How hard is it to play around in some Latin Music

[Theo Verelst]

I did some household stuff today, so no playing yet, but I know what I achieve with my mixing tools and well recorded music: much better acoustic feel. Also, rhythm instruments work better when properly produced or put in a space: dry claves and congas recorded in a acoustic dead room (like used for measurements) isn't much fun, neither is a dumb bass pattern repeating the same resonant trick with a main mode of a performance space.

 

Well, I mean I can tap a clave pattern or a Rhumba clave pattern, I get that, I did some Latin type song on stage long ago with decent percussive elements, I can play Cha Cha Logo, or drum a Mambo type of style, but it isn't second nature to me, and those kind of solo's like I mentioned at first, just like the one in the Spyro song mentioned, aren't necessarily easy by any standard, that's what makes it interesting!

 

T.

[MortenL]

I have found much help in Rebeca Mauleons book - though I am still not even remotely mastering the style, of course.

 

Realising the following obvious fact also brought me a bit further: When trying to play a two-hand montuno, my anxiousness to play the clave right (or the right clave) often led me to focusing way too much on the defining clave beats in the montuno, over-emphasizing them. In many Cuban ensembles, other band members will often play underlying 8th-note patterns allowing you to find your own comfortable place where you can add to the whole structure instead of striving to define it, as I did. Trying to always deeply feel or hear this underlying structure has made me much more comfortable and relaxed, locking into and adding to the musical and rhythmical flow rather than performing my latin piano act.

 

Cheers, Morten

 

[uhoh7]

I was almost gonna make a new thread, but this is a great one aside from the "you can't play a Montuno less your mammie danced pregnant to clave" vein of thinking. Maybe you won't win a grammy, but you can sure have some fun. Very good for the head and body to try, I'd add.

 

I discovered Vanessa Rodrigues, who is shown above, in the context of Organ, but she was already long living in Brazil by then. You know where she grew up? I bet quite a few here might...Canada. Let's ask her some time what age she learned son clave----not as a child I don't believe. But she learned to breathe it.

 

[video:youtube]

 

I did not know, technically, the difference between Samba and Salsa untill this month, but I knew I liked them both

 

Here is fantastic kickstart to getting a basic groove goin:

[video:youtube]

 

That poor guy burned out as youtuber after producing around 6 of the best piano tutorials I've ever watched. But he is playing all over now. Probably a member.

 

I hated metronomes forever. But I watched some guy who explained rhythm is not a gift, everybody has it inside if they want to spend some time counting things out. I still hate metro 'clicks' if they are not using a decent sample. I love my RD-8 and I'm having a blast plugging in patterns like these and trying to get better at them.

 

Checkout channel "congahead" on YT if you have not already seen it.

[hurricane hugo]

[font:Verdana]Learning to dance to the rhythms in question will help, too, Theo.[/font]

[KuruPrionz]

As a singer/songwriter/guitarist/bassst who has decided to work on drumming skills to further my own recordings, I recently found an interesting CD at a thrift store. I have no affiliation, just passing this along because it is well done and appropriate to the thread.

 

Bill Matthews' Drum Talk - 17 Handdrum Dialogues For Two Players - From Traditional African and Afro-Caribbean Ensemble Rhythms. Disk 1 - Dialogues 1-17

 

Clear recordings of the individual drum beats that are long enough to find and groove with and then the combination of the two beats, which is where the magic happens.

 

CDs and sheet music are available here - http://www.congajoy.com/index.php/conga-joy

[uhoh7]

As a singer/songwriter/guitarist/bassst who has decided to work on drumming skills to further my own recordings, I recently found an interesting CD at a thrift store. I have no affiliation, just passing this along because it is well done and appropriate to the thread.

 

Bill Matthews' Drum Talk - 17 Handdrum Dialogues For Two Players - From Traditional African and Afro-Caribbean Ensemble Rhythms. Disk 1 - Dialogues 1-17

 

Clear recordings of the individual drum beats that are long enough to find and groove with and then the combination of the two beats, which is where the magic happens.

