Bongó martillo

Every exercise here grades you on finding "the one" — count 1, the downbeat that opens the phrase. New to that? The counting salsa lesson covers it first.

Martillo ("hammer") is the bongó's verse-section pattern. The player strikes every eighth note, but most strokes are quiet thumb and fingertip ghost notes. Only three strokes a bar ring out (shown larger above): a sharp slap on counts 1 and 3 (and 5 and 7), and an open tone on the bigger drum on beats 4 and 8, right before the next downbeat.

Both downbeats ringed above (count 1 and count 5) are correct answers here. Every bar of martillo sounds the same, so it can't tell you which downbeat opens the phrase; this exercise grades you on locking onto the underlying pulse, the same skill as the conga and bass tumbao exercises.