rumba baqueteo

[korman]

When you play the heel-toe movement in the beginning of yambu or guaguanco, what way do you guys do it?

Thomas Cruz vol 1 says it is BTTB (so the bass strokes are just before and on the main the main pulse).

Recently I went to rumba workshop in London with Rumberos de Cuba, and I'm pretty sure what they showed was BBTT (bass on and just after the main pulse)

Both sound quite similar, maybe there's no one correct way?

[jorge]

Both ways are correct. For the seis por ocho (second drum) part in the guaguanco Matancero that I learned from the guys in Afrocuba de Matanzas, Minini, Enrique (ibae), and Naldo (ibae) all played it BBTT. Agustin Diaz who plays the seis por ocho part in Los Muñequitos also plays it that way. In that Matanzas style guaguanco, that same pattern continues through the whole song, except playing a tone on the 3 of the clave every other measure. Luisito Cancino and Sandy Perez from Afrocuba both showed me BTTB, which allows you to hit a bass on the bombo of the clave. All of those guys are (were) master drummers, they are all right, none of them are wrong. The two different ways actually sound very different, with a different feeling and different accents. It is a matter of style and how you want it to sound with the other drums.