moosebumps

I play doumbek and I happen to have a set of congas in the house, and I'm
wondering if anyone can tell me what the strokes are. I googled and can't
find a page with decent explanations.

I know:

Bass - is this supposed to be with the heel of the hand kind of, and let
your hand sit on the head for a bit after? (instead of bouncing it off)

Tone -- I know how to do this pretty much

Closed Slap -- I know how to do this

Open Slap -- I think of this like a mix between the closed slap sound and
tone sound, that is, you have some ringing afterward

What are the other strokes, in order of frequency which you use them? If
you could point me to a good web page, that would help too.

thanks.

Actually the palm part of your hand or palm plus fingers too,
Depends. And yes, you play "into" a conga head so except for
the open tone, your hand is sort of forced into the head and
stays there. This is exactly the opposite of thin-skinned djembe
type drums where the strokes are all bounced off the head so as
not to damp the thin skin tones.

open slaps are mostly not used in conga playing because they create
a large amount of open tone. They are used as a muted slap with
the other hand on the drum, however.

And Cuban Heel-toe is important too. Typically, Bass, open tone,
closed slap and heel-toe are the most common.

But it's too much to explain here. So go to my webpage
iwaynet.net/~bjacoby and download my conga for newbies book
and get the practice book (Stoned Hand-drum) too while you are
at it.

And in fact it's too much to explain in a book, so find a decent
teacher to get you started with the right way to get the
various conga sounds. Once you are on the right track that
way, you can go learn rhythms on your own.

Good Luck!

Benj
--
Due to SPAM innundation above address is turned off!

moosebumps

Thanks a lot for your response. I have downloaded the book and have learned
a bit already, after an hour or so of practice.

The congas will be leaving my house soon (they're a friend's), but I am
hooked... though I don't necessarily have enough space for a full set. Do
you know if the strokes for bongos are similar? Any good online resources
like your introduction to the congas? Could anyone recommend a first set?
I live in a pretty damp place during the winter, so natural heads are often
testy... many of my doumbeks have synthetic heads, and it works better.
Unfortunately it looks like the synthetic heads for bongos are relatively
uncommon and thus expensive.

MB

Hey Moosebumps (COOL NAME!),

Bongo strokes are generally not similar. You tend to play
bongos with finger(s) rather than the whole hand as with congas.
A conga rim shot is similar to a bongo stroke but that's about it.

There are a number of decent bongos to start with out there but
around here we usually recommend LP matadors found on sale! I got
mine for about $90 at Sam Ash. Hard to beat and WAY better than
the CP entry ones I had before that cost like $60!

Synthetic heads on bongos tend to really suck so they aren't
very popular. I use Evans heads on them when I play the
bongos with sticks (yeah, yeah, I know, I know), but I
don't think much of them when playing with hands. I've played
the Remo bongos with the Nuskyn heads and they sound pretty
nice, but MAN are those dudes HEAVY! You might consider
Nuskyn bongo heads if weather is a problem. Generally,
since you detune bongos after playing them each time,
hide heads really aren't that much of a problem unless
they REALLY get damp!

Benj

--
Due to SPAM innundation above address is turned off!

scruffy eagle

Hi there, Moosebumps!

I just found this newsgroup, and started at the top - most recent messages
first.

A couple of months ago, I decided to return to playing bongos. I'd had a
cheap pair many years ago, and wore them out - I dragged them just about
everywhere, and eventually the connection between drums broke. I'd gotten
focused on learning guitar playing by that point, so I didn't replace them.
Every now and then, through the years, I'd miss them - but, not enough to
spend the money to get another pair. As I said, though, I replaced my bongos

I spent about a month window-shopping around & comparing, before I actually
bought a pair. I ended up buying a pair of "LP Aspire" bongos via
musiciansfriend.com. They cost $69.99, and I haven't regretted a single
penny of it. It was one of those rare cases where you buy something
sight-unseen, it arrives, and you discover that you received about twice the
dollar value in merchandise. They weigh about nine pounds, have rawhide
heads, finely crafted oak bodies with a virtually flawless finish, and
heavy-duty chrome hardware. Best of all, they have excellent tone &
playability re. tonal variety. Tuning them is a breeze, and they retain
their pitch even after several sessions of extended playing. I think they're
professional-quality instruments, at a discount price. If you decide to
trade in for a different pair, I'd recommend the LP "Aspire" line, based on
my personal experience with it.

Regarding holding the bongos: With the chrome hardware, they were just too
big and heavy to hold between my legs. My solution was to sit with my knees
just slightly apart, thighs level compared to floor, and rest the bongos on
top of my thighs a few inches back from the edge of my kneecaps. The pegs
miss my thighs when I rest them in that way. Being nine pounds, the set will
feel a little heavy after a while, but it's not too bad once you get used to
it. I found that it doesn't muffle the sound very much, either. That method
of "holding" the bongos has become my standard, for whenever I practice,
which is a couple of hours every other night or so. It's not really
"holding" them, per se; it's really just using your thighs as a table in the
correct way so the pegs don't dig in.

