Son tradicional
Cuban son is a traditional genre of music that originated in the eastern regions of Cuba and blends African rhythms with Spanish melodies, forming the foundation for many modern Latin music styles such as salsa."
The earliest form (late 19th–early 20th century), small groups, rural/folk roots.
Instruments:
👉 Played in sextetos and septetos.
Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean and the birthplace of some of the world's most influential music and dance traditions. African, Spanish, and French cultural streams collided here over centuries of colonial history, producing an extraordinary creative culture that exported itself across the globe.
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The bongo is a pair of small open-bottomed drums played with fingers and palms. It originated in eastern Cuba and became one of the defining percussion voices of son and timba.
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The clave is a fundamental rhythmic pattern and organizing principle in Cuban music. It serves as both a musical pattern and a guiding concept, deeply rooted in Afro-Cuban traditions.
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The güiro is a notched gourd scraped with a stick or fork to produce a rasping, rhythmic sound. It is a standard feature of charanga orchestras and is central to danzón, cha-cha-chá, son, and salsa.
Lees meer >Maracas are a pair of rattles — originally hollow gourds filled with seeds — that go back to the Taíno, the Indigenous people of the Caribbean. In Cuban music they add rhythm and texture rather than melody, above all in son, where they are often played by one of the singers.
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The marímbula is an Afro-Cuban bass instrument derived from African lamellophones (thumb pianos). It provided the bass voice in early son ensembles before being replaced by the upright bass.
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The tres is a Cuban guitar-like instrument with three pairs (courses) of strings. It is the defining melodic-rhythmic instrument of son cubano and its ancestor genres.
Lees meer >The Spanish guitar arrived in Cuba with the colonizers and became the seed of Cuban music, blending with African rhythms. From inspiring the tres to shaping son, conjuntos, and even modern timba, its influence runs through every note of Cuba’s musical history.
Lees meer >Timba, the explosive and rhythmically rich genre of Cuban dance music, transformed how the bass functions in popular music. In Timba, the bass is not just foundational — it’s fiery, funky, and free.
Lees meer >When son first hit Havana, the sexteto format (6 instruments, no brass) was the model: guitar, tres, bongó, claves, maracas, and bass. These groups were lighter, closer to the rural sound but polished for urban dance halls. Famous example: Sexteto Habanero.
Lees meer >Adding a trumpet turned the sexteto into a septeto, giving it more projection for bigger venues and open-air dances. The trumpet also added space for improvisation, call-and-response with the singer, and a more “urban” flavor. Example: Septeto Nacional (Ignacio Piñeiro).
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