Salsa Rhythm for Android is finally here! Announced today, the first beta version will be distributed to 50 selected users for evaluating and collecting feedback.

This journey has began back in January 2010, when the first line of the source code was written. Back then, the iPhone platform was more popular than Android by far, so we have put our efforts in completing the iPhone version first. Today, nearly 2 years after the first seed, this source code has grown into a fully functional Salsa Rhythm application.

The new application will be tested in the following month, and then will be released to the Android Market, after making some changes and adjustments, based on the community feedback.

Interested? Find additional screen shots and information on our community google group, where you can follow development of the beta version, discuss it and help us make it better:

• Salsa Beat Machine community on Google Groups

A new year is coming, and what’s the best way to celebrate? Salsa, of course!

We have put together a compilation of New Year and Christmas Salsa music you can listen free from youtube, also several Salsa CDs you can get from Amazon. So let the fun begin!

Timing Videos

We have created several Salsa Rhythm & Timing videos for New Year songs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R94dIWlRfgg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZnhwjzMoQE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gPN1PTmfos

Click here for the complete blog post about these songs, including lyrics, explanations and much more useful information!

Christmas Salsa Collections

For those of you who prefer purchasing CDs/Salsa Collections, here are recommended Christmas Salsa collections on Amazon, all are available for 10$USD or less. A great Christmas gift for yourself or friends who dance:

Feliz Navidad
Hector Lavoe, Yomo Toro & Daniel Santos

Asi Es Nuestra Navidad
Gilberto Santa Rosa & El Gran Combo

Ponle Salsa A Tu Navidad
Orquesta Tabaco Y Ron

Additional songs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-mW5W2208o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAlbC7yapD4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z98u89uuCAg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U74KyqOSYME

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7-nzPFJZ-k

What’s your favorite new year Salsa song? Leave a comment & let us know!

While listening to a variety of songs and musical styles is essential for developing your musicality, many dancers don’t know where to find new sources of Salsa music. One of the easiest ways to discover new songs is by listening to an online Salsa radio station. For example, you could listen to the broadcast while working or doing your homework. When you hear a new tune that you like, you just write down the name and the name of the artist, and later obtain that track.

So where to start? We have collected a few links to quality online Salsa radio stations, run by professional Salsa DJs who also play in parties. Some of these radio stations also have live shows:

Radio Candela

The first station is the new kid in town. Launched just a few months ago, run by DJ Nrike from Stockholm, Sweden (and originally from Cuba), the Radio Candela station plays a hot mixture of Salsa, Reggeaton, Bachata and other latin music styles.

• Click to listen to Radio Candela

Salsa Picante

Hosted on Live365, this station has more than 5 years of broadcasting in its record. This station mainly plays new songs and is a great channel for discovery of recent releases. In the station’s web page you will find links to additional Salsa stations hosted on Live365, as well as and option for free listening:

• Salsa Picante on Live365

Note: Live365 also offer a VIP package, free of advertisements, with desktop software & mobile application so you can listen on-the-go. If you want additional details, Click Here for 25% off the regular price.

Radio La Zeta

Based in Bogotá, radio La Zeta broadcasts Salsa music 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This station plays music most of the time, but they have occasional talk shows too, which can be very interesting if you are a Spanish speaker. This radio is broadcasted over the air in the area of Bogota, Colombia, but there is also a link for listening to the broadcast online:

• Listen to La Zeta radio online

Do you know any additional quality Salsa radio not listed here? Write a comment below and we will review it and add it to the list.

We wish you best time listening to your favorite Salsa music online, free!

We asked our facebook users which style of Salsa they love to dance. While Cuban Salsa took the lead, we could also see the Mambo style just a little behind, leaving the L.A. style and the Romantic Salsa genre far behind. The most surprising finding is that nobody chose the “Mixed” option – it seems like every dancer got his preferred style, and there is nobody who prefers just a little bit of everything.

To make the survey more interesting, we gave the dancers to add their own answer. While we spotted many non-salsa styles in the  answer list, such as Cha Cha and Tango Argentino, it seems like Bachata is the most popular foreign style amongst Salsa dancers. However, Merengue, the other genre from the Dominican Republic, was not mentioned even once!