 

CDs and sheet music are available here - http://www.congajoy.com/index.php/conga-joy

 

Those look really well done, thank you.

 

Tumbao by unoh7, on Flickr

Photo by me not the notes! It's over a 2-3 Clave as noted...I have not got to the 3-2 yet, except by accident. LOL

 

The Tumbao, many know, might be the single most played baseline on earth, or at least in Latin America. Better with a minor in there, maybe but I'm just getting going taking this around the circle of fifths...though I usually go up the 4ths.

 

Son Clave and Rumba I can now program my RD-8 from memory, but when I'm starting I often just drop in booming 4 on floor to keep me counting right I'm still messing up but my timing with less syncopation has improved since I started.

 

My gear has drawn me to get to know EDM better, but I can't say it lights my fire yet.......until I watched this. Be sure to hit CC for english captions, the story is really good, but the EDM snippets.......I actually really like them---to my shock and horror.

 

[video:youtube]

 

[video:youtube]

The one brother get loose on the pads...priceless.

 

They are going JDilla on their own root vinyl. Vinyl was so heavy you had a lot of local cutting, that has left some very cool niches.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[PianoMan51]

Theo, you don"t get better acoustic feel with mixing techniques. Time to get that right brain moving!

[Piktor]

The GRINGO'S E-Guide to Salsa Piano

[video:youtube]

 

https://vrodriguesmusic.wordpress.com/salsa-ebook/

Hey, Vanessa's from Edmonton. Cool! Thanks for the heads up.

[uhoh7]

I had no clue about the Brazilian counterpart to Dixieland....which my dad was so crazy about---he would pull out his 78s....and of course I hated it! I did calm down later, but right now I'm learning some basic Choro. It's two beat with accent on the second beat, and tempos can really get going. First choro recording was in 1917.

 

Like Dixieland, there is european as well as african influence. Plenty of notation for some pieces.

 

The whole "samba school" phenonenom evolved because lone musicians were asumed to be criminals.

 

Choro has quite soft percussion compared to samba (as we think of it) No surdos. It evolved in cities in circles of the lower elites...ie government workers.....anybody correct as always please. I sampled the shakers and tamborins (not a tamborine) etc on my new/old MPC1000 and laid out some basic practice tracks today.

[video:youtube]

 

The range of choros is vast as you start to see in those videos. Lot's of fast stuff, but many gorgeous slow laments. It's regarded as the foundation of modern Brazilian music. To my ears, it is more varied and interesting than Dixieland....though I would kill to go back in time and hear Buddy Bolden.

First, i'd want to hear that horn, of course, but no rapper has anything on Buddy with lyrics....

 

Cumbia, on the other hand, is from runaway slaves interacting with indigenous people, in Columbia, and has enormous following today, including EDM:

[video:youtube]

 

I was unaware of choro or cumbia last week LOL I find both compelling.

[Steve Nathan]

Sorry to disagree with the "You can't do it unless you lived it" crowd, but that's just Bullsh*t. I wouldn't even agree if it were "You can't do it well". How many of us here did not grow up in New Orleans in the 40s, or lived on 57th in the 50s? Yet we still manage to play some convincing Jazz. I didn't grow up in Harlem, or Detroit, or Clarksdale, MS, and yet I managed to become a fairly decent R&B player. What part of Mexico was Greg Rollie from? What roots American town did Chris Stanton come from?

Are you more likely to be a better Latin player if you grew up in the culture? Of course. That doesn't mean you can't learn enough by osmosis if you make the effort to play near authentically. It's the basis of my job. I didn't come to Country naturally, and I wouldn't argue with anyone who felt I never got as good as Pig Robbins or Floyd Cramer. I've often said I speak Country with a hint of an accent, but I speak it pretty dang well.

GO ahead Theo. Immerse yourself in the music. Pay attention but have fun too. How good you get is entirely in your hands.

