Press Play for a Latin drum beat at 100 BPM. It starts with Son Clave 3-2, and you can switch to Bossa Nova, Cha-Cha-Cha, Samba Batucada on Kit, Baiao Zabumba Groove, Bembe bell (4/4 triplets), Latin Funk Boogaloo and Cumbia. One beat lasts 600 ms.
Playing over a Latin drum beat at 100 BPM
100 BPM is at the slow end for latin. Slow tempos show every timing slip, so it is the best place to learn a new part: play it until it feels boring, then move up.
What plays at 100 BPM
Son Clave 3-2 is written at 104 BPM, so 100 BPM is its home tempo. In 4/4 at this tempo a quarter note lasts 600 ms, an eighth note 300 ms and a sixteenth 150 ms, which is the spacing of the hi-hat you hear. Switch to Bossa Nova, Cha-Cha-Cha, Samba Batucada on Kit, Baiao Zabumba Groove, Bembe bell (4/4 triplets), Latin Funk Boogaloo and Cumbia on the page and the tempo stays at 100 BPM.
How long is a phrase at 100 BPM?
Knowing how long a phrase lasts helps you plan a song, a solo or a recording take. The drums play a fill at the end of every four or eight bars, so these are the lengths you will hear.
Phrase lengths at 100 BPM
Length
Time
One bar of 4/4
2.4 seconds
Four-bar phrase
9.6 seconds
Eight-bar section
19 seconds
Three-minute song
about 75 bars
How a Latin drum beat works
Most of these grooves are organised around a repeating pattern rather than a backbeat: the clave in the Afro-Cuban grooves, the surdo and zabumba figures in the Brazilian ones, the off-beat in cumbia. Once you can hear which bar of the clave is the "three" side and which is the "two" side, your part will fit much more naturally.
How to play along
Guitarists: over bossa nova, play the thumb on the bass notes with the kick and pluck chords on the syncopated cross-stick. Pianists: keep a steady left hand and let the right hand follow the clave. Count the phrase in two-bar units, not single bars.