Ebook: Essential Guide To Latin Styles For Keyboard

Latin American music is dance music from South and Central America, particularly Brazil, Cuba and the Caribbean islands. It is influenced by both European and African music, as will become clear in the course of this book. Most of the time, tempos are medium to fast (ranging from a = 96 to J =220!), though af e w slow pieces are included to let you get your breath back.
Most Latin American music is basedo n afew basic styles. These
have all been included in this book, as have some variations
which demonstrate how a particular style can be altered to create a different mood.
The instrumentation in a Latin band tends to be:
• percussion (between 1 and 6 players)
• drum kit (but only in recent years - in "traditional" Latin
bands, drum kit is not included) • bass (upright or electric)
• piano
• guitar (electric and/or acoustic)
• 1 or 2 lead instruments, typically flute, trumpet,
saxophone or guitar The percussion section includes:
• claves
• cowbells (various pitches) • timbales
• cabasa
• triangle
• guiro
• maracas and/or various shakers • congas and/or bongos
If you don't have al the percussion instruments listed, you can improvise a Latin American percussion section - for claves, use
woodblock; for timbales, use pots and pans; for cowbell, use a small saucepan; for guiro, use a washboard scraped with a knitting needle.
Latin American music should above all be fun to play. Look around for potential instruments - fi itmakes a good sound, use it! Every kitchen or garage contains a potential Latin percussion section (but don't use the best pressure cooker!)