How to Play Latin Percussion

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name is Lennon Leppert, and on behalf of Expert Village, this is "How to Play Latin Percussion". The first instrument in the Latin percussion family that we will be talking about is the claves. They are two wooden sticks; they can be made out of a variety of woods, different varnishes. There's a lot to look for when you're shopping for claves, you really want to try them out a lot. The first thing that most people don't know when they're playing claves is a lot of people will play them like that, and they get that wood block sound, that's not what the claves are for. They are supposed to get more of a high pitched tone to them, so you're going to want to hold them like that, you're basically going to make a little spot in your hand and lay the clave in, with as little of your hand touching the clave as possible. Then you're going to strike it with the other one, you just hold it like a drumstick or whatever, and it gets a nice lighter pitch, higher pitched. The next instrument we'll be going to talk about are the maracas. They are two hand held shaker-like instruments, they can be used in a variety of different ways, and they can get a lot of different effects. The first thing is how to hold them. You're going to hold them with as much of the handle showing as possible so you really feel like you have a firm grip, not like this, more like this, and you really want to have a hold on them. The first thing is rhythm; you can use them for a rhythm-like effect. The next instrument we'll going to be talking about is the cowbell. They come in a variety of sizes and colors and materials, and, as you can see, I have put some cloth tape on this cowbell to get rid of some of the unneeded overtones that cowbells a lot of times have. A lot of times you can mount them onto racks for drum sets, or for orchestral percussion when you can, hold the cowbell, or you can hold it, a lot of Latin percussion you hold the cowbell. And you're just going to strike in on the edge of the top and usually where your tape is. And is gets more of a dead sound if you hold the bottom, or you can hold the side, the end of it, and it gets more of the open sound. And that concludes "How to Play Latin Percussion"."