Colombian Rhythms on the Drumset: A Tour Accross Colombian Rhythms

By Rafael Leal

Colombian music is the result of a mixture of African, Indigenous, and Spanish musical traditions. Over time, this music evolved and became known worldwide. As part of this evolution, we have been adding new instruments to the existing traditional elements; for example, and among these, the Drum Set. The Drum Set, as a universal percussion instrument has the advantage of adaptation to different musical situations, and since its invention has been utilized in a variety of musical genres and traditions. Drummers of different nationalities and countries around the world have been expressing on the drums their musical ideas and rhythms no matter where they live or they were born. This is the mission of Colombian Drummers in our purpose to spread the country’s rhythmic traditions. In the next pages you will find numerous possible combinations, orchestrations, and also, playing 24 rhythms from Colombia (Cumbia, Porro, Vallenato, Fandango, Puya, Mapale, Bambuco, Currulao and others). All of them are based on traditional grooves extracted from the folkloric Colombian drums. Also, audio examples are included to help the student listen to the grooves in context.

• Language: English
• Publisher: eLibros
• Release date: Feb 13, 2019
• ISBN: 9789585949973

Book preview

Pulido.

Introduction

COLOMBIAN MUSIC is the result of a mixture of African, Indigenous, and Spanish musical traditions.

Over time, this music evolved and became known worldwide. As part of this evolution, we have been adding new instruments to the existing traditional elements; for example, and among these, the Drum Set.

The Drum Set, as a universal percussion instrument has the advantage of adaptation to different musical situations, and since its invention has been utilized in a variety of musical genres and traditions. Drummers of different nationalities and countries around the world have been expressing their musical ideas and rhythms no matter where they live or were born. The purpose of Colombian Drummers is to spread the country’s rhythmic traditions.

In the next pages you will find numerous possible combinations, orchestrations, and also 25 rhythms from Colombia. All of them are based on traditional grooves extracted from the folkloric Colombian rhythms. Audio examples are included in the ebook to help the student listen to the grooves in context.

I hope you will enjoy this journey across the Colombian music.

RAFAEL F. LEAL RAMIREZ

Prologue

DUE TO THE DIFFICULTY of integrating all the different branches of Colombian music in a single instruction block, our goal with this investigation is to broadly scope the most representative native rhythms of the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts, as well as the interior of the country. In order to learn and apply these rhythms properly, several formulas are provided. The students, adding their creativity, are encouraged to develop new and original variations.

The musicians that participated in this investigation are well known authorities on the subject. They possess not only the academic background but, through their professional experience as musicians on the bandstand, the direct knowledge of the music of each region of the country.

The final goal is that based upon these foundations, the drummer will be able to explore the endless possibilities found in each rhythm.

African and European Backgrounds

One of the most influential contributions to the development of Colombian musical folklore is that of the African. It first appeared in Colombian culture near the second half of the 16th century, and its influence growth in the 17th and 18th centuries parallel to the intense work at the mines by the hacienda laborers.

The African style contributed to Colombian music not only focusing on one rhythm specifically, but in polyrhythms. This added numerous elements to the general Atlantic and Pacific art-lore. The music still bears strong influence in the parties and dances of contemporary Colombian society.

This native rhythm is also expressed in the dance-like gestures of the tamborero (drummer), in the movement of his hands and other body parts, and in the sounds and syllables that keep the attention of the tamboreros and dancers.

The historian Javier Ocampo Lopez, in an research about Colombian music and folklore, points out that among the African instruments surviving in the country, the drum has a special place. This is because of the ritualistic, constant pulsing character of the instrument.

Among the most important instruments within the drums family we must include: the Cununo, the Lumbalu drum from San Basilio de Palenque and the Tamalameque Bass Drum. Also important are the Rattle and the Marimba.

Ocampo explains that between the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spaniards –in their process of colonial expansion and cultural diffusion– introduced their chants, dances, musical spirit and instruments to many distant sea colonies. This Spanish spirit became popular at the gatherings and celebrations of the colonial aristocracy, in popular parties, the farms and growing cities. This music mixes the Flamenco with an Andaluz joy, and Castilian cadences and melodies with the mysterious sound of Arabic music.

The minority stamens (portrayers of diverse traditions, dances and chants –both Indigenous and African) knew the melodies and Spanish rhythms and assimilated them with adaptations to their own musical spirit. They learned to play Guitar, and the Tiple, and were able to interpret the peninsular dances, but also added the sadness and indigenous calmness, to the movement of African rhythms.

This is how the Spanish survivals (which went from the aristocratic saloons to the popular masses) became integrated into the folklore. Through songs and dances, Spaniards also introduced the instruments which accompanied dances and popular chants. Among them you’ll find the Guitar, Bandola (a Mandolin-like instrument), Tiple (a small 12-string guitar), Requinto (a Treble guitar) and other stringed instrument variations.

In the end, the Tiple has become the standard instrument of the Colombian interior. It accompanies ballad players, serenade musicians, students, trios, duets and other ensembles that preserve the native essence.

Popular Tradition

Colombian music makes possible to experience the authentic spirit of popular farmer parties: in the mismatch dance, in the rural district parties, carnivals and other manifestations of popular joy in which folklore shows off its spontaneity.

