Salsa Roots
Part 1
Bellwork
 Merengue- Dominican style of music and dance
 Bolero- Cuban dance in two
 Mambo- A Latin dance of Cuba
 Guaguancó—an Afro-Cuban rumba
 Rancheras—A Mexican vocal song with instrumental
accompaniment
 vallenato-A vocal song with accordion
accompaniment from Columbia
Outcomes
 Grammar: Learn basic facts about the roots of salsa
music
 Logic: Practice playing specific Latin rhythms
Announcements
 Test on Salsa Roots Thursday, December 12th.
 Reading #15 due Tuesday December 10th
 Outline of slide show due Tuesday December 10th
 Bring your electronic devices tomorrow. We will be
working on the final project.
Slideshow Outline:
Example
 Name: Francisca Wise
 Topic: Hand-clapping Games
 Artist examples: Maria, Kayla, Darianna
 Musical Examples: “I don’t want to go to Mexico”,
“Pepsi”
 Slide 1-3: History and background of Hand-clapping
Games in the USA
 Slide 4: Hand clapping games from around the world
Outline part 2
 Slide 5: Transition to hand clapping games from my
neighborhood
 Slide 6: Miss Mary Mack
 Slide 7: Speed (Numbers)
 Slide 8: Pictures
 Slide 9: Clips from neighborhood interviews—cross-
generational—girls and mothers
 Slide 10: Influence of hand clapping games on childhood
social development
Pre-Knowledge
 Define salsa:
 What part of the world does salsa music come from?
 Who dances salsa?
 Have you ever danced salsa?
 What instruments are used in a salsa band?
Merengue
Merengue Rhythm
Merengue

Learn the Merengue Rhythm!

Put both hands on your left knee.

The first hit is in the right hand

RLRR RLRLRR

Start on with both hands on your left knee.

Move the large R to your right knee

RLRR RLRLRR

Try it on the congas
Bolero—Dos Almos
Mambo Rhythm
R
R L R R L R
R R L
R R L R
Pass me the ketchup would you
Please pass the ketchup would you
Mambo
 Learn the Mambo Rhythm!
 Put your right hand on your right knee and your left
hand on your left knee
 The first hit is in the right hand
 RRLRRLR RRLRRLR
 Try it on the congas
Rancheras
Vallenato
Salsa is…
 An artistic articulation of urban life
 A reaffirmation of class conflict
 A source of identity in Latin America
Guided Notes

Panethnicity is the grouping of people into one large
group based on similar physical characteristics,
sharing of a common language, common culture, or
sharing of a common religion.
 Because it is Pan-Latino, Salsa music does not have a
fixed definition.
 Salsa has roots in antecedents in folklore and in black
counterplantation culture in oppositionality and
resistance.
Active Listening #1
 Name all the instruments you hear:
 The saxophone has a recurring melodic motive—it is
ascending or descending?
Quizas, Quizas, Quizas
 Quizas means perhaps.
 The trumpet lines are influenced by rancheras music.
CFU: Snowball
 Create one question from the facts you learned in our
class today.
 Write it on a piece of paper along with your name and
then crumple it up and throw it to the front of the
room.
 When you are instructed to, go up and choose one
snowball. Open it up and answer the question then
turn it in.
 This will count as your exit ticket for today.
Guided Notes
 The anglo mainstream in America often appropriates and
co-opts the cultural productions of less dominant groups.
 Salsa was born in the Latino barrios of 1960’s New York.
 Salsa was heavily influenced by the Cuban music of the
1950’s.
 Son is a Cuban secular musical dance form that originated
in the rural areas of eastern Cuba.

Other Cuban influences include the use of timbales, the
higher pitch range, of salsa vocal lines, congas, clave
rhythm.
Play it! Timbale Rhythm
Say the following:
 Pass the ketchup in east St. Louis
 With your pencil tap the metal of the eraser on the
metal of your chair.
Timbales
Active Listening #2
 Which instrument “screams”?
 Give three adjectives which describe this Mambo
Just the Facts Mambo #8
 Mambo literally means conversation of the gods in
kikongo.
 Perez Prado was known as the King of Mambo.
CFU: Dance the Mambo
 R-back L R front L-forward R step L back
 Quick Quick Slow
Map Quest
ID: Cuba, Puerto Rico, Dominican
Republic, Venezuela, Columbia