Here are the complete results of the survey, with just over 180 participants:

Which is your preferred style? Let us know in the comments section below…

We occasionally give a bonus to our mailing list members and twitter followers. One of the bonuses that we give from time to time is a code to download a free copy of the Salsa Rhythm application to your iOS devices (or your best friend’s device, if you already have our app!).

Since we have been getting a lot of questions about how to redeem these codes, here is a short tutorial that explains how to do it in 3 simple steps directly from your iPhone/iPod/iPad device.

Step 1: Lunch the AppStore application

Simply tap the “AppStore” icon from your home screen:

Step 2: Tap the Redeem button

You will find the Redeem button under the “Featured” tab. Go into the “New” section and scroll all the way down. You will find the “Redeem” button there, just tap on it:

Step 3: Enter the code and redeem your app

Enter the promo codes in the “Redeem” window. When you finish, tap the “Redeem” button on the top-right corner of the screen:

Congratulations, you have just won a free copy of the Salsa Rhythm app for your iPhone!

If you like the app, please find a minute to rate us in the appstore. You can rate us by tapping the info (“i”) icon on the main screen of the app, then the “Rate Salsa Rhythm on the Appstore” button. Thank you!

We are excited to announce the new Salsa Beat Machine Widget. This brand new version allows Salsa studios, dance teachers, music professors and professionals to put the Salsa Beat Machine directly in their web sites. Imagine offering all the great functionality of the Salsa Beat Machine to your visitors directly from your website, having them experiment with Salsa music and different rhythm patterns directly from within your webpages. Well, now it is possible.

Some websites are already using the Salsa Beat Machine widget in their pages, and we have several outstanding requests from others. You can see it live in the following pages:

• Latin Dance Factory
• Studio 6

Live Demo

Get it now

Inserting the Salsa Beat Machine widget to your webpage is as easy as pasting 2 lines of HTML code into your website. We can also provide detailed, step-by-step instructions for users of the WordPress publishing system (using a custom plugin).

We give a free usage license for the Salsa Beat Machine widget to all users who donate $20 USD or more. All donors also get their personal copy of the Salsa Rhythm Software for running on their PCs.
Upon completing your donation, just drop us a word to beatmachine@salsa4fun.co.il and let us know that you are interested in using the Salsa Beat Machine widget in your website. We will create a license key for you and send you the HTML codes for embedding the widget.

• Donate to the Salsa Beat Machine project

Other licensing options are also available, including custom branding and special/extended functionality version. For non-standard licensing, you will need a custom widget contract. Please contact us to for a quote.

We would love to get your feedback on the new widget and hope many web masters will find it useful.

Our most recent Salsa Timing Video featured a Timba song. Timba is a genre of music from Cuban origin, sometimes referred to as “Cuban Salsa”.

The song we chose was “El Repartero De La Habana”, performed by Sama Y El Expreso De Oriente. You can watch the video here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-MuJHX75f0

Today we bring you a documentary program about the Timba in cuba, or more specifically – “Team Cuba”. Team Cuba was formed back in 1998 by the 7 most popular bands at that time, with the mission of spreading the Cuban Timba and sharing it with the rest of the world. The following video tells their story, featuring live concert clips with many famous Timba bands, an interviews with influencers in the Timba music, including Juan Formell (“Los Van Van”), Issac Delgado, amongst many others.

Despite the quality of the recording, the story itself fascinating for anyone interested in Latin music and Cuban Timba. Watch the video and learn what Timba is directly from the makers of this high-energy dance music:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OX6z-TDhWaI

Many thanks to Michael “Che” and for TimbreMayor for sharing this great resource with us. What do you feel about Timba? Would you consider Timba as a part of Salsa or as a distinct genre? Share your thoughts with us in the comments section below!

We have just added 3 new Piano patterns, contributed by Tyrone Collis from Germany. While at it, we also added a new Bass pattern that matches the existing I-IV-V-IV piano pattern, suggested by the trumpet player Pete Nater from New York. Finally, we added some new percussion patterns contributed by Jürgen Messerer from Switzerland. Jürgen is currently working on creating additional bongo patterns for us, so expect another update soon.

