The pattern
126 BPM · 12/8 · 12 step
| Instrument | Beat 1 | Step 2 | Step 3 | Beat 2 | Step 5 | Step 6 | Beat 3 | Step 8 | Step 9 | Beat 4 | Step 11 | Step 12 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kick | hit | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest |
| Tambourine | hit | hit | hit | hit | hit | hit | hit | hit | hit | hit | hit | hit |
| Clave | hit | rest | hit | hit | rest | hit | hit | rest | hit | hit | rest | hit |
| Low conga | hit | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest | hit | rest | rest | rest | rest | rest |
How to play it and where it comes from
Southern Italian tarantella (Naples, Campania; tarantellas and tammurriatas) in 6/8: here one bar of 12/8 equals two bars of 6/8, eighth-note grid, BPM referring to the dotted quarter (indicative value, tarantellas run from about 100 to over 160). The tambourine plays all the eighths with an accent on the first of each group of three; the kick lane marks the low hits (skin at the center) on every dotted pulse, the clave lane the castanets/nacchere ("ta, ta-ta") and the low conga the deep hit at the start of each 6/8. The tammurriata is slower and in a binary 2/4 (not this grid). Variants: final accelerando, stop with a single hit, guitar and mandolin in repeated eighths.