[Music Bird]

I listen to some Latin music mostly cumbia and cha cha. I find that the cha cha and cumbia piano is easy. Also, a lot of Mexican and Peruvian cumbia from the 80"s uses the DX7 a lot. Before the invention of the Juno-60, Prophet-5 and DX7, Farfisa Fast/Professional/VIP-345 and Yamaha YC-30 and YC-45D organs and preset synths especially the Yamaha SY-2 and ARP Pro-Soloist/Pro-DGX were the gear of choice as well as ARP Omni I and II. Also the RMI Electra Piano and other analog pianos.

[CEB]

I love Latin music. I like Latin so much all my YouTube ads are in Spanish.

[Music Bird]

If you like cumbia and you like synths, check out cumbia villera. It"s basically Argentine cumbia music that originated in the slums (barrios) in Buenos Aires.

This is a band called Yerba Brava. They use a Korg M1 and Roland XP-10.

This is Damas Gratis. Their keyboardist/keytarist/vocalist Pablo Lescano is the creator of this genre. He still gigs with them. They use a Roland XP-10 and Korg N364 as well a Roland AX-7 keytar.

This is Flor De Piedra. They use a Roland and Korg synth.

 

All these bands tend to use the Roland Octapad SPD-3 and SPD-8.

 

Also, there"s cumbia sonidera and chicha. Both are also very keyboard heavy.

Sonidero. Use a Korg N364 and Korg M1.

There"s too many videos of chicha but check out cumbia chicha on YouTube search.

[J_tour]

All I know is it's plenty difficult to me: as you know, it's not just playing a few montunas you cribbed off a few recordings: it seems to me just a whole huge tradition, in some ways parallel to jazz, occsionally overlapping.

 

If I'm remembering right, though, some of the more jazz-oriented people incorporating, like salsa stuff, are often all about improvising in octaves. Which is fun for me to do, just for the sound on the piano and the few extra brain cells it takes to come up with and execute a nice line.

 

If I'm lucky I can fake a samba or bossa nova, at least to where most people would probably say, "Oh, OK, that sounds not bad," but I'm missing all the subtleties.

 

I was talking to a sax player not long ago at some bar and he had this whole theory that jazz music in general is built off the clave or maybe a reverse clave, but for me I'm happy to know my limitations, and occasionally dust off a few tunes if I want to have some different things people would recognize.

[uhoh7]

If you like cumbia and you like synths, check out cumbia villera. It"s basically Argentine cumbia music that originated in the slums (barrios) in Buenos Aires.

This is a band called Yerba Brava. They use a Korg M1 and Roland XP-10.

This is Damas Gratis. Their keyboardist/keytarist/vocalist Pablo Lescano is the creator of this genre. He still gigs with them. They use a Roland XP-10 and Korg N364 as well a Roland AX-7 keytar.

This is Flor De Piedra. They use a Roland and Korg synth.

 

All these bands tend to use the Roland Octapad SPD-3 and SPD-8.

 

Also, there"s cumbia sonidera and chicha. Both are also very keyboard heavy.

Sonidero. Use a Korg N364 and Korg M1.

There"s too many videos of chicha but check out cumbia chicha on YouTube search.

 

Thank you so much for these links. Priceless.

 

It's the golden age to learn these traditions. I spent alot of last night and today just learning and sampling all kinds of afro-latin percussion instruments. There are so many incredible drum channels.

 

Haiti as usual, is less well documented. This young man has a gorgeous channel on Haiti.

[video:youtube]

 

The Dutch will figure out anything, this is awesome channel, here one from 2012:

[video:youtube]

 

The "big" Drumeo type channels have Latin gems like this in between the standard kit lessons:

[video:youtube]

 

At first I was listening to Latin lessons on standard kits, but the great teachers were saying "here we are imitating the.......insert name your never knew....." You search for those names and worlds appear. You also start hitting the guys teaching in Spanish and Portuguese and they are often a pleasure to watch. My Spanish is pretty good--I hitched from Idaho to Chile in 1981, but now I'm starting to understand the Brazilians....which I could never do when I was actually there.

