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.

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.

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