Mi Bajo Y Yo is a salsa piece played by Oscar d’Leon’s (bandleader) band. This example is about 30 seconds long. Within that 30 seconds, there are a few changes that are noticeable when carefully listened.
This piece is played in duple meter system throughout the length of this example. The tempo of this piece is fairly fast which might be created by the syncopated poly rhythmic patterns that is present throughout the piece. In the beginning of this example, there are about four to five different layers that are heard. The most noticeable timbre is the trumpet that is played when the piece starts off. The second one that is heard clearly is the percussion instruments such as Claves, Guiro, and Conga Drums. We can also hear trombones, but not as clear as the other instruments.
We only hear the instruments playing from the section 0:00-0:14. There is an instant dynamic changes when the voice comes in to take over and start the melody line at 0:18 and on. The instruments cut off and play as the accompaniment instruments there on. Syncopated rhythmic pattern underneath the voice or the melody line does not change when the instruments like trumpets and trombones drop out.
Pueto Rican musicians’ concept of ritmo which means rhythms refers to the poly rhythmic patterns. This piece shows the very strong characteristic of Pueto Rican’s concept of rhythm throughout the example which is demonstrated by the Clave’s rhythm part. Clave plays [Quarter note, eighth rest, eighth note, quarter rest, and quarter] and [quarter rest, quarter note, quarter note, then quarter rest]. These two rhythmic patterns are repeated throughout the whole example which makes the listeners to feel the forward movement of this piece. Each of layers has its own syncopated rhythms within it. However, Guiro, a percussion instrument, has the simple rhythmic line which works almost as the time keeper of this piece. It plays [quarter note, eighth note, eighth note, quarter note, eighth note, and eighth note] and this rhythmic pattern of Guiro is played throughout the example. This is not heard very strongly or clearly, but is playing underneath all the other instruments.
There is an absences of call and response format in this piece, but the brass instruments almost sound as the second voice or the melody line. Before the voice becomes the melody line of the piece, a lot of audiences could possibly think that brass instruments are the melody line of this piece. That could possibly be determined by the volume of the brass instruments. There are percussion instruments playing, but the volume of the Trumpets are a lot louder and the audiences who were raised in the Western musical culture might think that as the melody line.
The dynamic of this piece gradually increase until we hear the voice for the first time at 0:13. When the singer actually starts to sing at 0:19, the brass instruments drop out. The dynamic hear is completely different from the beginning of the piece.
The melody line or the voice line has the descending contour motion. The range of the melody line is fairly narrow with an outlier note which is only heard at 0:13. This note sound almost like a cheer shout then the note to sing. The melody line has also the two meters phrasing style as the other instrument parts.
Mi Bajo Y Yo is a great example to use for the salsa lesson since it has the poly rhythmic patterns that is shown in many other salsa music. The length of this example was a bit short which might seem like it does not have a lot of movements going on, but this piece contains many different movements that are found in many salsa pieces, and will help the students to focus harder since the piece is very short.
Charlie's World Music Pedagogy 