 

Often the notation is shown, which makes laying out these ideas in your sequencer alot easier

 

Once I learn the various sounds better I will start digging in the Proteus and JV1010: they are full of gorgeous percussion. Then I will try sequencing those with the MPC1000 multi-timbrally. It's both loosened and livened my key playing already.

 

 

[Outkaster]

All these years later I still kind of stand on the same ground. I never said you couldn't learn it if you didn't grow up in that environment but it makes it harder and I think some musicians just won't ever get it. Especially if they are older and set in their ways. Since I wrote the first posts in the thread I experienced it first hand. I went through it with a bass player from 2011 till 2016. Loving the band was one thing but you have to love the music you are playing or it will eat you from the inside out. We had to part ways because it was hurting the band musically so much to the point people were making comments on his playing. Most weren't musicians or even in the band. If you want to learn some Salsa licks that's fine for fun. If you want to go out and play in a Salsa band you have to immerse yourself in it and live in that world.........that is entirely a different thing.

[uhoh7]

All these years later I still kind of stand on the same ground. I never said you couldn't learn it if you didn't grow up in that environment but it makes it harder and I think some musicians just won't ever get it. Especially if they are older and set in their ways. Since I wrote the first posts in the thread I experienced it first hand. I went through it with a bass player from 2011 till 2016. Loving the band was one thing but you have to love the music you are playing or it will eat you from the inside out. We had to part ways because it was hurting the band musically so much to the point people were making comments on his playing. Most weren't musicians or even in the band. If you want to learn some Salsa licks that's fine for fun. If you want to go out and play in a Salsa band you have to immerse yourself in it and live in that world.........that is entirely a different thing.

Mission impossible, so why try to learn the style, is that it? One thing for certain, with such a mind set you are not likely to learn or let it improve your own style. If you liked the music I'd think you might share who you like. Instead you repeat this point. I don't think you are fond of it. Nothing wrong in that. We all have some genres we don't love. Why tell others what they can't do?

 

Many players have learned to play latin styles professionally as adults. For example:

[video:youtube]

 

Not to mention other examples above. Maybe they won't win a Latin Grammy. Maybe they won't embarass themselves, or maybe they will. Many Brazillians will say you have grow up in the style. Obviously you don't, but it has to help alot, LOL

 

I certainly have no pretensions of playing choros professionally. They are fresh, they are interesting. I feel the same way about most of these Latin Styles. Why in the world would I not want to try to play them?

 

The most natural thing in the world is to try to play what you like. If you like many different styles, you won't be learning the same thing all the time.

 

Anyway, to any who might actually have some love for or curiosiity about Latin styles (and I know there are many), in my baby steps one change stands out.

 

Pick a major chord, one hand, root on the bottom, and bounce a little, then, still boucing, drop the top three fingers to fully dimminshed, and back. You are boucing on the same root. What does it bring to mind?

 

It's a harmonic signature if I ever heard one. It doesn't work at all from dom7, and less than a fully dim, either. It's really quite a gorgeous push-pull between two extremes. I've been so into my 7 chords, the majors were sounding sacharine. In the styles I have been practicing, the dims in use are usually a half step down or up from the root, which in the latter case is a very efficient one finger half-tone move, that my hero Barry Harris shows very early to students.

 

But leaving the root in place seems to make both the major and dim so gorgeous. For me, this discovery validates my curioisty only a few days in. Am I crazy?

[zephonic]

I mentioned this in another thread a few years ago, but to really feel the cadence of the montuno you should learn to play it together with the tumbao. Play the montuno pattern with the right hand and the tumbao (bass) with the left hand. That will really help you nail down the feel.

 

[pinkfloydcramer]

Keyboard fall '99 had a masterclass on Brazilan piano, titled "Play It Again, Samba". For those who cheat and read notation.

