I am developing an interesting class in claves, the little sticks that keep the rhythem in salsa music. The word clave in Spanish means "key." Interestingly one of the first keyboards used in classical music was the clavichord, and there is the clavinet that was my main keyboard!
The sticks are called claves, and the pattern that is played with them is called "the clave."
In addition to teaching the pattern, and how it helps musical phrasing, I want to share my "vision" of how this can be a fun, inexpensive and spiritual music education project!
Regular drum sticks that drummers use in "trap drums," the common drum sets we see, well after a while they get a little beat up so the drummer throws them away. Sticks he has sent his vibration into eager people's ears with...
One can take an old drum stick, saw it in half, sand it down and get 2 little claves out of it!
Regular claves can be so loud as to be annoying. These little guys won't make the neighbors shoot cannons into your house. They are... petite! he he..
A cool thing is that only if one palms the clave correctly, as in the picture above, do they get any tone. Usually it is rested on the palmed hand, for a more quick percussive sound it can be held tighter. The good thing about this is that if someone doesn't know what they are doing they will be even quieter! Yay!
What makes this a fun vision for me is this:
Music budgets are at an all time low, agreed? There is no money for instruments!
Here is the grand scheme: Youth in music class, and also disabled youth, can get used drum sticks from musicians that they admire, in a sense "warmed up" sticks that have been used in performances, then they can make these little clavitas out of them, almost a spiritual transference of music / entertainment energy!
They won't cost any money, and my motivation is not making a million dollars selling pop music, but the idea of being able to see the joy in a disabled kids face as he plays his little instruments, and he will understand the important clave percussion function too so he might be a worthy musician to play with!
