Maraca

Maracas ( tupi / Portuguese, German " Rumba - rattling " or " maracas " colloquially to " rattle " shortened ) are a percussion instrument that belongs to the group of instruments of Idiophone.

The instrument consists of a hollow body with a granular filling; on the body, a handle is attached. Were initially dried gourds used as body material, today esp. wood, plastic or leather. When filling serve dried plant seeds, middlings and small pebbles.

Maracas are nearly always played in pairs. They are made by the players on the handles, shaken rhythmically in different variants or struck with the fingertips. This creates the characteristic crackling sound of the instrument. A rare variant of the game is to keep only a rattle in his right hand ( left-handers on the left ) and beat in the palm of the other hand.

Depending on the design and materials used for the sound of maracas is more or less loud and penetrating. Maracas with a fine filling enable fast and accurate game, with the volume, however, is not high sound sample. Instruments with coarse fill are not playing so accentuated, but have for a room-filling and much louder sound and are particularly suitable for "driving " rhythms ( sound example below).

If the two rattling sound different, the deeper and stronger sounding played in the right and the higher in the left hand ( left-handers the other way around ).

Application of maracas are mainly Latin music styles such as Son, Salsa, Bolero, Samba or Bossa Nova. However, they can also be used in pop, rock, house music and as toy instruments.

When Samba and when used as a toy instrument maracas are sometimes supplemented by a samba whistle or an ordinary whistle. Here, however, there is a risk that the pipe " attached " to sounds and drowned out the rattle. For the combination with a whistle, therefore, a relatively loud maracas model is needed, which is with the pipe at approximately the same volume level.

A related instrument is the Eggshaker or Chicken Shake, which is smaller and therefore represents an alternative for example on the go.

Etymology

Maraca is derived from the Guaraní word mbaraka.