Intervenciones a las bases de percusión del trío de salsa: bongó, tumbadoras y timbal.

Abstract

Over time in my career as a percussionist, and thanks to the experience acquired in different groups involving Afro-Caribbean percussion, various concerns have arisen related to the study methods and roles that performers face when playing in a tropical music orchestra, considering that most of the rhythms or genres interpreted by these ensembles are often taught through oral tradition and very rarely through written means, such as percussion guides or sheet music. This particular aspect generated in my academic process the concern and the initiative to systematize some of these rhythms. This search led to this work, whose intention is to leave a written document that serves as reference material for musicians who are inclined to study what is known as Salsa. The particular interest in delving into this music arises at the moment of facing its study, since there are some learning methods of the rhythmic patterns that are habitually used in Salsa, which provide the basic tools for the performance of the percussionist in a group and have established the rhythmic bases of said music. This study is specifically based on a trend that has been observed for some years, in which percussionists who move within the Afro-Caribbean sphere combine the bases in different ways, managing to find new sounds. However, these combinations have not been fully systematized, and some can only be taken as a reference when transcribing them using audio or video recordings. The aim of this work is to highlight the rhythmic patterns that have been established as percussion bases in Salsa, in addition to the process of intervention of these patterns, using rhythmic variation and timbral variation as parameters of conformation. This process will result in a series of 12 basic patterns that contribute to the study of Salsa and the instrumental development of percussionists who approach this topic. A chapter will also be included dedicated to the morphological evolution of the instruments used in this music: Timbal, Tumbadora and Bongó, and a brief contextual account of the socio-cultural phenomenon of Salsa.