Playlist for Cuban Salsa Training

5Los Van Van, “Havana City”
4La Nueva Era, “La Flor”
2Orishas, “El Kilo”
1Havana D’Primera, “Pastilla de Menta”

Los Van Van, “Havana City”

1999. ~155 BPM. 4m52s

Easy going, no surprises or distractions. Excellent for training new figures. etc.

La Nueva Era, “La Flor”

2023. ~156 BPM. 6m52s.

This has for quite some time been my favorite slow music for practicing Cuban Salsa. Many of the dance videos I have uploaded use this song. Somehow it makes me dance in a way where I really feel at ease. Good, mesmerizing rhythms for advanced dancing.

Orishas, “El Kilo”

2005. ~160 BPM. 4m24s.

Not a Salsa song, but I simply love to practice SOLO to this song, and I like this official video a lot. I have a hard time trying to make my training partners train to it, they feel it is too special. I have as one of my dance goals, to make a good demo video dancing to this song.

Havana d’Primera, “Pastilla de Menta”

2021. ~190 BPM. 4m41s

Everyone wants to jump up and dance to this one. To me this is a fast song, and I don’t need them any faster. When we get to 200+ BPM, a lot of my best moves become impossible with most Followers, I no longer take chances trying out new stuff, I stick to the most downtrodden paths. Too fast songs are also a waste of energy. Two dances at a moderate speed serve me much better than a very fast song.

What music to choose

  1. We should choose music we like at varying speeds.
  2. We should choose music that is likely to be played at social dancing.
  3. We should also choose music good for training musicality.

For developing our dance and learn new figures and combinations, we need relatively slow music that is relatively simply (no distraction) and it most be so easy to find the beat count that we don’t have to think about it. And more than anything else, we must really like the music.

Beats per Minute (BPM)

I use a couple of APPS where I tap to the music and the app gives the BPM. Most songs have the same BPM for the whole song except for INTRO and OUTRO. A few songs are famous for getting faster and faster. The exact PBM doesn’t exist because each time the band plays it will be a little different and could change a little as they play. At concerts the speed can vary quite a lot from the studio recording. Could even be a new interpretation of their original song.