[Reezekeys]

Lots of nice examples in this thread. Check this out â some pretty sick montunos happening here. Not your usual II-V-Is either. These guys are killing it:

 

[video:youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amkb7ooZXdc

[Threadslayer]

Impressive. I'm starting to come around to the notion that you'd kinda have to have grown up in the culture to be able to play that style at that level. The piano player looks like he could play that stuff for days - while thinking about something else!

[uhoh7]

I mentioned this in another thread a few years ago, but to really feel the cadence of the montuno you should learn to play it together with the tumbao. Play the montuno pattern with the right hand and the tumbao (bass) with the left hand. That will really help you nail down the feel.

Thanks for this. More please.

 

Though not religious, I'm very grateful to have lived long enough to learn the name of Carlos Embale, this morning. His voice I knew. Here is a wonderful documentary about the rise of "Son" in Cuba. At 28:21, where I have cued to start is a short bit which really took me aback.

 

[video:youtube]

 

I was born in 57. Why this guy nearly brings me to tears....his utterly unique tone cut through the mix of childhood sounds....that is my only explanation. For the record, I am as WASP in heritage as you can get. Roots of both my parents lineage go deep in white American history, north and south. My sister, a retired professor, traced my maternal grandmother's line to Salem, 1631, this past summer. That surprised me.

 

As I further researched Embale, whose personal story is incredible, I came across this, shot in Cuba in the 60's. Gorgeous film.

 

[video:youtube]https://youtu.be/NlauZTe7OW4

 

@reezekeys. Outstandling link. Please post more like that as they strike you. At 6:30 the keyboardist (so tight, yet wonderfully free) adds awesome triplet? It becomes, as James Brown might say "the one", but I think it's hitting every other one, actually.....correct me on this please. Muy impressionante.

 

Same group last year:

[video:youtube]

 

Keyboard solo at 6:40ish........wow

 

From the comments

Juan Carruyo:

Make no mistake, this is timba. It has all the makings and all of the gears. It starts with a preview of the montuno section and then it goes into the main body of the song. From then on:

4:07 - Congo, conguito coro.

4:27 - bloque into next section

 

4:30 - this section is commonly called "Presión" o "Pedal". All instruments drop out except for the piano, which enters with a new, exciting part + Pedrito's voice. It generates tension.

4:43 - New coro ("yo tuve un sueño...") all instruments enter on marcha arriba - features cowbell - this is the call and response montuno section featured in most afro-cuban music, which consists of a "coro" and a response by the lead singer.

5:09 - mambo, percussion stays on marcha but the keyboard plays the part of a horn section

5:30 - masacote: the percussion turns exciting and more improvisational

5:50 - yet another new coro ("vamo a ver si la cuenta a ti te da") back on marcha arriba, call and response montuno

6:07 - bass drops out briefly (along with the percussion) and then comes back on sliding up and down the fretboard. The percussion gets wilder. This section is called "bomba". this is one of the hallmarks of timba music and it is one of the main differences between salsa and timba. Bomba rarely if ever happens on salsa.

6:27 - back on marcha arriba - with plenty of efectos (syncronized stops and breaks)

6:47 - piano solo, band turns the dynamic down.

7:50 - HUGE pedal there. Issacito delivers a big piano tumbao. Tension mounts.

8:11 - after the bloques (synchronized percussion break) straight into bomba. Tension releases. This is the part where dancers go wild. Efecto at 8:24

8:32 - Marcha arriba again. Issac keeps on soloing.

8:43 - Leitmotiv bass and piano. Jhair (and Pedro sometimes) plays 12/8 against 4/4. Pedro soloes.

9:44 - Marcha arriba but Pedro keeps on soloing! Bass and Piano keep playing the motive.

10:40 - Unaccompanied conga solo

13:33 - New piano tumbao. Presión.

13:53 - Bombazo.

14:08 - Another leitmotive. This one from the intro. Pedrito and Jhair play 12/8 against it though.

14:14 - marcha arriba. same coro as intro.

