How to Play the Guiro

Percussion master Bobby Sanabria tells you more about the history of the güiro, and demonstrates some patterns that you can use when playing it.
Learn more at the Jazz Academy by visiting academy.jazz.org
Bobby Sanabria - Güiro
Eric Suquet - Director
Bill Thomas - Director of Photography
Aaron Chandler - Sound Engineer
Richard Emery - Production Assistant
Seton Hawkins - Producer
Recorded July 17, 2013

[@Sweetamber222]

Wow. Nothing is ever as simple as it seems.

[@notchrisrivera7717]

Sorry but it helps if you got the Cumbia blood in you 🤣

[@Mistrhappy]

@@notchrisrivera7717 Cumbia typically uses guira. Guiro is usually used in Cuban music. Guess you don't have the blood in you lol

[@PaulTheSkeptic]

Well, I'm a musician and I'm trying to think of the easiest simplest instrument and, I think you're right. You'd be surprised at just how much technique goes into playing tambourine, maracas, claves and other simple percussion instruments. I heard one guy play the tambourine and it was amazing. It sounded almost like a whole drum set the way he did it.

[@TahtahmesDiary]

My 4 year old just brought a frog with ridges in my house up to me and asked what it was called and she really loved playing along and actually had a few beats going by a third of the way through. Very cool video, thanks for teaching!

[@Mistrhappy]

That's a coqui, made to imitate the Puerto Rican frog of the same name.

[@cashagon]

I never realized what that sound was in Latin songs. Very cool to know.

[@mikefarmer1082]

Very informative to this 65y/o lifetime musician. Just beginning the study of Latin rythms.

[@Ernest-From-England]

Me and my friends just remember it as "scrapey fish"

[@williammoreno-pp1og]

The quiro was also on the main lands played by many natives through central and South America!

[@PaulTheSkeptic]

I'm no expert but I've found that most of these Latin instruments have a hundred different names and they're played in a hundred different ways by different traditions throughout Latin America. It's pretty fascinating how a seemingly simple instrument can be used with so much diversity. I'm a bit of an ameteur musicologist. I love learning about this stuff.

[@williammoreno-pp1og]

@@PaulTheSkeptic indeed many things are used the drums are African origin while the maracas and Quiro are Amerindian orgin, the rest are European, all use too make one music in many Different ways.

[@PaulTheSkeptic]

@@williammoreno-pp1og Yep. It's a big old mix that makes the music we're used to hearing today. I'd love to be able to go back in time to hear the music poor people were playing in the 16 and 1700's. We know a lot about the European tradition with its standard musical notation but there's a lot we don't know about as well.

[@williammoreno-pp1og]

@@PaulTheSkeptic that’s true ,I barley know my peoples music lol, I just found out that we have many shaped drums not just the ones you see in Mayan and Aztec dances, we also have hand drums and small shaped ones, that sound middle eastern and African!

[@PaulTheSkeptic]

@@williammoreno-pp1og What is your people? I'm just a wasp from Florida but I love the blues and folk music and all kinds of music. It's more and more recognized just how much we owe to black people, creole people and all the repressed and discriminated against people for American music. Right now I'm learning the banjo and the history of the banjo is just fascinating. The banjo as we know it was probably invented by slaves but banjo like instruments have appeared in artworks going back to the beginning of the Columbian exchange throughout the American colonies and surrounding islands. Forgive me but this stuff is my passion. I don't mean to talk your ear off. Lol.

[@FeedbackPete1]

I googled to find out what this instrument was called. The Thompson Twins used it a lot. Notably band member Alannah Currie used it on the track Who Can Stop The Rain. And it was all those little percussive sounds we loved about the Thompson Twins that made them unique.

[@bernardegreteau]

Very nice! I always wondered about the guiro, and now is the answer. Thanx for that M. Sanabria.

[@JulianFernandez]

Bobby is the man!

