Contemporary Latin music

• Carlos Santana
• Santana's style

  • Vibrato - plays long notes with very little or no vibrato
  • Ornamentation - often uses mordents. Also has a highly developed tremolo picking technique where he rapidly picks a single string
  • Riff construction - riffs tend to be melodically simple but rhythmically complex with lots of syncopation
  • Tone - tended to be quite raw. Would often use volume tone carefully to move from clean to distorted tones
  • Effects - uses very few effects, sometimes used a wah-wah pedal board
• Samba

  • 2/4 or 4/4
  • Fast tempo
  • Major key
  • Surdo maching footsteps rhythm
  • Call and response
  • Breaks
• Salsa

  • Use of son clave rhythm
  • 3 sections: verse, monuto (chorus with improvisation and call and response), and mambo with new material (horns)
  • Repetitive piano riffs
• Tango

  • Cuban habanera rhythms
  • Slow tempo with use of triplets and syncopation
  • 2/4 or 4/4
• Common Latin features

  • Pop song structure
  • Guitar and bass riffs
  • 4/4 metre
  • Repetitive piano grooves
  • Use of son clave rhythm
  • Lip trills in brass part
  • Bo Diddley beat
  • Falsetto in vocal line
  • Lyrics may be in Spanish or English
  • Horn section in harmony or unison
• Turn


  A musical ornament where the player rapidly 'turns' around the note
• Trill


  An ornament where the player rapidly moves between two notes
• Pitch bend

  Bending the strings on an instrument such as the guitar
• Glissando

  Sliding between notes
• Riff

  A catchy musical idea
• Improvisation

  Making it up as you go along
• Ostinato

  A repeated musical phrase
• Sequence

  Repetition of an idea at a higher or lower pitch
• Piano groove

  A short chordal idea that is repeated at different pitches in salsa
• Tonic

  The first degree of the scale
• Dominant

  The 5th degree of the scale
• Inversion

  Where a note from the chord (other than the root) appears as its lowest in pitch
• Dominant 7th

  A minor 7th added to a major chord e.g. chord V
• Minor 7th


  A minor 7th added to a minor chord e.g. chord ii
• Major 7th


  A major chord added to a major 7th e.g. C Maj 7th
• Intervals


  Name/sounds of major 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th & octave
• Pentatonic


  The use of scales with only 5 notes
• Modulation

  Process of changing from one key to another
• Keys

  Up to 4 sharps and flats
• Modal

  A type of scale
• Bridge


  Or 'middle 8' - a contrasting section often returning to the chorus
• Chorus


  A repeating section of music
• Verse

  Musically the same each time but with different lyrics
• Strophic


  Each verse set to the same music
• Break


  A section where the whole band stops and then starts again
• Call & response


  One instrument answering another (sometimes called antiphony)
• Intro/ending

  A section at the start/end of the piece
• Cyclic

  Music in which one section repeats over and over
• Congas

  Tall wooden drums - Latin percussion instrument
• Double tracking


  Recording the same idea twice on different tracks to produce a chorus type effect
• Feedback

  Using the amplifier to set up vibration with the strings on electric guitar producing a howling effect
• Vibrato


  A rapid variation in pitch employed by singers/instrumentalists
• Horn section

  A group of wind/brass instruments in rock/soul/jazz etc
• Lip trills

  Using the lips to produce a trill effect on brass instruments