14:30 - big bloque to end. Nice bookending effect.

 

 

I've actually heard this live and they add more coros at the end there. So, this is actually a "shortened for NPR" version! Hope this helps for anyone curious enough to follow all the insane twists and turns of modern Cuban arranging. " End quote.

 

Timba = Cuban Salsa. Funkier. In part a reaction to Salsa, which evloved in NYC. So I am told:

[video:youtube]

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Music Bird]

I learned a few years ago that the Vietnamese and Filipinos are into Latin music.

 

There"s even a subgenre of Viet cha cha and Tagalog cha cha.

Here it is

Here"s some Viet cha cha for your enjoyment.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=B6DA6PS9Gzk

You may or may not like this, because this music basically is extreme ROMpler Brass and flute spam.

[David R]

This is a subject near and dear to my heart, as I love Latin music and have been honoured to become one of the frequent calls for it here in town. It can be learned, but like learning anything, it takes a serious amount of immersion and dedication. If you can find the Arturo O'Farrill master class in Keyboard from fifteen or twenty years ago, that unlocked a lot of doors for me. The Mauleón book is good, the best resource for me was the Afro-Cuban Piano Book by Manny Patio and Jorge Moreno.

 

Some tips:

- if you know good jazz voice-leading, building montunos (harmonically speaking) will be easy. Voice-leading is the melodic and harmonic anchor of Afro-Latin music, and harmonically the tunes are very similar to standards. I've lost count of how many coros are basically "Autumn Leaves."

- The 2 side of the clave is on the downbeat and the 3 side is anticipated. Always.

- Learn the percussion parts, not to be able to play them but to hear them. Bobby Sanabria has some great videos on the Vic Firth YouTube channel for this.

- To find the clave direction, listen to the bongo bell and the cascara. It's pretty rare that anyone plays woodblock or claves explicitly outside of very traditional rumba or guaguancó. Lock in with your timbalero â the cowbell is the ride cymbal/hi-hat of this music.

- In more contemporary Latin music (especially Nuyorican/Fania-style salsa), a lot of the verses just feature jazz-style comping, and the montunos only explode in the coros.

- LISTEN TO RECORDS, WATCH YOUTUBE CLIPS AND GO SEE CONCERTS. This is a language that has vocabulary, grammar and syntax. Treat it like learning a foreign language.

 

[Outkaster]

All these years later I still kind of stand on the same ground. I never said you couldn't learn it if you didn't grow up in that environment but it makes it harder and I think some musicians just won't ever get it. Especially if they are older and set in their ways. Since I wrote the first posts in the thread I experienced it first hand. I went through it with a bass player from 2011 till 2016. Loving the band was one thing but you have to love the music you are playing or it will eat you from the inside out. We had to part ways because it was hurting the band musically so much to the point people were making comments on his playing. Most weren't musicians or even in the band. If you want to learn some Salsa licks that's fine for fun. If you want to go out and play in a Salsa band you have to immerse yourself in it and live in that world.........that is entirely a different thing.

Mission impossible, so why try to learn the style, is that it? One thing for certain, with such a mind set you are not likely to learn or let it improve your own style. If you liked the music I'd think you might share who you like. Instead you repeat this point. I don't think you are fond of it. Nothing wrong in that. We all have some genres we don't love. Why tell others what they can't do?

 

Many players have learned to play latin styles professionally as adults. For example:

[video:youtube]

 

Not to mention other examples above. Maybe they won't win a Latin Grammy. Maybe they won't embarass themselves, or maybe they will. Many Brazillians will say you have grow up in the style. Obviously you don't, but it has to help alot, LOL

 

I certainly have no pretensions of playing choros professionally. They are fresh, they are interesting. I feel the same way about most of these Latin Styles. Why in the world would I not want to try to play them?

 

The most natural thing in the world is to try to play what you like. If you like many different styles, you won't be learning the same thing all the time.

 

Anyway, to any who might actually have some love for or curiosiity about Latin styles (and I know there are many), in my baby steps one change stands out.

