Pete Lockett - Percussion Toolbox (Shaker PART 2) - Issue 296

Shaking all over! Pete Lockett brings you part two of his guide to that essential percussion tool, the shaker.
This time we will continue our look at the basics of the percussionist’s indispensable shaker. We are focussing on the modern ‘cylindrical shaker,’ which is most often found in pop and rock music the world over. It provides a steady rhythmic bedrock which often serves the function of bonding elements of a groove together, sometimes with an ‘invisible’ profile. It’s one of those things you don’t notice so prominently as a listener but when you take it out of a mix you really see the impact it has. More often than not, in pop and rock, the shaker will play regular and continuous 16th or eighth-note patterns. However, when you travel the musical world and hear other shakers such as caxixi, maracas, ganzá and shekere, etc, you hear a much more complex and involved rhythmic approach to the instrument, often involving extreme virtuosity and subtle detail.

Because of its role in our environment, we mustn’t write this off as a ‘simple’ instrument. On the contrary, even getting a good basic 16th note pattern to sit in any mix is a skilled and nuanced task.
We will, however, continue our exploration into the very basics of our seed-filled cylinder. Last time we got the basics of the backwards and forward motions. These were used to create a regular and even note flow with some additional accents. We will continue in that vein but will now add into the mix some short rolls. ..........

Examples and further information are in Issue 296 (March 2020) of Rhythm Magazine.