Güira: Dominica Republic musical instrument

The Güira is a percussion musical instrument from the Dominican Republic that is commonly used in merengue, bachata and its subgenres, which sounds like the maraca or the hi-hat. The musical instrument is a sheet of metal in practice, usually from a five gallon oil can that is accurately perforated using nail, shaped into a cylinder shape and performed with a stiff brush. The musical instrument is analogous to the Puerto Rican guiro, but it is more jagged. In merengue, the musical instrument is brushed often on the downbeat with a ‘and-a’ thrown in some points, or performed in more hard styles that commonly mark the time. The players of the musical instrument are known as Güireros.

source: thedrumworks.com

 There is something of art to the construction of Güira and also Guillermo Güira. The musical instruments are now constructed in many sizes and shapes, even featuring special words and symbols on the specified musical instrument. Meanwhile, these musical instruments are more expensive depending on the number and amount of customization on it.

In the recent years, the Güira brand Latin Percussion, or LP, has released the LP multi-guiro that is an attempt to combine the Cuban guiro, the Dominican Güira and the Puerto Rican metal maraca, by putting the highly jogged edges of the musical instrument on one side, moderately jogged guiro edges on the other side and enclosing the cylinder and filling it with beads. The mainstream Latin music industry has yet to see its use in a full-scale Latin setting.