Grooves · 200 BPM · 12 beats · straight · 8 bars · very hard
The bulerías compás on cajón
Twelve beats, five accents, and the hardest compás in flamenco to hold steady.
What you play
B bass · S snare · g ghost · restHow to play it
- 1Play only the five accents , nothing in between, counting the twelve out loud until you never lose 12.
- 2Let the ghosts in underneath, still slow, quiet enough that the accents are the only thing anyone could clap to.
- 3Climb ten at a time, and drop back the moment the gap between 6 and 8 starts closing.
- 4Record about 90 seconds of The compás in headphones, then check whether the last cycle is shorter than the first.
Listen forAccents unmistakable on 3, 6, 8, 10 and 12, the bass on 12 the heaviest stroke in the cycle, and the cycle the same length at the end of the take as at the start.
start 140 · pass 200 BPM · take about 90s
Record a take
I start the backing at 140 BPM, count one bar, and stop after about 90s. Phone about a metre away, facing the front plate. Headphones, or the microphone hears the backing as you. You get my notes within a minute of sending it.
Watch out for
- • The cycle shortening as your confidence rises
- • A vague 12, which leaves nobody able to follow you
- • Ghosts loud enough to blur the uneven spacing
The twelve-beat bulerías compás for cajón: where the accents fall, why counting starts on 12, and how to hold it without speeding up.
Bulerías is twelve beats long and the accents are not evenly spaced, which is why it takes most people longer than everything else on this site put together. It is worth the trouble: it is the compás flamenco actually lives in.
The accents fall on 3, 6, 8, 10 and 12. Read that again, because it is the whole thing. Three, then three, then two, then two, then two. The unevenness is the point, and it is what makes a bulerías bar feel like it is falling forward and catching itself.
Why 12 is the strong one
Flamenco counts the cycle so that it resolves on 12 rather than starting on 1, which is why players count it aloud starting from 12. On the grid above 12 is the last column and it is the bass, the one stroke that tells everyone in the room the cycle has landed. If your 12 is vague, nobody can follow you.
The only way I know to learn it
Clap it before you touch the box. Twelve counts out loud, hands only on 3, 6, 8, 10, 12, for a full minute without stopping. Then walk around doing it. Then sit down and play it at 60%, which will feel absurdly slow for a compás that normally flies.
Speeding up is the failure mode. Bulerías rewards confidence and confidence turns into rushing, so the accents creep earlier and the cycle shortens until nobody can dance to it. Record a minute of it and look at the drift across the take, because that is exactly the thing that is invisible from where you are sitting. Exercise 5-1 teaches the 3-3-2 cell this is built out of, and it is the honest place to start.
The exercise underneath it
5-1 - Tresillo - the Latin key
The 3-3-2 rhythm underneath reggaetón, rumba, and half of Latin music.
Practise it with RafaRead about this
- The rumba pattern on cajónThe flamenco groove, built up from the 3-3-2 skeleton underneath it.
- How to practise cajón with a metronomeHow to use a click so it makes you better instead of making you miserable.
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