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The instruments of a salsa band

4.Scrapers and shakers

These keep a steady, busy texture going under everything else.

  • A Cuban güiro: a long gourd with ridges cut across it

    Güiro

    A hollow gourd with ridges cut into it. A stick scrapes across the ridges: a long scrape on 1, 3, 5 and 7, then two short ones after each.
  • A shékere: a round gourd covered in a net of white beads

    Shékere

    A dried gourd covered in a net of beads. Shaking it makes a bright rattle; here it marks every other beat.
ListenEl BodegueroOrquesta Aragón · 1955A cha-cha-chá by Cuba's great charanga band. Under the flute and violins, the güiro scrapes its steady pattern through the whole song.