Foundations of Afro-Cuban Music:
Introduction to Rumba Guaguanco

This lesson was adapted from Arturo Rodriguez' in-depth study of guaguanco, called Rumba Guaguanco Conversations (ISBN 0-7866-4693-4, Mel Bay Publications, 1998). If you would like more information about this and other educational material by Arturo, please visit Interact and Learn.

Rumba celebrates life through singing, dancing and drumming. It is a "festival of sound and movement" created through the unison of different cultures, traditions and art forms. It is a mirror that reflects the social, political, religious, and economic conditions surrounding those who create, play, and dance rumba. Rumba evolved from many different musical influences, emerging as a mixture of Afro-Cuban traditions and a diverse, rapidly changing, and extremely expressive culture. It has, and continues to have, a dramatic impact on music today, and is especially recognizable in the extremely popular offshoot known as salsa.

There are three main types of rumba that dominate today - yambu, guaguanco, and columbia. Each descended from the ancestral music and dance brought to Cuba from Africa. While each form of rumba carries certain uniquely defining characteristics, they all share a common foundation in format:  

• Specific drumming patterns and instrumentation
• Special songs and song forms
• A great deal of improvisation

The clave rhythm, played with two wooden sticks, is the pulse of rumba. It sets the tempo, mood, and even the type of rumba to be danced. It is the metronome by which all the other rumba rhythms are metered.

Before we get into the "meat and potatoes" of guaguanco, let's quickly review the notation I use to illustrate rhythmic patterns and, while we're at it, reacquaint ourselves with two of the rhythmic patterns that are the foundation of rumba - clave and palitos.

Reading the Rhythmic Notation: There are several steps you must follow when learning each of the rhythmic parts presented in the remaining section of this lesson. These simple steps will allow you to quickly and easily move from reading a rhythmic part in the matrix to actually playing the part correctly.

Step One: Use your voice to form a "click track" that represents the rhythmic pattern you will be learning. Say "tick" (or "tock," or whatever word you're comfortable with) for each box in the matrix. Follow the boxes from left to right with your finger as you say each "tick."

Step Two: Modify your click track to correspond to the rhythmic part presented. As your finger moves across the line, verbally emphasize the boxes with the tone/stroke symbols in them.

Step Three: Start replacing the tick sounds you're emphasizing in the click track with your own vocalized interpretations of drum sounds (sound vocabulary). You should now be getting a sense of how the rhythm flows and sounds when it is actually played. Remember, if you can't say it, you can't play it!

Step Four: Finally, start converting the sound of the rhythm into its actual mechanics by playing the tones and strokes represented in the matrix on your conga. As you begin using the correct hand position, the rhythm will come alive. Once you get the hang of it, this will be your best method for acquiring all new rhythmic information in the remainder of this lesson.

The Drum Strokes: The individual drum strokes or tones to be played in a particular rhythm are represented in the matrix with the following symbols:

• B - Bass tone
• M - Muted or press tone
• O - Open tone
• S - Slap tone
• T - Touch stroke (more time-keeping than anything else)
• H/P - Heel/Tip stroke; the "H" indicates the heel portion and the "P" indicates the tip portion of the stroke
• U - Tilt shekere up
• D - Tilt shekere down

If a stroke is shown in brackets like this - [B], it is considered optional.

Clave: Clave is more than just an instrument or a rhythm. It is a concept around which all Afro-Cuban music is intricately woven. To play "out of clave" is akin to singing off key at Carnegie Hall. It just isn't done. However, clave is not just a rhythmic pattern you must learn if you are to become intimately familiar with Afro-Cuban music. Clave is something you must feel. It must become part of your subconscious mind, an integral part of your musical soul. This will take time and experience, so be patient.

There are many different clave patterns to know, but they all serve the same function. Clave acts as the backbone for rumba. It is a five-note phrase that repeats after every fourth down beat. The clave phrase syncopates the beat and adds swing to the music. It is the key to understanding how rumba is arranged and how it flows when it is played.

The clave phrase is comprised of the five accented beats shown in the rhythmic matrix below - 1, 1a, 2a, 3+, and 4.

Palitos: Just as the clave pattern syncopates the pulse, the palitos pattern syncopates clave. Palitos (literally "little sticks" provides the necessary swing to the music that drives the whole rhythm. It is generally played with drum or timbale sticks against a wood block.

Guaguanco Drum Patterns: Now that you have an understanding of the clave and palitos and can read the rhythmic matrices, it's time to learn some of the individual drum parts for rumba guaguanco. The individual rumba guaguanco drum parts fit together like a jigsaw puzzle or the instruments in an orchestra. Each orchestral instrument has a certain role and responsibility. Taken individually, the instruments only play notes and rhythms but, conducted together, they create a symphony. Similarly, the individual drum parts, along with shakers, clave and palitos, interweave their intricate rhythms to make up the rumba guaguanco ensemble.

In this lesson, three drum parts provide the supporting rhythms for rumba guaguanco - bombo, tumba, and segundo. A fourth and lead drum part - quinto - provides additional support but, for the most part, is completely free for improvisation. The basic pattern or ride is the base rhythm played for each drum part in guaguanco. Each part needs to be played with a certain feeling or "groove." Groove is a term used loosely in music to mean "play in a pocket of space defined by your part, play in time, and play in relationship to the other parts of the ensemble." Of course, this is easier said then done! It becomes increasingly more difficult to play and stay "in the groove" as the number of parts in an ensemble increases, and especially as you begin to improvise within your own part.

Basic Ride for Rumba Guaguanco Supporting Drums: The basic ride for the supporting drums in rumba guaguanco is shown in the matrix below. The matrix also shows how each basic ride is mapped to the pulse, clave, and palitos base rhythms. Each drum part should be learned in relationship to clave and palitos, and also in relationship to each other. You must understand and be able to distinguish each separate relationship to master rumba as a whole.

The Lead Drum - Quinto: The role of the quinto drum is to mark and accentuate the male dancer's steps and movements through highly improvised playing. When there is no dancing, the quinto player tries to weave phrases in and around the singer's voice, embellishing it with rhythm. These improvisations get more and more energetic and aggressive during the course of the rumba and reach a peak during the danced portions. The quinto player's challenge is to stretch the rhythm within its boundaries without destroying the flow of the music.

Quinto Basic Ride: Use the matrix below to learn the basic ride for the quinto. As you progress, eliminate the touch strokes that are used in the basic ride just to maintain a consistent pace.

Modified Quinto Pattern: The simple quinto pattern shown below expands on the quinto basic ride by replacing the muted tones shown in the previous matrix with the appropriate quinto drum strokes. The touch strokes have also been eliminated. Notice that this pattern spans two clave phrases, not just one. It begins with the "question" (or "call") portion, followed by the "answer" (or "response") portion.

Arturo Rodriguez is a percussionist, author and clinician. He is the author of Rumba Guaguanco Conversations, Bembe Conversations, and Traditional Afro-Cuban Concepts in Contemporary Music (Mel Bay Publications), as well as a series of ethnic percussion "mini-courses" available through his company, Interact and Learn. He regularly conducts lessons, workshops, and clinics in the Pacific Northwest, is an annual presenter at the World Rhythm Festival in Seattle, Washington, and holds classes each semester for the University of Washington's ASUW Experimental College.