Claves

Percussion instrument consisting of two independent, cylinder-shaped wooden sticks.The term is of Spanish origin and is related to the wooden sections of the instrument.
In Cuba, it is also used to designate a choir, a song genre and the rhythm it produces.
Cuban ethnographer Fernando Ortiz said that the origin of the clavés ways back to the 16 th and 17 th  centuries, when they started to be used in Havana in conjunction with songs of Spanish workers, African slaves and galley slaves.   Most of them were involved in building fortresses and ships.
The clavés were initially simply used to provide accompaniment.
Aside from construction sites near the Bay of Havana, the Cuban clavés were seen in other settings to cover music genres like rumba and tap dance first, and dance genres later.
The instrument has always been divided into two distinct parts ( male and female sticks).   Solid and hard wood is required to make clavés.   The sound quality and intensity will largely depend on this.