Am I dancing in time?

September 20, 2005

Because of a conversation I had been listening in on dancing in time to salsa, I started asking myself, "Do I really know how to recognize beat 1? Maybe I should get one of those timing CDs?"

Then I decided to see if there was a cheaper (free) option on the web and found one.

I listened and muttered, "I'm confused. I don't understand their vocal instruction with just Conga." I had read about Clave and Conga but I never tried to break it down; I was told by Sergio to listen to all instruments to figure out the timing rather than try to lock on to one instrument. I ended up listening to the track with all instruments to see how I would count 1,2,3,5,6,7 in relations to Conga and then went back to the track with Conga and voice only to see if I was on time.

Yes, I'm on time! I'm so relieved! Of course, it's possible that the manufacturer of the CD is a fraud…