What Kinds of Percussion Instruments Are Used in Latin Music?

Musicians playing a conga drum and a shekere.

Latin music is a musical genre drawing on Spanish, African, and Native Central and South American musical traditions. Percussion instruments are heavily utilized within this genre, in which they provide a foundation and beats for the music, and develop the rhythm in other interesting ways as well. Numerous percussion instruments are associated with this musical style and several were developed exclusively for it.

Bells

Cowbells are also used to keep track of cattle.

Bells are utilized in music in many different ways, sometimes providing a beat, and other times making only a short appearance in the composition. The two bells primarily used in Latin music are agogo bells and cowbells. The agogo bell has its roots in Africa but makes regular appearances in Brazilian samba music. The cowbell, meanwhile, has its origins in the bells attached to cattle by ranchers and herdsmen. It is often found in salsa music.

Drums

Bongo drums are often used in Cuban and Puerto Rican music.

Drums are the best-known percussion instruments, and there are many types of drums found in Latin music. The bongo drums, consisting of a pair of handheld drums attached to one another, and the tall conga drum are probably the most widely known. The timbales, invented in Cuba, are also used in a number of musical genres. The cajon, or "big box," is just what it sounds like: a large wooden box with a sound hole in the middle, originating in Peru. The cuica is a small drum that produces sound through the rubbing of a short stick inside of the wooden or metal body, and it is regularly utilized in samba music. The tambora is a two-headed drum used in a lot of merengue music, and the South American pandeiro is similar to a tambourine.

Shakers

Maracas are usually played in pairs.

Shaking instruments are widely used in Latin music, where as they are less prevalent in many other musical genres. Perhaps the best known shaking instrument in the world is the maraca, a bean- or seed-filled rattle that is almost always played in pairs. The cabasa, made of metal balls on a chain, wrapped around a handled cylinder, is another popular shaking instrument. And the shekere, originating in Africa, is a gourd rattle wrapped in an external net of beads, used much like the maracas.

Additional Percussion Instruments

You scrape or strike a guiro to produce sound.

Several other percussion instruments are used in Latin music, ranging from the simple claves, which are two short wooden sticks struck together to produce noise, to the complicated marimba, a xylophone instrument originating with the Maya. Castanets, a pair of shells looped together on a string and played in the hands, are used in dances and music alike, and the guiro, a grooved gourd scraped to make music, both produce sounds heavily associated with Latin and Spanish music. While the quijada, or "jawbone," literally made from a donkey's or horse's jaw, is also used by folk musicians, and gave rise to the modern vibraslap.

References

• "The Garland Handbook of Latin American Music (Second Edition)"; Dale A. Olsen and Daniel E. Sheehy, editors; 2008
• "The Facts on File Dictionary of Music"; Christine Ammer; 2004

Resources

• Virginia Tech Multimedia Music Dictionary; Latin Percussion