LATIN AMERICAN INSTRUMENTS

STRINGS WIND PERCUSSION

STRINGS:
CHARANGO
- is a strummed and plucked bowl-lute chordophone of the Andean regions
- A hybrid instrument influenced by both European and pre-Columbian
musical culture.
- The player usually strums the strings with the right hand, stopping the
strings against the fretted fingerboard with the fingertips of the left hand.

BERIMBAU
- Brazilian musical bow, made of wood, that is used primarily to accompany
the martial art known as capoeira.
- By occasionally pressing the cabaca against his abdomen, the player can
produce timbral changes.

WIND:
ANDEAN QUENA FLUTE
- is the traditional flute of the Andes. Traditionally made of cane or wood, it has 6
finger holes and one thumb hole, and is open on both ends or the bottom is half-
closed. To produce sound, the player closes the top end of the pipe with the flesh
between the chin and lower lip, and blows a stream of air downward. It produces a
very "textured and "dark" timbre.

PAN PIPES
- also known as ‘syrinx’. It consists of a collection of end blown flutes joined in a
bundle or raft. To play them, the musician simply blows smoothly across the open
end of the tube. The larger the pipe, the deeper the tone.

TRUMPETS
Is a brass wind musical instrument sounded by lip vibration against a cup
mouthpiece. It is played by blowing air through nearly-closed lips producing a
"buzzing" sound that starts a standing wave vibration in the air column inside the
instrument.

ZAMPOÑ A
are a series of hollow “pipes” made from hollow reeds found near lakes in the high
mountains. It is also called siku or sikuri. It is played by blowing horizontally across
the open end against the sharp inner edge of the pipes. This creates the regular
series of pulses which generate the sound waves within the tubes.
PERCUSSION:
BOMBOS / BONGOS
is a pair of small drums of different sizes; The hembra is the bigger size which
means female in Spanish and the macho is the smaller size which stands for male.
The bongo drums are connected, and they are played as one.

Traditionally, you hold the bongos between your legs with the smaller drum on your
left. Playing techniques: The open tone, The Slap, The heel tip movement, The basic
muted tone

MARACAS
It is shaken by a handle and usually played as part of a pair. Stones or beans rattle
against the hollow case in time to the beat of the music.
The maracas should be held upright with the handle held vertically to the body and
shaken forwards and backwards. A single maraca can be played by tapping it into
the palm of the hand.

CONGA DRUMS
It is a tall single head drum that is narrow and it is often played while sitting in base.
It is often played in sets of two to four but are not attached like bongo drums with a
bridge.
It is played with the fingers and the palms of the hands and drum sticks or mallets.
There are five main strokes that congueros use when playing the conga drums.
These include the open tone, muffled or mute tone, bass tone, slap tone, and the
touch tone.

SCRAPER
A percussion instrument consisting of a serrated surface. Scraping instruments
usually have a ridged or rough edge and are played by scraping the rough body with
a stick or a comb. It is played through rubbing the stick or scraper.
The sound created by scraping instruments is used as an accompaniment played in a
rhythmic pattern. Examples are the washboard and the guiro. To play the
washboard, the player uses either a whisk broom or metal thimble worn on fingers.

MARIMBA
is one of many African names for the xylophone. It is a set of wooden bars struck
with yarn or rubber mallets. Marimba keys have tubular or gourd resonators
underneath to amplify the sound made from striking the bars.

The layout of a marimba is much like the layout of a piano where the sharps and
flats (the black keys) are represented by the upper row. It has graduated bars, the
size of the bars change with each note. Thicker bars are lower in pitch. Thinner bars
have higher pitches.

GUIRO
a long, hollow gourd with ridges that produce sound when a stick, called a pua, is
scraped along the sides of the instrument. The guiro is a percussion idiophone
because the entire instrument vibrates to create sound.
It is played by rubbing a wooden stick or scraper along the grooves to create a
rasping sound. It is played by holding the gourd in the palm of the left hand with the
thumb held in a sound hole on the back.