Cuban music is considered one of the richest and most influential world music genres. Its highly rhythmical featuring West African and Spanish elements combined with Classical and Jazz textures. Ry Cooder and Cuban guitarist Juan de Marcos González presented Cuban music to the world with the Buena Vista Social Club, which became the umbrella term to describe Cuba's musical golden age between the 1930s and 1950s.
Jesús Hernández' Buena Vista Cuban Guitar Guidebook explores all of the essential concepts and techniques needed to play this romantic style. ”We're going to explore many different Cuban guitar styles made famous by The Buena Vista Social Club. Styles like the the Son, Son Montuno, the Guajira, Guaracha, and Cuban Bolero all have typical guitar parts, based on the Claves. Son music consists of many sub-styles and is a happy sounding style, used for dancing. The Guaracha has a strong and fixed rhythmic pattern. The Guajira is a more subtle Cuban country style.
We'll also play a romantic Cuban bolero and a Danzón, which is an elegant music and dance style. And finally, we'll learn to play a Cha Cha Chá. All of these guitar styles have a Tumbao, which is a rhythmic pattern based on the Claves rhythm. You'll learn how to get a solid grip on the different Tumbaos within each style.”
Jesús will teach you 14 concepts and techniques focused on the essential rhythmical and harmonic concepts of Cuban guitar. Son Claves 2-3, Son Claves 3-2, Son Neutral, Son 2-3, Son 3-2, Guitar Parts, Solo or Ensemble, Voicings for Son, Son Montuno Guajeo 2-3, Son Montuno Guajeo 3-2, Chord Positioning, Bass and Chords, Typical Breaks, Bolero Ornaments, and Picking & Strumming.
Applying all of the key concepts and techniques, Jesús will guide you through a series of original Cuban guitar performance studies. For each study, Jesús will demonstrate the performance and then break it down for you emphasizing the key concepts and techniques in play.
All of the key examples and performance studies are tabbed and notated for your practice, reference and study purposes. You’ll also get Guitar Pro files so that you can play, loop and/or slow down the tab and notation as you work through the lessons.
Grab your guitar and let’s join The Buena Vista Social Club with Jesús Hernández! Manos a la obra!
What you'll learn
Apply the guajeo pattern to any chord progression
Comp effectively in son montuno style
Learn basic guajeo and tumbao patterns
Understand how tres and guitar work together in ensemble
Understand the Cuban tres instrument and its construction
Hi, I'm Jesús Hernández, and welcome to the Buena Vista Cuban Guitar Guidebook. In this course, we're going to explore different Cuban guitar styles, much like the ones made famous by The Buena Vista Social Club. Their music had been around for more than a century before Ry Cooder reintroduced it.
Styles like the the son, son montuno, the guajira, guaracha, and Cuban bolero have typical guitar parts, based on the claves. Clave is a rhythmic cell that comes in two directions: 2-3 and 3-2. We'll focus mainly on the son. Son music consists of many sub-styles like the son montuno. This is a happy sounding style, used for dancing. Other substyles are the son and guaracha. The guaracha has a strong and fixed rhythmic pattern. The guajira is a more subtle Cuban country style. We'll also play a romantic Cuban bolero and a danzón. Danzón is an elegant music and dance style. And finally, we'll play a cha cha chá.
All of these guitar styles have a tumbao, which is a rhythmic pattern based on the claves rhythm. You'll learn how to get a solid grip on the different tumbaos within each style. As always, all the performances and breakdowns come with tabs, notation, and backing tracks. Manos a la obra.
2Instruments & Claves
Cuban music is quite extensive. It has a lot of different styles within folklore and popular music, like changüí, rumba, danzón, and charangas. It is played on instruments like the tres, guitar, and many percussion instruments like congas, bongos, maracas, güiro, clave/wood block, cencerro (cowbell), and timbales.
In this course, our attention goes to the claves, as they decide which rhythmic pattern will be followed by all instruments. We'll look at different styles, but mainly the son and son montuno, as they are the two most played ones.
3Son Claves 2-3
A guajeo - a typical Cuban ostinato melody - consists of arpeggiated chords in syncopated patterns, mostly played specifically by a tres, piano, or violin. In this case, this is the basic guajeo of 2/3 son.
4Son Claves 3-2
Now we focus on the basic 2/3 pattern of son. Listen to the accent on the fourth beat, which defines the clave direction.
5Son Neutral
If we use a rhythmic pattern based on a single bar pattern and repeat it during a song, we can call this a neutral pattern. This way there is no clash or contradiction with the clave, since it does not define the direction (2/3 or 3/2). I will not bother it rhythmically.
6Son 2-3
On the fourth beat of the first bar, you play two eighth notes, and in the second bar you play one quarter note, which accentuates the third note of the "3" part of the clave. Accentuating the fourth beat with a quarter note in a bar and two eighth notes in the following bar makes for the difference that defines the 3/2 or 2/3 clave.
7Son 3-2
In this case, we play one quarter note on the fourth beat of the first bar and two eighth notes on the fourth beat of the second bar, defining that this is a 3/2 clave pattern.
Truefire platform ok. Really like download options.
Jesus explains in a nice fashion.
More details about played (eg Guijira Son) backing track chords would be nice. But a good ear solves that issue.
Not all lessons (eg Solo or ensemble) are leading to playable pieces, backed with chords/tab. Lessons serves as background info only. .
And good value for money. Personally i expect to add 2 cuban songs to my repertoire.
Too bad there are not more cuban courses on Truefire. .
B
Baccetti
Verified buyer
12/01/25
Highly recommended!
K
klaswestholm
Verified buyer
02/03/25
Exciting, interesting and inspiring
II found this music fascinating. The clave rhythm is not easy but I like challenges. The chords and melodies are so beautiful. I really enjoy this course. The loop feature is a must.
G
germanbluesguitar
Verified buyer
12/10/21
I just started with the course.
Fantastic cuban music.
And I also beginn to understand what is meant with
3-2 claves and 2-3 claves.
muchas gracias
C
canabina
Verified buyer
05/15/20
Muy bueno!
El curso está muy bien programado, cubriendo los aspectos básicos de la música cubana, muy bien explicado con ejemplos y piezas musicales divertidas de tocar. Recomendable.
