Instruments

What would Latin music be without instruments? Of course we’d still have fabulous vocalists, but even the best singers would sound a little lame without the complex percussion, harmonious guitar chords or a blaring trumpet, not to mention the humble clave.

What’s a clave (KLAW.vay)? Glad you asked.

Latin music is incredibly diverse and thus uses many instruments, including clarinets, violins and harps. However, some familiar instruments (e.g. guitar, piano) play an especially prominent role in particular Latin music genres. The clave, bongo, conga, bajo sexto, tres and panpipes are examples of instruments that are more narrowly associated with Latin music. Some are even more narrowly associated with a particular genre or region; for example, the steelpan (or steel drum) is associated with Trinidad while panpipes are representative of Andean music.

I used Latin Music USA and Music of Puerto Rico to compile a list of some of the most prominent instruments in Latin music, then I added a few more, like the steelpan. Each instrument is listed in the table below, along with the category of instruments it belongs to and, in some cases, a representative artist and/or video. (However, a video doesn’t necessarily focus on the same artist.) You can click the words in the top row (Instrument, Category, Artist) to sort a particular column.

None of these articles are finished yet. However, each page features links to online resources, primarily Latin Music USA, Music of Puerto Rico and Wikipedia.

The instruments listed above are just the tip of the iceberg. To get a better feel for the diversity of instruments used in Latin music, check out the list of Caribbean membranophones (i.e. drum-like percussion instruments) below.