When it comes to playing percussion instruments such as the Maracas, strumming techniques can take your rhythm game to another level. In this lesson, we’ll explore two basic accents you can use with your Maracas to enhance any rhythm.
Maraca Accent Basics
Using accents is key to marking each bar when playing rhythms with the Maracas. The first accent technique that we’ll cover is the dry descending accent, which involves suspending your Maraca in an upward position and letting it drop precisely 10 centimeters from the starting point. This results in a dry sound that marks the accent for each bar of the rhythm.
Basic Descending Dry Accent
Check out this video () for a visual demonstration on how to execute a dry descending accent.
The first kind of accent, the dry descending accent, is conducted suspending each Maraca in an upward position and letting it drop precisely 10 centimeters from the starting point. The resulting sound should be a dry one, as it will normally mark the accent of each bar whilst playing the rhythm.
Up and Down Accentuation with the Maracas
The second technique is a double one, which involves moving your maraca from a bottom position upwards to obtain an initial sound and then forcefully descending it to obtain the second sound. This technique produces a “chak-chak” sound; check out this video () on how to perform this up-and-down accentuation with your Maracas.
Practice these two techniques repeatedly until you become comfortable producing each desired sound. These accents serve as building blocks upon which you can create more complex rhythms and add additional accents. With some practice, you will develop into a skilled player who can beautifully craft diverse melodic patterns with their Maracas strumming skills!
