Rumba Instruments

California has had several excellent drum makers. Recently a newer company, Isla Percussions run by the indubious Mario Punchard is re...

Rumba is often described as a mixture of European and African musical traditions. While probably an accurate description, I think it leave...

There are many styles of rumba, some are very popular and others relatively obscure. For some reason I have always been interested in th...

The tumba is the lowest pitched drum in a rumba. Right now the drum manufacturers are labeling this drum as "tumba", but it can a...

Bells are a big part of Afro-Cuban music and rumba. Traditionally it is rumba columbia that uses the bell to play what most people call the...

Shekeres are a great instrument. The instrument goes by a couple of different spellings: chekere, shekere, agbe and I think calabash in som...

I had read somewhere that claves were pieces of wood used in shipbuilding; pegs to hold the ship together before treated metal fasteners. T...

Claves play the clave. The first is the name of the instrument and the second is the name of the rhythm. Not all claves are played by cla...

One of my guaguas was sold to Rafael over at Sentimiento Manana blog a great blog about rumba, with a focus on the "good ol' days...

Partly for my blog and partly for the search engines I am going to list some of the instruments used in a rumba ensemble. Congas / Conga /...