page_title: Salsa music
section_title: Guajeo
hierarchical_section_title: Salsa music / Music structure / Guajeo
caption_attribution_description: English: clave motif 2-3 piano guajeo
context_page_description: Salsa music is a popular dance music genre that initially arose in New York City during the 1960s. Salsa is the product of various Cuban musical genres including the Afro-Cuban son montuno, guaracha, cha cha chá, mambo, and Puerto Rican plena and bomba. Latin jazz has had a significant influence on salsa arrangers, piano guajeos, and instrumental soloists.
  Salsa is primarily Cuban son, itself a fusion of Spanish canción and guitar and Afro-Cuban percussion, Salsa also occasionally incorporates elements of Latin jazz, bomba and plena. All of these non-Cuban elements are grafted onto the basic Cuban son montuno template when performed within the context of salsa.
  The first salsa bands were predominantly Cubans and Puerto Ricans. The music eventually spread throughout Colombia and the rest of the Americas. Ultimately, it became a global phenomenon. Some of the founding salsa artists were Johnny Pacheco, Celia Cruz, Rubén Blades, Richie Ray, Bobby Cruz, Ray Barretto, Willie Colón, Larry Harlow, Roberto Roena, Bobby Valentín, Eddie Palmieri, and Héctor Lavoe.
context_section_description: A guajeo is a typical Cuban ostinato melody, most often consisting of arpeggiated chords in syncopated patterns. Guajeos are a seamless blend of European harmonic and African rhythmic structures. A piano guajeo may be played during the verse section of a song, but it is at the center of the montuno section. That is why some salsa musicians refer to piano guajeos as montunos. Piano guajeos are one of the most recognizable elements in salsa music. As Sonny Bravo explains: "In salsa, the piano is more of a percussion instrument than a melodic one, especially in ensemble playing. When you're backing a soloist, you play a riff over and over again. This is what we call guajeo. The pianist uses this guajeo to provide the rhythm section with its drive."
  Clave and guajeos are commonly written in two measures of cut time () in salsa charts. This is most likely an influence of jazz conventions.
  Most guajeos have a binary structure that expresses clave. Kevin Moore states: "There are two common ways that the three-side is expressed in Cuban popular music. The first to come into regular use, which David Peñalosa calls 'clave motif,' is based on the decorated version of the three-side of the clave rhythm." The following guajeo example is based on a clave motif. The three-side (first measure) consists of the tresillo variant known as cinquillo.
  A chord progression can begin on either side of clave. In salsa "one" can be on either side of clave, because the harmonic progression, rather than the rhythmic progression is the primary referent. When a chord progression begins on the two-side of clave, the music is said to be in two-three clave. The following guajeo is based on the clave motif in a two-three sequence. The cinquillo rhythm is now in the second measure.
  Moore: "By the 1940s [there was] a trend toward the use of what Peñalosa calls the 'offbeat/onbeat motif.' Today, the offbeat/onbeat motif method is much more common." With this type of guajeo motif, the three-side of clave is expressed with all offbeats. The following I IV V IV progression is in a three-two clave sequence. It begins with an offbeat pick-up on the pulse immediately before beat 1. With some guajeos, offbeats at the end of the two-side, or onbeats at the end of the three-side serve as pick-ups leading into the next measure (when clave is written in two measures).
  This guajeo is in two-three clave because it begins on the downbeat, emphasizing the onbeat quality of the two-side. The figure has the same exact harmonic sequence as the previous example, but rhythmically, the attack-point sequence of the two measures is reversed. Most salsa is in two-three clave, and most salsa piano guajeos are based on the two-three onbeat/offbeat motif.
  When salsa uses non-Cuban rhythms, such as a Puerto Rican plena, guajeos are essential to tie that genre in with the salsa format. The expression of the 2-3 onbeat/offbeat motif is more abstract in this guajeo than in others previous mentioned. The offbeat and onbeat pick ups begin at their extreme limit in the preceding measures. The third measure outlines a G7 chord. The other measures outline C.
caption: 2-3 piano guajeo: clave motif (About this soundPlay (help·info))
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