Latin America Music Test

Barbados

Lesser

Cuba

Greater

Dominica

Lesser

Dominican Republic

Greater

Grenada

Lesser

Haiti

Greater

Jamaica

Greater

Puerto Rico

Greater

St. Christopher and Nevis Barbuda

Lesser

St. Lucia

Lesser

St. Vincent and the Grenadines

Lesser

St. Thomas

Lesser

The Bahamas

Their own grouping

Trinidad and Tobago

Lesser

Venezuela

South America (Could be considered a lesser antille)

West Coast African Music

• Call and Response

• Drum, bells, rattles

• Layered rhythms

• Timeline (usually played by a bell)

• Polyrhythms (3-against-2)

• Syncopations (off-beat accents)

• Dance music

European Music

• Harmony (chords and keys)

• Guitars, keyboards, basses

• Major/Minor scales

• Band and orchestral instruments

• Meter (some 3-against-2)

• Wordy ballads (story songs)

• Dance Music

Bolero

A Cuban medium slow 4-beat ballad usually featuring a vocal soloist

Bomba

An Afro-Puerto Rican popular dance style named after the drums performing the dances

Bosa Nova

A new Brazilian dance influence by Cuban bolero and U.S. cool jazz; first featured in the movie, Black Orpheus (about Carnival in Reo); popularized by Antonio Carlos Jobim

Calypso

A style of song from Trinidad often made up on the spot about topical events

Cha cha chá

A relaxed 4-beat dance from Cuba made popular by the Charanga orchestras; the Latin Rock group, Santana, is well known for using cha cha chá in combination with rock

Mambo

A 4-beat Cuban dance similar to the cha cha chá, but played faster; popularized by Perez Prado, Tito Puente, and Tito Rodriguez

Merengue

The national dance of the Dominican Republic; bands feature piano, horn section (saxophones, brass)

Plena

An Afro-Puerto Rican song with verse/chorus structure often performed with accordion

Rumba

A 4-beat Afro-Cuban combination of rhythms, dancing, and singing (one or more lead singers and a chorus in call and response form) common at parties. Guanguancó is a well-known style of rumba with a mid to fast tempo

Salza

A new name (which literally means sauce) for Latin American music with its roots in Cuban music and jazz

Samba

The best known rhythm from Brazil danced and sung during Carnival

Son

A Cuban ensemble piece played by guitars and percussion instruments

Idiophones

Things that you hit and the main parts vibrate

Agogo Bell

A high-pitched double bell played with a stick; relative of the African Gankogui

Cabasa or Cabaca

A form of rattle. Can either be a pear shaped gourd with a netting of beads on the outside (traditional version) or a wooden wheel with a handle attached; around the wheel are metal beads (modern version)

Claves

Two round sticks around 6-8 inches long made of a hard wood. One is held in a firm hand, while the other is used to hit it. Claves usually play the timeline in Latin American music

Cowbell

A single bell played with a stick; either held in the hand or mounted on a stand (sometimes above a set of timbales)

Guiro

A notched gourd scraped with a stick or metal whisk; often decorated in the form of a fish

Maracas

A pair of small gourd rattles with the shot/beads on the inside

Quijada (vibraslap)

The traditional form is a mule jawbone with loose teeth that rattle when hit; its modern counterpart is played the same way

Steel Drums (pans)

A newcomer of musical instruments (developed in Trinidad after WW2) Where the tops of oil drums were heated and hammered to produce a metal instrument with a complete scale played with mallets. Today, these come in all shapes and sizes

Xylophones and Marimbas

Wooden keys played with mallets; may have gourd or other types of resonators under each key. In Central America, there are ______ large enough to be played by four or more people at once

Bongos

Two small drums (higher and lower) attached to each other and either held between the knees or mounted on a stand; usually played with hands

Tumba

Largest conga

Conga

Medium conga

Quinto

Smallest conga

Cuica

A strange single-headed drum found in many Brazilian samba ensembles; it has a small stick which is fastened to the middle of the inside of the dum head; a barking dog sound is produced by rubbing a damp cloth along the stick. You can make some related sounds by moving a straw up and down in the hole of a plastic lid on a fast food drink

Timbales

Consists of two single-headed metal drums on a stand played with sticks

Tubanos

Single-headed cylindrical drums with 10, 12, and 14” heads; developed and modeled after various Caribbean and African conga-type drums

Membranophones

Membrane Vibrates (drums)

Aerophones

Air column vibrates

Flutes

Natural wooden _____ of all sorts are played throughout Latin Amerića

Panpipes

A bundle of reeds or hollow wooden tubes of graduated lengths; played by blowing over the top; very popular in the Andes countries of South America

Chordophones

Strings vibrate

Guitars

Entire families of ______ (from bass to soprano) brought over from Spain and Portugal are commonly played in all types of music throughout Latin America

Harps

Are common throughout Latin America, particularly Central and South America

String Basses

Are found in many forms throughout Latin America

Violins

Are very common throughout the world