Level 5 · Styles & Musicality · 5-2
Rumba groove
Tresillo skeleton plus ghosts - a real Spanish-bar groove.
What you play
B bass · S snare · g ghost · rest1
B
&
g
2
g
&
B
3
g
&
g
4
S
&
g
75 BPM
startpass
How to play it
- 1Play the tresillo from 5-1 with ghosts filling the spaces: bass ghost ghost, bass ghost ghost, snare ghost.
- 2Keep the 3-3-2 skeleton audible. Bass and snare hold the shape and the ghosts decorate it, never blur it.
- 3Loosen up. This groove wants to dance, not march, and it is genuinely gig-ready.
- 4Sing any rumba or reggaetón song you know over the top of it.
- 5Record about 90 seconds.
Listen forThe 3-3-2 skeleton staying clearly audible through the ghost notes at a steady tempo, with a flowing feel.
start 75 · pass 105 BPM · take about 90s
Record a take
I start the click at 75 BPM, count one bar, and stop after about 90s. Phone about a metre away, facing the front plate. You get my notes within a minute of sending it.
Watch out for
- • Ghosts as loud as the skeleton, so the shape disappears
- • Straightening back into even eighths as it speeds up
- • Tension rising with the tempo. It should feel easier, not harder.
Read about this
- The rumba pattern on cajónThe flamenco groove, built up from the 3-3-2 skeleton underneath it.
Play this for real
- The rumba flamenca groove on cajón100 BPM · The groove behind a Spanish guitar in a bar. Bass, backbeat and a floor of ghosts.