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If practicing clave at home was good enough for Goyo, it is good enough for us! Your deaf ears comment is really funny, but reminds me that many claves seem to produce some high frequency sounds that when you play loud can damage hearing more than other instruments. The worst are the real high pitched synthetic fiberglass claves, followed by the small solid heavy rosewood claves. I used to always have ringing in my ears for days after a Central Park rumba when I played rosewood claves. Still a problem but not quite as bad using the blue or orange jam block as a clave. Larger hollow claves seem to be much better in that regard. Now I use hearing protection, but that doesn't help the people around me. The best is to play with actual musicians who play rumba at moderate volume so you don't need to play clave so loud it damages your hearing. Again, it is not so much the instrument but how you play it. I have noticed that most of the Cuban rumberos who can really play don't play overly loud like we do in street rumbas in NYC.

How many of the forum members here actually practice clave at home?

always practicing clave, both of them, bell patterns and guagua. Got to maintain that swing, or it's nothing.

Sometimes - not enough

Driving in the car, while singing to my favorite rumba records - everyday.

Yep, the car is also my favourite place making use of dead time in traffic. Practice singing whilst playing clave.

Derbeno wrote:Yep, the car is also my favourite place making use of dead time in traffic. Practice singing whilst playing clave.

Somehow "dead time" conjures up images that make me nervous! Texting while driving, texting while walking, chewing gum while walking, thinking while talking, playing clave while driving.
But officer, I swear I wasn't playing those claves...

I have a soft wood dowel I strike against the shifter, probably safer than texting...

jorge wrote:

Derbeno wrote:Yep, the car is also my favourite place making use of dead time in traffic. Practice singing whilst playing clave.

Somehow "dead time" conjures up images that make me nervous! Texting while driving, texting while walking, chewing gum while walking, thinking while talking, playing clave while driving.
But officer, I swear I wasn't playing those claves...

Haha! I see your point. I should hasten to add that I can only do so when stopped at traffic lights or in stationary rush hour traffic. Otherwise I just sing and get stares of 'who'se that idiot'.
If I was walking around trying to master phrases whilst playing 6/8 clave/bell, I would walk straight into a wall, so could you imagine that behind the wheel on the freeway??

Pretty much all the time. I'll do it when I'm being impatient and waiting on my kids to complete a task at school. and often one of my kids will say, "Mr. Crowder, will you stop that please?" And I'll smile and say, "sorry". How often does that happen, where the teacher is annoying the students with tapping?
One of my favorite practices is tapping out the 6/8 bell in my right hand, and the hocket clave in my left. Then, shifting awareness back and forth. I don't really think it helps my clave necessarily, but it's a nice awareness and independence exercise.