbeat motions that imparts this dance form its true beauty. The graceful movement of each part of the body with a flickering pulsation of the hips and the hypnotic music forms the awe-inspiring sight to behold.

Belly dance music is always associated with Middle Eastern Music. Improvisation of this genre has taken place with the introduction of various instruments, each of which has their own specialty. Nonetheless, Belly dance music has to be such that it creates an electrifying and stimulating atmosphere and helps to ignite the fire both within the dancers and the audiences. The traditional Middle Eastern music instruments like tabl beledi, nakara, and a wide assortment of Eastern frame drums multiplies the real flavor of Belly dance.

Along with different fusions of belly dance, the music has also fused with different forms and styles of music. The contemporary form of belly dancing has been popularized by Shakira, the Latin America rock star. She brings forth a beautiful blend of Belly dancing along with Latino as well as other modern dance forms. Suhaila Salimpour, (world renowned dancer, performer, and choreographer) has also stepped up in revolutionizing belly dance music with her online belly dance mp3 store that features very modern and very classic styles of bellydance music.

One of the most challenging humps to get over for many beginning salsa dancers is to learn to recognize the first beat of the music and actually count the music properly to keep on the correct salsa timing . Yet, rhythms are often innate in us. Just like we can become aware of our heart beat, we can become to be able to recognize the salsa rhythm.

However, just like it is actually much harder to count your pulse, learning to count and understand the direction of the salsa music is much harder. But with proper guidance counting salsa timing will become easy as well. Here is how to do it.

Tip # 1 Listen To The Cow Bell To Find The Salsa Rhythm

The salsa rhythm goes quick, quick, slow, quick, quick, slow. The first step to learning timing is to make sure that you can recognize the rhythm. After you recognize the rhythm, half of your job is already done. One of the easiest ways to recognize the salsa rhythm is to try to find the cow bell in the music. The cow bell plays on the core beats of 1,3,5,7, loops over and repeats 1,3,5… and so on. Not all songs have the cow bell included, but many traditional salsa songs does and this can help you find the rhythm.

Tip # 2 Listen To The Montuno Rhythm To Find The First Beat Of The Music

In salsa there is a rhythm called Montuno that is often played with piano. If a particular salsa song is playing the montuno rhythm, recognizing it is one of the easiest ways to finding the first beat of the music. The reason for this is that unlike the cow bell, for example, the piano montuno rhythm is played over eight beats rather than just four. In other words, when you listen to the cow bell, you can find the rhythm, but you might easily mistaken the first beat of the music to be the fifth and vice versa. Piano montuno rhythm however can go something like this, 1, and, 2,3, and, 4, 6,7,8, and, 1 and so on. Obviously, this is harder to understand conceptually and it would be much better if I could actually play this salsa timing for you so that you could hear the difference. But nevertheless, this is one of the easiest ways to find the first beat to the music.

Tip # 3 Listen To The Vocals

In salsa music, like in many other types of music as well, it is often customary for the vocals to start on the first beat of the music as well. This is another concept that can help you learn to recognize the first beat of the music. So the next time you are listening to salsa songs, rather than pay attention to the instruments, if the song has a vocalist(s), pay attention when they begin and try to see how that correlates with the rhythm of the music. Chances are they start on the first beat and if so, you have found the one.

Tip # 4 If All Else Fails, Buy A Salsa Timing CD

Salsa timing CD is a great way to help you find the first beat of the music. What makes salsa timing so challenging is that there are many inter laying rhythms and not one easy beat to follow. What can be extremely helpful is to listen to a song with a voice over of someone who keeps you on count. This way, you can constantly monitor how you understand the timing and compare your counting to someone who is keeping you on track. By listening on a salsa timing cd at home you can take your time to develop your understanding and reflect how the counting reflects the rhythms.

Tip # 5 Keep At It

It is very easy to get frustrated if you don’t quite get a grasp of the rhythms and salsa timing right away. But don’t get discouraged. When I started, it took me months just to be able to hear the rhythm. I am probably one of the most ungifted children musically, yet, it has been my determination and perseverance that has made me one of the experts in salsa musicality. So keep at it and your ear will soon be able to detect even the subtlest of salsa rhythms and you will be able to recognize the first beat of them music with ease.