[@waltergalindo6936]

Yes he is this is Walter Galindo yes she's the man

[@JErock25]

1:34 - Chachachá (one bar - Clave neutral) 2:24 - Chachachá + 2/3 and 3/2 clave 2:47 - Uptempo chachachá 2:59 - Machete en güiro 3:12 - Switching from chachachá (son clave) to machete (rumba clave) *Bobby says he'll play the clave, but what he plays isn't exactly it 4:02 - Machete en güiro (two-bar pattern - Clave aligned) 4:55 - When to play machete? Rumba

[@gringochucha]

Gracias, Bobby. ¡Como siempre una excelente lección!

[@mattmilford8106]

It's called macho because it looks like a phallus, but it's always breaking because people sit on it. 😂

[@sugarcandy654]

Not a strong macho I see👀

[@johnwooton]

Great lesson Bobby. I'm sending my students here to learn guiro!

[@caramajaka]

Nice job, Bobby S. - your down-to-Earth approach was exactly what I needed. Thank you!

[@EarthtonesCymbals]

I play drum set and watched the whole video. Respect and best wishes!

[@jaredlindh4516]

Great video at a great time for me. I just bought that LP Super Guiro that he's using. Great place to start for me.

[@ilikejohncalvin]

Thank you for this video. I've been trying to explain to another percussionist. actually a music teacher, that his scraping in both directions puts the a weak and sometime off accent on what is supposed to be the down stroke. It throws the percussion breaks off big time. But he claims that "evens out the up-down motion" by not lifting the scraper from the guiro.

[@jordinmichael7752]

Kk

[@jimikrentkowski4073]

I have to get this awesome instrument! Rolling Stones used it on gimme shelter, love that sound!

[@josephkiesel4695]

He’s shredding!!!

[@PaulTheSkeptic]

Spanish music or Latin music or whatever it's called, it's fascinating. So many individual percussionists playing all that up tempo stuff in complex syncopated patterns with ace precision. I'm more interested in adding a bit of percusion to my acoustic music but when you get all those guys together, you can't help but move.

[@CarlosGonzalez-ro2ow]

I play Banda Sinaloence and this is very helpfull thank you!

[@jerrydonquixote5927]

Thanks for this I like this sound in the Gimme Shelter.

[@suncityrocker844]

cool! I'd like to learn cumbia with this wooden style guiro... any help?

[@darwinhaughton7713]

My kids should learn that because it looks so amazing

[@happilyablindmusician643]

Mrs. Kenette had one of those. She was a former music teacher that I once had when I was at school. She has passed away from cancer. I love music and I want one of those for Christmas but I don’t know how to explain what it is to my parents, which is why I haven’t told them that I want a guiro. I am blind and was wondering how do you play it and if you could make a video that was accessible for the blind on how to plant.

[@bearmacmahon6731]

Are your Conga lessons, that came out in VHS, available on dvd?? If not, when... or why not. They are great!

[@antoniocruz1163]

Nice

[@davidsantiago6189]

Bobby is a maestro

[@christopherallencomer5738]

thanks and God bless

[@ChuckD-lu5mb]

Does anybody know what brand of Güiro That is? Thank you in advance

[@dublonzky55]

Love the vid bro

[@joseluisdelacruz2183]

I love the video

[@carlosacta8726]

That's the reality of it!!!!

[@joseconejo2206]

I like this instrument cuz is catchy

[@fleadoggreen9062]

Thank you very much!

[@krommer66]

Hey Bobby!!!!

[@mrkneel5760]

We have a repurposed coconut water cans as Guiros on the Big Island of Hawai’i!

[@Xavier-ty4jw]

Sounds awful

[@urbanlypure]

@@Xavier-ty4jw Weirdo

[@BirbBoiYT]

We have those at our supermarket and thought the ridges were just for a grip!

[@Benjen-gt3dp]

So strumming patterns are still a thing on this right?

