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This song by Guitarra Azul has a very distinctive rhythm that I have also heard in other songs. How is it called? Is it one of the classical flamenco rhythms?

Jussi Nurminen
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    This is a tango. There are a couple variations of the rhythm but the one heard here is the most common, wih the upright bass playing a bassline with the rhythmic pattern (1! + 2 +! 3! + 4!) – Aric Apr 05 '19 at 11:40
  • At 3:18, you can also see that guy playing a 3:2 son clave rhythm on the wood clave – Aric Apr 05 '19 at 11:45
  • @Aric thanks. According to this link, typical tango is 8 beats, accented as 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. But this song seems more like 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. – Jussi Nurminen Apr 05 '19 at 18:38
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    according to this answer and what I was taught in highschool, the tango is characterised by having four beats in a bar and having an emphasis on the "and" of beat two. I would also like to add that the video of the man playing on the link you gave also uses this rhythm – Aric Apr 08 '19 at 13:40
  • If you were to count at double speed and put 8 notes in a bar, the rhythm would be (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8) – Aric Apr 08 '19 at 13:43
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    @Aric: You could combine your comments into a nice answer :) – guidot Jul 11 '19 at 06:53

2 Answers2

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agreed this is a Typical Bolero with a 3:2 then 2:3 Clave Pattern - I wrote this song in 2005 for my Group Guitarra Azul on our first Album! I hope you Like it!

Steve Edwards
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Thanks to guidot for reminding me about this question.

This is a tango. There are a couple different tango rhythms. The most common one (and the one used in this video, played clearly on the upright bass) is tango rhythm 1 in the diagram below:

enter image description here

As seen in the diagram and according to this answer, tango rhythms are characterised by having four beats in a bar and having an emphasis on the "and" of beat two. Both of the rhythms above fit these criteria.

Another point of interest is the 3:2 son clave rhythm being played on the wood claves at 3:18 in the video. The 3:2 and 2:3 rhythms are as follows (2:3 is just 3:2 but the other way round)

enter image description here

Aric
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