Understanding the Cuban montuno

A pattern that loops

In Cuba, the guajeo is a melodic ostinato, a pattern repeated endlessly, most often made of arpeggiated chords in syncopated rhythms. It appeared in the nineteenth century in changüí and son, first played on the tres, the Cuban guitar with three double strings. On the piano, it is called montuno in North America, and tumbao in Cuban timba: it is one of the most distinctive elements of salsa.

The word has another meaning. "Montuno" means "from the mountain", as in the son montuno of the Oriente countryside, and it names the final part of a son, the one where the piano repeats its syncopated pattern. That pattern is what this lesson sets going.

The pattern and the bass

Four chords go round in a loop, one per bar: C, F, G, F (I, IV, V, IV on the map). The right hand takes each chord as three notes (E, G, C for C; F, A, C for F; G, B, D for G) and splits it in two: the top two notes, then the bottom two, the middle note serving both. Count the eight eighth notes of the bar, "1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8": the top notes fall on 1, 4 and 7, the bottom ones on 2 and 5. Three strokes spaced three eighths, three eighths, then two apart: that is the pattern's syncopation.

The left hand never plays on beat one: the root arrives on the "and" of 2 (eighth 4), the fifth on 4 (eighth 7), together with the top notes. Beat one belongs to the right hand alone.

I will be honest with you: this is a simplified version of a real montuno. There is no clave written in, and the bass does not anticipate the next chord: it always stays on the chord of the bar. But the essentials are there: a syncopated pattern going round unchanged, and a bass that leaves beat one empty.

What the lesson plays

The loop goes round four times, then the piece comes to rest. Each phrase stops on F and the next one sets off again on C: the map sees no cadence there, and the loop never stops.

• A (bars 1 to 4) and A (5 to 8): the pattern as I have just described it.
• A' (bars 9 to 12): the same chords, but the pattern shifts by an eighth note, and its two halves swap places: the bottom notes fall on eighths 2, 5 and 8, the top ones on 3 and 6. Nothing falls on beat one any more, and the two hands never play together.
• A (bars 13 to 16): back to the opening pattern.
• The coda (bar 17): a held C chord, E, G, C in the right hand, two Cs an octave apart in the left. It is the only time the bass plays on beat one: to finish.

How to approach it

My plan takes you through it in 7 days. A montuno is played on a loop: the goal is for it to go round on its own, without you thinking about it.

1. The right hand alone, on C. Thumb on E, middle finger on G, little finger on C: the middle finger plays every stroke, the thumb and little finger take turns. Count the eight eighths out loud.
2. Change chord without changing place. From C to F, the thumb moves up to F, the middle finger to A, and the little finger keeps its C; from F to G, the whole hand moves up one step.
3. The bass alone. Leave beat one empty: root on eighth 4, fifth on eighth 7. Say "one" out loud so you do not lose it.
4. Hands together. In the A sections, the bass falls with the top two notes: lean on those two meeting points.
5. Bar 9, which I point out as the busiest, is where the pattern shifts: the hands interlock and never meet again. Play it on its own, very slowly, counting the eighths, then link bars 8 and 9, and 12 and 13 to get back to the opening pattern.