In these celebrations you can enjoy the Torbellinos, Guabinas, Bambucos and Pasillos that the farmer plays to their content, by composing and interpreting following the tradition. Much of this music comes from their parents and grandparents, who in turn learned it from their ancestors.

In many places the joy of parties depended almost entirely on the bands. Famous bands which began gathering at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. Among the most popular: Guatavita, Tunja, Girardot, Espinal, Aguadas, Sonson, Medellin and Manizales.

Religious parades, fireworks, bullfights (often improvised inside the Plaza fences), popular parties and the entrances of politicians and high civil dignitaries all were accompanied by the sound of popular music bands.

Folkloric Zones of the Country

Each Colombian region possesses a specific folklore that owes this to the cultural, geographical and human diversity of different zones.

In his study Música y Folklore de Colombia, Javier Ocampo analyzes folkloric areas of the country as follows:

Andean Folklore (mestizo and Spanish heritage):

Folklore from Antioquia: Antioquia, Caldas, Risaralda y Quindio

Folklore from Cauca: Cauca and Valle del Cauca

Folklore from Nariño: Nariño and Putumayo

Folklore from Tolima: Tolima and Huila

Cundiboyacense Folklore: Cundinamarca and Boyaca

Folklore from Santander: Santander and North of Santander

Folklore from Los Llanos –Eastern Plains– (mestizo and Spanish heritage): this folklore corresponds to the Orinoquia folklore in the Casanare, Meta and Arauca plains, with similar modalities in the Colombian and Venezuelan plains.

Coastal Folklore (African and mestizo heritage): this corresponds to the Atlantic Coast areas of La Guajira, Magdalena, Cesar, Atlantico, Bolivar, Sucre and Cordoba, including the folklore of San Andres and Providencia islands.

Pacific Folklore (mestizo and African heritage): this corresponds to the folklore from Choco and the Pacific Littoral from the Valle, Cauca and Nariño areas.

Indigenous Folklore (Indigenous heritage): this corresponds to the Amazon folklore and other areas where Colombian indigenous groups are located (Vichada, Guaviare, Guania, Vaupes and Amazonas).

Folklore reflects some specific features from the people of each region, but also characters genetically traits from each zone’s population: Antioquia’s hard workers, due in part to the challenges of the mountain; the individualism and evasive spirit of the people of Santander; the melancholy of Boyaca’s inhabitants, influenced by the Andean landscapes and Chibcha heritage.

Also, the extroverted personality of coastal inhabitants –owed, without a doubt, to the weather, the landscape and the ‘hot’ character of these people. Also, one can find the joyous spirit of the Plains man, in whom manifests (in the Joropo, Galerones and Passages) the elation that the grandeur of the Plains produces.

One aspect we must bear in mind about regional folklore is the influence of borders in the integration of numerous heritages. For example, in the Eastern Plains, both the musical folklore and the traditions in general, go along with the popular expressions of the Venezuelan Plain. It is not strange to listen to Joropos, other plain dances, and common chants in the so called Colombian-Venezuelan Plateaus. In the south, specially in Nariño especially, it is easy to see people enjoying Pasacalles, Sanjuanitos and Ecuadorian Pasillos. Likewise, one can’t elude the influence of AfroCuban music in coastal music, integrated in the mulatto area of the Caribbean, from the north of Brazil to the Antilles.

By analyzing the Spaniard musical heritage, we must take into account that most of its projection is to be found in Colombian Andean musical folklore. A mestizo population par excellence. We can find it, for example, in Bambucos, Pasillos, Torbellinos, Guabinas, El Tres, La Trenza, El Sanjuanero, La Copa, La Media Caña, La Perdiz, La Matarredonda and other folkloric dances and rhythms from the Colombian Andes. Likewise, plateau folkloric dances and spirit are closely related to Spanish dances, chants and rhythms. In fact, many are adaptations of peninsular rhythms that in time have fused with others of native origins. From this encounter emerges the nationalistic character that identifies it nowadays.

Differently from what occurs in Bolivia, Peru and Mexico, Colombian music from the mestizo area –the most important of the country because of demographic concentration and economic development–, does not offer a whole lot of indigenous elements. The tendency relates mostly to national folklore of Spaniard survivals Ocampo says.

Rhythmic Variety

Colombian music has great rhythmic variety. Diverse ethnic contributions, along with demographics, influence the character and modalities from which it manifests.

Not in vain, some of its dances have circled the world. Its music became an inspiration for international bands and singers of Jazz, Rock, Latin and Pop music.

Introduction Track

There is audio content at this location that is not currently supported by your reading system.

Cumbia, Vallenato and Porro

WE WILL BEGIN the exposition on Colombian rhythms by describing the playing technique of some of the original rhythms of the Atlantic Coast. These examples have been transcribed taking into account the native patterns of each rhythm, as well as other interpreting variations.

The Drum Set, as a universal percussion instrument, approximated and adjusted to some of the native Colombian percussion instruments. A specific case would be the Hi-hat, when played with the heel, which produces a similar sound to the Guache and Maraca of the Atlantic

Reviews for Colombian Rhythms on the Drumset

[Arturo Posada Gonzalez · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

cómo los puedo descargar en mi CEL ayuda porfa
gracias