A listener's glossary

These are the words that turn up in sleeve notes, in radio links and in conversations about the styles covered on this site. Each entry is short on purpose.

Clave: The two-bar reference pattern of Cuban-derived music, and also the pair of wooden sticks used to play it.
Son: The Cuban song form, built on a sung opening section followed by a repeating call-and-response section, that underlies most of salsa.
Montuno: Both the call-and-response section of a son or salsa arrangement and the repeating rhythmic piano figure played during it.
Tumbao: The anticipating bass figure, and the conga pattern that sits with it.
Coro: The short sung chorus that repeats during the montuno section while a lead voice answers it.
Pregon: A vocal line modelled on a street vendor's cry, used as a hook in Cuban song.
Soneo: The improvised lead vocal lines traded against the coro.
Mambo: In an arrangement, the written horn passage that lifts the intensity after the montuno begins.
Guaguanco: A rumba form whose rhythmic language feeds into many salsa arrangements.
Dembow: The one-bar percussion pattern that defines reggaeton, named after the dancehall record whose rhythm was sampled.
Requinto: The lead guitar in a bachata group, played with a thumbpick and used for the runs between vocal lines.
Guira: A metal scraper played with a stiff brush, supplying the continuous fast layer in merengue and bachata.
Tambora: The two-headed Dominican drum played with one stick and one bare hand.
Timba: The dense, harmonically adventurous Cuban dance style of the 1990s whose vocal and horn language carries into cubaton.