Güiro

Spice up your music with help from the classic güiro

A güiro is an open-ended, gourd-shaped Latin-American percussion instrument frequently used in Cuban and Puerto Rican music such as the danzón, cha-cha and bomba. Classified as an idiophone, the güiro creates sound through vibration and is played by scraping its notched, parallel sides with a special scratching stick or “pua” to produce the raspy, ratchet-like sound. Varying the duration and length of your stroke allows you to control the sound effect.

Once you learn the basics of the güiro, incorporate its sassy Latin sound into the style of music you like to play. Our selection includes authentic güiros made from natural gourds, but we also carry more modern guiros made from durable, lightweight fiberglass, stainless steel and precision-molded plastic. All güiros feature evenly spaced grooves to produce a consistent sound and tone.