The band labs can dress one chord progression in many styles. This guide explains what each style is, the rhythms underneath it, and who plays what — with a button on everything so you can hear it.
One progression, many grooves
Harmony — the chords — is only half of music. The other half is groove: the rhythm, the instruments, and the feel. The very same four chords can become salsa, funk, rock or jazz purely by changing the groove. Nothing about the harmony moves; everything about the character does.
A groove is built from a few jobs done at once: something keeps time, something holds down the low end, something plays the chords rhythmically, and something drives the pulse. Below is each job, the instruments that do it, and the rhythms they play.
Hear it all together
The backing band plays your chords in seven styles.
In Afro-Cuban music almost everything answers to the clave: a two-bar rhythmic key. Two wooden sticks tap five strokes spread across two bars, and every other instrument lines up to it. Get the clave right and the groove locks; fight it and it falls apart.
There are two common claves — son (smoother) and rumba (one stroke pushed later) — and each faces two directions depending on which half starts: the busy 3-side or the sparse 2-side.
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The clave is felt over two bars, not one. That long cycle is why Latin grooves feel like they breathe across a longer span than rock or pop.
A salsa rhythm section is a small orchestra of percussion, each with one job. Tap any to hear its part on its own.
Claves
The two sticks that state the clave itself — the timekeeper everyone follows.
Bongos — the martillo
A steady “hammer” of eighth notes, a low tone on the strong beats and high taps between, with the odd accent.
Congas — the tumbao
Open tones ring on the off-beats, a slap on beat two, muted heel-tones keeping the pulse underneath.
Timbales — cascara
The bright “shell” pattern struck on the side of the drum, keeping busy time; fills and rolls punctuate the phrase.
Cowbell
Flat quarter-note strokes — right on the beat — that anchor the whole band in faster sections.
Güiro
A scraped gourd marking the off-beats, adding a dry shuffle of texture between the hits.
The drum kit
Outside Latin music the kit does the timekeeping. Four voices cover most of it: the kick (low pulse, often with the bass), the snare (the backbeat on 2 and 4), the hi-hat (steady subdivisions), and the ride (a shimmering pulse used in jazz). The same kit plays completely different patterns per style.
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The backbeat — snare on beats 2 and 4 — is the spine of rock, funk and pop. Reggae breaks the rule: its “one drop” leaves beat 1 empty and lands kick and snare together on beat 3.
The piano’s job
The piano rarely just holds chords down — it plays them rhythmically, and the rhythm is what marks the style. All four examples below are the same C chord; only the rhythm and voicing change.
Montuno (salsa & cha-cha)
An interlocking arpeggio that cycles the chord tones in a syncopated, clave-locked loop.
Comping (jazz)
Sparse, syncopated “shell” voicings — just the third and seventh — punched between the beats.
Stabs (funk)
Short, tight, off-beat chord hits that lock with the drums and leave space.
Skank (reggae)
A clipped chord chopped on every off-beat — the “chk” that defines the reggae feel.
The bass’s job
The bass joins the harmony to the rhythm: it spells the chord from the bottom while locking to the drums. Each style has its own approach — all over the same C below.
Walking (jazz)
One smooth note per beat, stepping through the chord and into the next.
Funk
Syncopated sixteenths full of space, with chromatic notes sliding into targets.
Tumbao (salsa)
The anticipated bass — it dodges beat 1 and pushes the chord early, on the “and” of 2 and beat 4.
Reggae
Heavy and spacious, built around beat one with big rests between notes.
Motown
Busy, melodic eighth-notes — a tune in its own right under the chords.
Rock
Root-heavy and simple — mostly roots and fifths, locked to the kick.
Generate your own
Build a bass line in any of these styles and export it.