Güiro
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The Güiro is a wooden percussion instrument whose raised ridges are scraped with a stick. Scraped instruments such as sticks, bones, and shells, date from prehistoric times. The güiro is used to produce a distinctive sound to emphasize musical rhythms, especially in Latin American music.
| Family |
| Percussions |
| Pitch range |
| None. |
| Material |
| Wood. sometimes gourds. |
| Size |
| About 16 in (41 cm) long. |
| Origins |
| The güiro developed in the Caribbean, Panama, Puerto Rico, and Ecuador, where it is played in folk music and to accompany traditional dances. |
| Classification |
| Idiophone: an instrument that produces its sound through the use of the material from which it is made, without needing strings or a stretched skin. |
| And also... |
| The Russian-born composer Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971) employed the güiro, under the name of "rape guero," in his ballet score tor the "The Rite of Spring" (1913), which was an extremely innovative musical work in its modernist use of rhythm and dissonance. |
