Category: Songwriting

Latin American dance styles Latin American music is often closely related to par

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.

You will start the essay with a proper introduction describing the paper and wha

You will start the essay with a proper
introduction describing the paper and wha

You will start the essay with a proper
introduction describing the paper and what you will discuss. You will list the concert you attended and
the sidemen/sidewomen and their instruments. The paper will include a short biography on the
bandleader and a description of each of the songs you heard, so please take notes. If they do not
announce all the songs, find a bandmember afterwards and ask them the song names. Take notes on
the tempos of each song, the vibes, the feelings each evoked, and anything else that comes to mind.
The majority of the paper will be your thoughts on the songs and the concert as a whole. What did you
enjoy about it? What connected with you? Have you heard anything like it before? What didn’t you
like about the music? Was anything fun? Distracting? Who do you know that you would recommend
the show to? Why? Do you see any similarity between this performance and any of the music you
listen to or buy? Would you go again? Were any of the sidemen/women impressive enough for you to
seek out their own albums? What was the venue like? Classy, rundown? Who were the people in the
audience with you? What were your thoughts on them? Did everyone seem to be enjoying the music?
How were they expressing it? Was there food? Drinks? Were people talking? Was it loud? These
are just a few of the questions that you could discuss and expound upon; the more creative and original
you are with your paper the better your grade will be.
The introduction, concert info, sidemen/women names and instruments and short bandleader biography
are necessary, but your thorough and honest reactions to the album are the essential and most important
part of the paper

MUS 1930. Assignment on Romantic Music (I Listen to this piece by Chopin, Noctur

MUS 1930. Assignment on Romantic Music (I
Listen to this piece by Chopin, Noctur

MUS 1930. Assignment on Romantic Music (I
Listen to this piece by Chopin, Nocturne in D-flat Major.
Tasks:
1. What makes this piece an example of a character piece,
according to the definition given in the lecture?
2. What is Romantic about this piece? In other words, why
this piece could never be an example of music of the
Classical Period (Mozart for example)? Please reason your
response using the explanations in the lecture. You can also
be subjective in your appreciation, but it must be based on
your analysis of the music. Approximately 200 words.