Lección Diez: Los instrumentos

I dont have much interest in music but my favorite kind is hip-hop. I never played any musical instruments.

African instruments and sounds heavily influenced the music of the Caribbean islands and the Caribbean coast of Central and South America. This is because slaves were used in great numbers in that region. Congas, bongos, timbales and other drums are essential to all types of Latin American music. They were all originally African drums that were adopted by, and now serve as the basis for, salsa, rumba, merengue and reggaeton, all types of Latin music and dances

One example of an African instrument that was adopted by a South American country is el cajón peruano. African slaves brought to Peru were not allowed to play drums. But the slaves found that wooden boxes produced a sound similar to a drum when they beat them with their hands. A simple box with a sound hole in the back, became the national instrument of Peru.

The marimba is made of wood bars or keys that are struck with mallets. Under each key there is a resonator, a gourd or metal tube that vibrates when the bar is hit. Each resonator is a different length, so every key produces a unique tone when it is hit. The marimba is the national instrument of Guatemala. It is also very popular in southern Mexico and Central America. Marimbas can be very large and can be played by up to five musicians.

El güiro, a hollow gourd with parallel notches or grooves. It is played by scraping a wooden stick along the notches to produce a raspy, ratchet-like sound. Taino Indians are believed to have invented the güiro. It is popular in Puerto Rico and Cuba, as well as in other countries.

El guitarrón is the heartbeat of Mexican mariachi music. It is a very large acoustic bass, similar to a guitar, with six strings. When it was first introduced, it replaced the harp as the bass for mariachi bands, which allowed the musicians more freedom of movement. Still, the guitarrón is a very large instrument.

The siku or zampoña is the Andean version of a flauta de Pan, or a pan-flute. It is believed that pan-flutes originated in ancient Greece and Rome, but the Ayamara and Quechua Indians of South America created their own version before the Spanish conquest and even before the Inca and Maya civilizations. It was made the national instrument in some Andean countries, including Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador.