Latin American dance styles
Latin American music is often closely related to particular styles of dance. Some traditional Latin American dance and musical styles include:
Salsa
Originating from Cuba, this dance has a time signature of 4/4. It is based on a repeated rhythm, called clave rhythm, and follows a repeated pattern of chords. The piano is prominent, playing syncopated broken chords. Congas and cow bells can be heard and it often features question and answer style melodies.
Rumba
Rumba is another Cuban dance, but it can also be found in other Caribbean islands. It is slower, with a time signature of 4/4. Like many of the other dances, the syncopated rhythms are of African origin.
Cha-cha
Of Cuban origin, this dance style takes its name from the rhythm of the guiro – the scraper – and the shuffling of the dancers’ feet. The time signature can be 2/4 or 4/4.
Merengue
Originating from the Dominican Republic with a time signature of 2/4 but featuring syncopated groups of five drum hits.
Samba
An energetic dance associated with the carnivals of Brazil with a time signature of 2/4. A large drum called a surdo plays the pulse on the beat, with layers of repeated syncopated patterns played on smaller drums, shakers and agogo bells.
Bossa Nova
A genre of samba and jazz with a time signature of 2/4. In Bossa Nova, there is more emphasis placed on melody than rhythmic percussion.
Tango
A very dramatic and passionate dance from Argentina. It has a time signature of 4/4, features a syncopated ostinato and contains repeated accented notes. Legato phrases are contrasted with short stacatto notes and glissandi.
Other styles and instruments
The Spanish and Portuguese brought numerous styles of music with them to the Latin American countries, including finger snapping and castanets playing – commonly associated with the Spanish flamenco dance style.
Castanets are concave shells held in the hand and are used to provide clicks for rhythmic accents or to produce a rattling sound. They are traditionally made of hardwood and accompany the acoustic guitar.
Bongo drums are an Afro-Cuban percussion instrument consisting of two drums which are held between the knees and played with fingers and the palm of the hand.
They are fairly high-pitched in sound compared to the larger and lower sounding congas and usually play a steady ostinato. They are commonly heard in salsa and Afro-Cuban jazz and play solos which contain improvisation.
Pan pipes
Music containing the pan pipes can be heard in countries in the Andes mountain range and several other Latin American countries. They are also used in some music of Asia and central Europe as well as being referenced within Greek mythology.
Traditional pan pipes are hollow bamboo tubes bound together. The tubes vary in length in order to produce notes of differing pitches. Pan pipes are played by blowing across the top of the hollow tubes, a similar technique to blowing across the top of a bottle.
Pan pipes can often be heard accompanied by wooden flutes, small traditional guitars called charangos and drums.