If you play nylon string guitar or even steel string fingerstyle guitar, you are probably familiar with the Spanish guitar piece called “Romanza” (also called “Romance Anónimo,” “Spanish Ballad” or “Romanze”). I recommend this one to just about all guitarists and I teach it to all my students because it’s a beautiful and fun little piece that is not too difficult (lower intermediate level perhaps). What makes it so doable for students is that the rhythm is completely constant, with repeated 8th notes (triplets) from beginning to end in 3/4 time. It turns out that if you eliminate the last note in each measure, and continue to play constant notes, a rumba magically appears! So for those of you who are getting into latin rumba-style guitar playing – like the Gipsy Kings, Ottmar Liebert, Jesse Cook, Rodrigo y Gabriela, etc. – this is a great entryway into this world. In my online nylon string guitar course, I teach Romanza in the traditional way and then as a rumba as we move into more syncopated latin rhythms like the rumba and bossa nova. In this video I explain how we can turn Romanza into a rumba and also a couple of different ways to count the rumba rhythm: