The clave

1.Two sticks and a rhythm

The word clave (say: KLAH-vay) means two things. It is a pair of wooden sticks that you hit together. It is also the rhythm those sticks play.

The rhythm has five hits, spread over two bars of music. That is 8 beats, the same length as one full salsa basic step. Then it repeats, again and again, for the whole song.