Hope this was helpful!

Scruffy ==========================
"Moosebumps" <purely@unadulterated.nonsense> wrote in message news:2r%ub.13616$kK3.11575@newssvr29.news.prodigy. com...

scruffy eagle

Hi there!

I'm a newcomer here,... I just returned to playing bongos recently, so when
I saw your link re. the tutorial book, I decided to check it out. I haven't
really read anything in it yet, but thought it might be useful for you if I
gave you this feedback: During the loading of the ".pdf" file into my
AdobeAcrobat, it wouldn't load the first page. It gave me an error dialog
box, saying there were the wrong number of things on a set color
something-or-other (sorry, forgot the exact terms used in the message).
Maybe it was parameters on an set-color operator? The rest of the book did
load & display, though, so I'll be getting into reading & experimenting with
it sometime soon. Thanks!

Just on a whim, I went back while writing this message, to see if I couldn't
get it to repeat the error message dialog box, for getting the exact wording
from. This time, it loaded without a hitch and I see the first page's
contents. So, maybe it wasn't such a big deal after all? Anyway, I'll send
this so you've heard about it.


Scruffy
===================

moosebumps

That was a problem too. What do you think is better about playing between the knees?

Well, I guess they would start out at a pretty comfortable level, and I was
hitting them, they would slip down.

So actually I found a solution that I kind of like: milk crates. I just
turn them over, and the pegs fit between the holes enough to keep them in
place, and it also doesn't choke the drum very much (if at all), as opposed
to putting the drums on a table. For now it is find for practicing -- I'll
see if I want to drop a $50-100 on a stand eventually... those things are
more expensive than the bongos themselves.

MB

moosebumps

actually


the


Hey there, I got the same ones... I agree they seem like a tremendous value,
though I've read some people trashing them on the Internet... I tried a
whole bunch in the store, and they all were "different", but not necessarily
better, so I just got the cheapest ones. My philosophy (after learning 5 or
so instruments now) is to buy the cheapest stuff when you first start out.
Then the second time around you know exactly what you like and don't like,
because you actually know how to play. : )

they're


on


I actually did trade them... I got the CP ones at first, since they were
smaller and it seemed they would fit more comfortably between my legs, but
they weren't comfortable anyway... so I went back and got the bigger LP
ones, and I found a stand solution... (see my other post: turning milk
crates upside down works pretty darn well).

knees

on


will

to

method

the


I've tried that, and it seems to choke the sound... the "bass" kind of drops
out, from my experience. Try the milk crate solution, it seems cheesy but
it works surprisingly well. I got the idea after I read some post on the
internet about a guy using a 5 gallon bucket (again to prevent choking), and
I saw in my closet a couple of milk crates. They're also just the right
width.

MB

scruffy eagle

Hi!

I'm starting a "milk-crates" thread, since this seems to be becoming kind of
scattered in the midst of other stuff in this thread.

Scruffy
========================

Ahem...Well it's TRADITIONAL! What more needs to be said? But seriously,
It's better because, the bottoms aren't blocked (IMPORTANT!), you
can adjust the angle of the the heads for ease of playing and
it's (on most people) almost exactly the best spot for them
to be ergonomically when playing. Downside in my experience
has been the hardware digging in your legs. If you sort of
rotate the bolts etc. around so you have a bolt nested in the
crook of your knee it helps.

Then you didn't have them positioned correctly. They should sort
of "lock" into the crooks in your knees and they don't slip.

Personally I would NOT start out learning using milk crates. Now I have
to admit I'm not really much of a "traditional" kind of guy. I'm
all for new styles and technology, but I would STRONGLY recommend
that you get a sit-down bongo stand rather than continue to use
milk crates. (Yeah, I know it's cash...but WORTH it!) The
reason I say that is because a Milk Crate gives you NO serious
positional adjustment. You can't control the angle of the
heads with repect to your hands and you can't control the
height (except in increments of one milk crate!). In playing
Hand-drums it's VERY important to have correct posture and
playing position FIRST. If you begin by learning with the
drums incorrectly positioned you will learn a bunch of
bad habits that will have to be "unlearned" later. DON'T
take that route! Believe me a lot of us have and had to
pay later!

In a sense, I do the "milk crate" thing these days when
playing congas. I typically use a plywood "X" under the
conga to let the bass note out without holding the
drum "properly" between my knees. OF course that means
I can't really control the bass sound properly using tilting
and lifing of the drum. But my point is that while I
go "non-traditional" at times, I DID NOT learn to play
congas that way! The traditional hold is throughly ingrained
in my brain and I have no problem playing that way. But
there were some beginners in my class who like beginners
often do, thought they knew more than all those decades
of experience the good players had and insisted on
playing the drums in weird poses that they thought
"worked better for them". As far as I know NONE of
these guys ever amounted to squat as conga players and
if they ever hope to, they are going to have a hard
time unlearning all the bad habits they pounded into
their stubborn brains.

Benj
--
Due to SPAM innundation above address is turned off!