[@Mistrhappy]

yes

[@darwinhaughton7713]

they always wanted to learn the guiro

[@mullyjunior387]

Wat shop can I buy it in

[@JVJF7]

Where does the other sound come from?

[@thrash0114]

Those are claves, being played off camera

[@hdikaisar]

wowww

[@Tplayer49]

Great job!!!!

[@jessicarose2985]

So cool

[@earthmoods123]

Thanks!

[@YoRayBurger]

BRILLIANT!

[@jordinmichael7752]

I love it🤗🤗🤗🤗

[@SylvianLight]

he gazed a gazely stare

[@SadhviJenn]

A black screen when I could’ve been seeing how he made that click sound. :)

[@AnthonyBurrito1313]

COOL

[@MillionDollaStan]

Great

[@odalisjam5924]

What's the melody's name?

[@panchamsmagic2868]

In India guiro was first used by Rd burman a famous music composer.

[@jacksn5916]

Unscientific but True i am hispanic and in my music we use this instrument a lot .

[@keystonebrotherb]

Thanks for this. I now know what the hell I have.

[@Bubblesv2]

😂 Thank goodness for KZbin!

[@ImmanuelChai]

just got a guiro

[@cherisefevrier3089]

Whats the 'drum' hes using ?

[@ncapone87]

Guiro

[@dextercaseythebeagledoes6198]

Hi

[@maxlensherr]

1. Guiro macho 0:22 2. Clave neutral 2:03 3. Machete en guiro 3:10

[@Rock-iw7ov]

so that's the instrument at the beginning of gimme shelter...

[@MillionDollaStan]

Yes

[@majumdar123456]

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[@stivklif]

@@majumdar123456 This

[@ceciliaericson3650]

Funny how it’s called ”gurka” in sweden, which translates to cucumber. :)

[@happilyablindmusician643]

🎉

[@Potbellllly]

Sounds familiar

[@majskorv1235]

🎂

[@roshciangelopadillo4314]

Güiro

[@tvseka4957]

Missä 7c? :D

[@ann1ka_]

ei täällä

[@yrockerboy]

Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Explorers of Time

[@catherinepruett8595]

Did you REALLY have to say "phallus?" I was showing this to a group of middle schoolers when I heard this. Glad they didn't know the word.

[@aarr8936]

Always watch the video before showing it to the class

[@surething3993]

Where do you buy a guiro like this one?

[@jic1]

Well, since he said that it's a Guiro made by Latin Percussion, I would start by Googling "latin percussion guiro".

[@MillionDollaStan]

Amazon . search "Latin Percussion LP243 Super Guiro with 2 Scrapers"

[@summershannon1173]

Love the people who actually know what they’re doing but in my experience playing the Guiro it was so boring cuse all it was was a down stoke and two taps and that’s it so boring and I hated it

[@LisztyLiszt]

And what does a female phallus look like?

[@apersonwholovessneks6614]

gui DIO!!!!!!!!

[@gigglesandtable6529]

It lowkey sounds like when you scratch one of those moving card thingys

[@alensday2974]

"hey subtitle guy play some epic music on the fish-thingy"

[@deengew]

this guy sounds like a gangsta

[@11123fsd]

0:26 How the hell does it resemble a male phallus in any way shape or form

[@OdinComposer]

I guess Cubans be built differently

[@aattura1541]

lloks like deflating football

[@Neeko_Z]

-.- that thing is not close to the sound of a real guiro. It mimics the sound. Plastic sounds like plastic.

[@kaybhee6]

where to buy good sound guiro,,, not this modern toys in plastic or steel

[@allneedsomelight]

Not so easy to play the guiro!

[@Eerik2]

Yes great video and i liked, but still guiro sounds very annoying.

[@keystonebrotherb]

Fits right in with a full band. You don’t realize the difference until it’s NOT there.

[@tommyoriley4174]

This was that nasty sounding instrument on gimme shelter. 0/10 worst instrument ever.