Cabildos were African guilds or fraternities designed to keep African language and culture alive. Rumba developed in the cabildos that could be found throughout Cuba. It was these slaves who would later develop rumba music, though it wasn’t until the late 19th century, facilitated by the abolishment of the slave trade that they were able to begin celebrating their musical heritage freely. The first African slaves arrived in Cuba in the early 16th century, though these early Afro-Cubans were small in number.Īs sugar plantations grew exponentially in the 18th century, there was a greater demand for labour, so African slaves were transported to Cuba in much larger numbers than before to work the land. While not going into a great amount of detail on each of the three individual sub-genres (that will be done in separate articles), we will introduce the key characteristics of each style as well as discussing the cultural roots that paved the way for the emergence of rumba music. This article will serve as an introduction to the genre of rumba as a whole. One wouldn’t approach learning blues rock music in the same way that one would approach learning hip hop both come under the blanket term of “pop” and both incorporate backbeat, but they are completely different styles. A similar parallel can be drawn with the term “pop,” which is a blanket word used to incorporate styles of music that are heard in the mainstream music charts. While these three subgenres are all classed as rumba, they are unique styles of music that must be approached as such. Rumba is not one single style and the term is used to refer to three main subgenres ( guaguancó, columbia, and yambú) all of which are Cuban musical styles of direct African descent.

Cuban music can be broadly categorised into two groups: rumba and son.Īs the names suggest, rumba styles share the rumba clave in common, whereas son styles make use of the less syncopated son clave.

Reggae drum kit notation