We're officially stamping our passports for the first stop on this summer's Around the World with Busy Kids Love Music tour — and we're heading to the beautiful island of Puerto Rico.
In this episode, we explore the rich, layered history of Puerto Rican folk music, from the ceremonial traditions of the indigenous Taíno people to the vibrant rhythms of bomba and plena, to the intricate melodies of the cuatro in música jíbara. Along the way, we also talk about how those deep folk traditions connect to the contemporary music families are listening to today — including a Super Bowl performance you might have seen.
Puerto Rico's folk music tells the story of a people who have carried their culture through centuries of hardship and change, and the music is still alive, evolving, and worth celebrating.
What We Cover in This Episode
- What folk music is and why it matters
- The Taíno people and their ceremonial music tradition called areyto
- How Spanish and African influences shaped Puerto Rican folk music over centuries
- Bomba — the drum-driven tradition rooted in the experience of enslaved Africans, where the dancer leads the drummer
- Plena — the "sung newspaper" of Puerto Rico, with its distinctive pandereta (frame drum) sound
- Música jíbara and the cuatro, Puerto Rico's national instrument
- The décima — a form of improvised sung poetry that takes real musical intelligence to perform
- How Puerto Rico's folk traditions connect to contemporary artists like Bad Bunny
Free Downloads for This Episode
All downloads are available at busykidsdopiano.com/podcast/177
Music Featured in This Episode
- Taíno areyto ceremonial music
- Bomba — barril de bomba drum tradition
- Plena — pandereta ensemble music
- Música jíbara — cuatro melodies and décima singing
Instruments We Learned About
Barril de bomba — a barrel drum at the heart of the bomba tradition, often historically made from repurposed rum or salt cod barrels
Pandereta — a handheld frame drum similar to a tambourine (without the metal jingles), used in plena ensembles in multiple sizes playing interlocking rhythms
Cuatro — Puerto Rico's national instrument, a small guitar-like instrument with ten strings arranged in five pairs
Keep Exploring
If you want to keep listening after this episode, the curated Puerto Rican folk music playlist linked above is a great place to start. You can listen together as a family and try to pick out the different instruments — can you hear the difference between the deep barrel drums of bomba and the lighter pandereta sound of plena?
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Next Time on Busy Kids Love Music
Our summer world tour continues in two weeks with Stop 2. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss our next destination.
Busy Kids Love Music is a podcast for music-loving families, created by Carly Seifert of Busy Kids Do Piano. New episodes every two weeks. busykidsdopiano.com
