Composing Salsa Music

Hello fellow composers.

I was wondering if anyone know or has any idea how to start composing Salsa music.

To me it seems that the percussion parts are the most difficult, but so is the bass and guitar marimba etc. ok everything lol

is there like a chord structure of some sort? or what?

im stumped.

please give me answers.

First: Read this Wikipedia article: Salsa music - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Second: Listen to lots of salsa, to get a handle on the various idioms used. This is the most important part, as it's how you go about learning to write in any genre.

Originally Posted by GoldenPianist

Hello fellow composers.

I was wondering if anyone know or has any idea how to start composing Salsa music.

To me it seems that the percussion parts are the most difficult, but so is the bass and guitar marimba etc. ok everything lol

is there like a chord structure of some sort? or what?

im stumped.

please give me answers.

Yes, doing lots of listening will always help. But then you must know how to listen and what you are listening for. The Salsa link that nhomas provided will be useful.

Not only will you want to pay attention to the clave, but also to how the other percussion parts are reacting and the bass line as well.

Try choosing a few songs to listen to that have less complicated rhythmic parts for a basica understanding. Because understanding the rhythm will be key.

Here is a few links to some Celia Cruz songs. If you don't know she was a famous Salsa singer from Cuba (called the Queen of Salsa). These are too complicated.

YouTube - Celia Cruz - Guantanamera con la Fania
YouTube - Celia Cruz and The Fania All Stars Quimabra
YouTube - Celia Cruz - La Vida Es Un Carnaval

Remeber that the drumming and rhythms of all Caribbean is of African origin. So if you can wrap your understanding around that concept it will help and you won't end up just choosing "drum sounds" and throwing rhythms around.

For one thing. Writing in a minor key does help to facilitate the "salsa" sound.

Hope this helps.

I wrote my reply late last night and I forgot to mention one other thing.
Althought the Clave concept is very important in Salsa, the clave itself is not always present in Salsa music. As you listen to more Salsa you will pick this up.