Here is the list of the new Salsa music patterns:

Piano

• Montuno I-V-V-I + Passing Tones
• Montuno i-V-V-i (minor)
• Montuno V-V-I-I

Bass

The new bass pattern is called “Tumbao I-IV-V-IV”. It matches the first two piano patterns, “Montuno I-IV-V-IV” and “Montuno I-IV-V-IV + arpg. + passtone”, as well as the minor variation “Montuno i-iv-V-iv” and the ‘light’ variation “Montuno I-IV-V-IV Triads”.

Percussion

• Bongos – Martillo Var1
• Bongos – Martillo Var2
• Bongos – Martillo para clave
• Cowbell – Every Beat
• Güiro – Güiro Danzón
• Maracas – Maracas Son
• Maracas – Maracas Son Montuno
• Maracas – Maracas Son Montuno 2

iPhone version updated

Yesterday we also released a new version of Salsa Rhythm for iPhone. The Salsa Rhythm application version 1.7 now includes all the new patterns mentioned above, along with a new Rhythm & Timing videos page providing direct access to our online Salsa Rhythm & Timing video collection.

Salsa Rhythm app on the iTunes AppStore

Downloadable version

All registered members can download an updated version with all the new patterns. To download the new version, please follow this link: http://www.salsabeatmachine.org/download.html.

If you want to become a registered member, you may consider donating to support the project.

Eddie Palmieri, a famous Latin Pianist

I asked some of our users to tell us their personal story, how did Salsa change their life. In this article, I am going to share with you some of the more interesting answers that I got.

Alex Schamenek from Texas gave us the following answer:

• I stopped watching TV so much.
• I have a real social life with actual friends.
• I have a confidence I never thought I would have.
• I know more about what it means to be a real leader.
• I learned more about women in 2 years of dancing with them than in 20 years of trying to date them. (I’ve been dancing for over 7 years now.)
• My attitude about women and life in general has flipped on it’s head.
• I used to want to be wrapped around a cute girl’s pinky. Now I know that she wants me to be a good leader.

I could go on but basically I would be a sorry person without salsa.
Thanks to my cousin Dan for introducing it to me.

“I was out dancing Salsa in Mannheim Germany (I am an Ex-pat brit) about 11 months ago. I met my Turkish girlfriend who was there visiting to improve her German for two months. We dated nearly everyday, 3 months after that first Salsa night I moved to Istanbul and we have been living together here for 9 months together. We are planning on getting married early in 2012. If that isn’t a life changer then I don’t know what is ”

Photo by Rain Ader

Getting Started

Do you want Salsa to change your life too? Start right now. It’s a long process you have to undergo, but the end result is well-worth the effort.

In the following weeks, we are going to publish several articles with Tip and Tricks how to get started with making the change. Even if you already dance Salsa, we are going to share with you some techniques that will make your Salsa dancing more social, more professional, and above all – more fun.

If you haven’t done so, please join to our mailing-list, by clicking the following link:

Join our mailing list now!

You will receive a letter from us twice a week, with information how to improve your dance and timing techniques.

Share Your Own Story

How did your life change with Salsa? Post your story in the comments section below, and share it with our readers. We are going to give a free copy of the Salsa Rhythm Software to the dancer with the most exciting story!

Getting back from a two-month vacation in South America, it’s the time for a new Salsa Timing Video. This time, Tito Puente, “The Mambo King”, with a great Mambo song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpcz9peCYgg

As you can see, this video is “On-2″ (New York Style). After releasing our first On-2 video, “La Llave”, we received a lot of positive feedback, so we decided to create another one. This video also features an illustration of the Timbales patterns. You can find an explanation about these patterns in our blog post “The key to dancing Salsa On-2″:

http://www.salsabeatmachine.org/blog/2011/01/the-key-to-dancing-salsa-on-2/

While Tito Puente is recognized as a world-class Timbales player, and some even believe he is the best Timbales player of all times, it’s less known that he also played the Vibraphone and the Marimba. In this song, Hong Kong Mambo, you can hear his talent playing the Marimba. The marimba has a key role in the piece, playing the melody.

A few things to notice about the congas:

1. It’s easy to notice the Slap sound of the conga drums, look for it whenever the instructor says “2″ or “6″. The first slap is at 00:07.
2. At 03:15, the Congas improvise for 2-phrases, which can be clearly heard.