Things to help you get started, and to help practice new patterns, 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.
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 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
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
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.