Matt Jenson has been playing in Salsa and Latin Jazz based bands for some 12 years now and teaching this Latin piano lab (at Berklee College of Music and at other locations) for 7 years. In this class Matt clears the clouds away with a very concise and understandable description of how Salsa-based Latin music works with a focus on Salsa and Cha Cha Cha styles. You will learn how to play a montuno in both 2-3 and 3-2 clave directions. Playing montunos is a physically demanding activity that can lead to serious hand injuries. Matt will give you technique tips to help avoid this. You will learn what rhythms to listen for in the percussion section that determine how your montuno will properly fall. You’ll even learn a basic Salsa and Cha Cha Cha dance step which is essential to understanding how to play this music properly.  And finally we’ll touch on some ideas and techniques for soloing in a descarga (jam session).

As a non-Latino Matt didn’t grow up having a pair of maracca’s, or clave’s or a set of conga’s etc., placed in his hands at the family barbeque where EVERYONE was jamming and dancing. For many of us, learning to play Latin music was not presented in such an organic atmosphere where you absorbed it like water through the skin.  For us, at times it’s been like walking into an impossible maze where the first beat of the bar is nowhere to be found and trying to play a properly syncopated montuno for more than 4 measures is like trying to ride the most crazed rodeo bull on the planet. Because Matt had to break this music down to its elements he can explain it clearly and has documented his path of understanding in an informal booklet that you will study from and keep.