Other instruments may be used on occasion, for example spoons, palitos, and tables and walls played like drums.
Clave
is the key pattern used in guaguancó. There is some debate as to how the 4/4 rumba clave should be notated for guaguancó. In actual practice, the third and fourth stroke often fall in rhythmic positions that do not fit neatly into music notation. Triple-pulse strokes can be substituted for duple-pulse strokes. Also, the clave strokes are sometimes displaced in such a way that they don't fall within either a triple-pulse or duple-pulse "grid". Therefore, many variations are possible.
Guagua
The guagua pattern contains all of the strokes of clave.
Quinto
The following nine-measure excerpt is from the guaguancó “La polémica" by Los Muñequitos de Matanzas. This passage moves between the main modes of playing. The A section is the basic lock or ride, as it is known in North America. It spans one clave. An alternate phrase is also one measure in length. Cross-beats, the basis of the third section, contradict the meter. By alternating between the lock and the cross, the quinto creates larger rhythmic phrases that expand and contract over several clave cycles. The great Los Muñequintos quintero Jesús Alfonso described this phenomenon as a man getting "drunk at a party, going outside for a while, and then coming back inside."
Song
The term guaguancó originally referred to a narrative song style which emerged from the coros de claves of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Rogelio Martínez Furé states: " old folks contend that strictly speaking, the guaguancó is the narrative." The guaguancó song often begins with the soloist singing meaningless syllables, which is called the diana. According to Larry Crook, the diana is important because it "... also contains the first choral refrain. The lead singer provides a phrase or motive for the choral sections, or they may present new, but related material. Parallel harmonies are usually built above or below a melodic line, with thirds, sixths, and octaves most common." Therefore, the singer who is presented with singing the diana initiates the beginning of the guaguancó. He then may proceed to improvise lyrics stating the reason for holding the present rumba, During the verses of the song the quinto is capable of sublime creativity, while musically subordinate to the lead vocalist. There are natural pauses in the cadence of the verses, typically one or two measures in length, where the quinto can play succinct phrases in the "holes" left by the singer. Once the chorus of the song begins, the phrases of the quinto interact with the dancers more than the lead singer.
Dance
Guaguancó is a couple dance of sexual competition between the male and female. The male periodically attempts to "catch" his partner with a single thrust of his pelvis. This erotic movement is called the vacunao, a gesture derived from yuka and makuta , symbolizing sexual penetration. The vacunao can also be expressed with a sudden gesture made by the hand or foot. The quinto often accents the vacunao, usually as the resolution to a phrase spanning more than one cycle of clave. Holding onto the ends of her skirt while seductively moving her upper and lower body in contrary motion, the female "opens" and "closes"
