Malagueña Salsa Etude

There is music, then there are exercises to prepare us for playing music. In most cases exercises are dry, boring and tedious, but not always, and when music is written to teach a concept but also meant to be interesting, generally we use the title “etude”, from the French word “étude”.

This is an etude, and it’s based on an idea.

First, most salsa rhythms divide each measure into eight parts, where the piano plays 1 2 4 6 8: 2 4 6 8, repeat. It is generally written with all 8th notes, in this manner:

1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and: 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and, repeat.

The malagueña idea:

I started with Am G F and E7 in A minor. They are the same chords used in a malagueña.

Those chords are used over and over, but I modulate to the key of F# minor, then modulate again back to A minor. This was fun to write because I planned several weeks ago to expand a simple idea with some unexpected chord changes. My idea is to merge a kind of pop rhythm and chord structure with some of the more sophisticated chord changes from the more traditional world.

4 thoughts on “Malagueña Salsa Etude”

  1. While I’ve heard the original, this is a welcome change. It’s enough to where it sounds unique yet still tied to Malagueña. Overall great listen.

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