Güiro: El Salvador musical instrument

The Güiro is a Latin-American percussion musical instrument that is made up of an open-ended, hollow gourd with parallel notches cut in one side of it. The musical instrument is performed by rubbing a stick or tines along the notches of the instrument to manufacture a ratchet-like tune.

source: promusicaustralia.com

The Güiro is generally used in Puerto Rican and other Latin-American music and performs a crucial role in the typical rhythm section of important genres, such as the cumbia and son. Playing this musical instrument often needs both long and short sounds, made by scraping up and down in the long or short strokes.

The musical instrument, like the maracas, is usually performed by a singer. Another type of Güiro that is commonly seen in Brazil consists of a cylindrical metal box that encases two or three steel springs. These are tightened over a lid, against which a metal stick is rubbed.

 The musical instrument that was adopted from the pre-Columbian musical instrument is a notched hollowed-out gourd. The Güiro is produced by carving parallel.

The musical instrument is performed by holding the instrument in the left hand and having the thumb of the hand inserted into the back sound hole to keep the musical instrument in place. With the Brazilian version of the musical instrument, after fractioning the springs, it is very much possible to make use of the prolonged reverberation, or muffle them with the use of the fingers by the player. In some versions, the box has a bottom hole also, permitting the player of the instrument to alter the internal reverb by covering it or leaving it open.

The modern versions of the musical instrument, that is found in Cuba now feature a square-shaped cut-out opposite of performing side in which to enhance holding the musical instrument more comfortably.