 

Pick a major chord, one hand, root on the bottom, and bounce a little, then, still boucing, drop the top three fingers to fully dimminshed, and back. You are boucing on the same root. What does it bring to mind?

 

It's a harmonic signature if I ever heard one. It doesn't work at all from dom7, and less than a fully dim, either. It's really quite a gorgeous push-pull between two extremes. I've been so into my 7 chords, the majors were sounding sacharine. In the styles I have been practicing, the dims in use are usually a half step down or up from the root, which in the latter case is a very efficient one finger half-tone move, that my hero Barry Harris shows very early to students.

 

But leaving the root in place seems to make both the major and dim so gorgeous. For me, this discovery validates my curioisty only a few days in. Am I crazy?

 

Sorry my teacher is one of the best Latin jazz players around and I do like the style and understand it? Executing a lot of it is a different thing though is my point. Not sure how you are getting that I don't like it? ..... it's just wrong. I will not soften my stance on this or any other Afro-Caribbean styles and keep repeating it. My mind set is fine and can play in a lot of styles so not sure why that's an issue to bring up. I don't have to share who I like and not sure why it even matters? I don't really care what anyone does.

 

[newkeys]

Interesting discussion. And Carlos Embale is a boss.

 

ONE MORE IDEA TO PLAY WITH: If you want to learn to play Latin music better, it"s helpful to stop thinking of it as 'Latin music.' Brazilian music is Brazilian music. Cuban music is Cuban music. You can"t just mix and match the rhythmic elements of one tradition with the other (even though they have a common ancestry). This was a common mistake in old 'Latin' grooves on '50s-'60s jazz recordsâoften the drummers and bassists were playing some weird mashup of samba and mambo that (surprise!) never felt as good as real samba *or* real mambo.

 

Not meaning to be pedantic or politically correct here. But if one focuses on one musical tradition or the other, and becomes immersed for a couple years in hearing it, then it"s easier to start feeling and playing it naturally. The catch is, you have to love it so much you WANT to listen to it all day long. Because a musical tradition isn"t one lick or one groove, it"s a whole musical vocabularyâHear the language for a while, then you start speaking it.

 

Hope this is helpful somehow....

[CEB]

The hardest part is sitting next to the timbales.

[Reezekeys]

it"s helpful to stop thinking of it as 'Latin music.' Brazilian music is Brazilian music. Cuban music is Cuban music. You can"t just mix and match the rhythmic elements of one tradition with the other (even though they have a common ancestry).

I was curious to see how long it would take before someone brought up this minor point!

[uhoh7]

it"s helpful to stop thinking of it as 'Latin music.' Brazilian music is Brazilian music. Cuban music is Cuban music. You can"t just mix and match the rhythmic elements of one tradition with the other (even though they have a common ancestry).

I was curious to see how long it would take before someone brought up this minor point!

 

LOL "Latin Music" is useful as a container for many styles with the commonality being origin in Latin America. About as specific as "Europe". It does narrow the field.

 

I've been watching all the "Beyond Salsa" videos on YT. They are fantastic. Lots of documentaries on Cuban music, and it's dizzying threads and sources. Merengue, from Dominican Republic, "adopted" by ..... Jeez I gotta look that up again.

 

It is so fun to learn some of the fine points finnally, at 63. Great excercise for rhythmic awareness, to say the least.

 

Is this 3-2 or 2-3....wait start over. I'm am just working on getting 2-3 Clave into my head first. Is that a Montuno, or Tumbao?

 

Then there is learning all the drum and instrument names.....also which vary wildy from Brazil to Cuba.

 

For some of these styles the Brooklyn/Newark melting pot is a major factor as well.

 

Being able to instantly pull up videos about each is incredible.

 

 

 

[uhoh7]

Here is a little ditty I'm trying to get going in all 12 keys at around 100:

 

Montuno and Tumbao by unoh7, on Flickr

 

Give it a try...what do you think?