Conga Drums - A Confusing But Moving Loved ones

Conga drums are an integral aspect of most Latin American music. In North America, everyone has heard of a conga line and sadly, the majority of us happen to be forced to join a single at one particular point or another, typically during a wedding reception.



However the music on the conga is far too diverse to be pigeonholed as wedding reception music. These instruments are applied not just in genres like salsa and rumba, but in Afro-Caribbean religious music at the same time. Conga drums are a really important facet of life in South America.

pearl congas

The bodies of conga drums are "staved," or made of various strips of wood or fiberglass, equivalent to the building of a barrel. Odds are that the ancestors of contemporary congas had been, in truth, made from salvaged barrels. The drum heads are of rawhide or synthetic components and are screw-tensioned.

The height with the average conga drum is about 3 feet, along with the instruments are often played in sets of two to four. They're able to be played from either a sitting or standing position, despite the fact that for the latter, the drums must be mounted on a rack. An artist who plays conga is known as a "conguero."

Despite the fact that the typical height of a conga drum is about three feet, there's really sufficient size variation to warrant distinctive names for unique sized drums. On the other hand, there is certainly some confusion over these names.

1 supply maintains that the drums are named, in order of largest to smallest, the "tumba," the "conga," the "quinto," the "requinto" along with the "Ricardo," the last getting named for Desi Arnaz's character of Ricky Ricardo on "I Appreciate Lucy."

An additional supply calls the biggest the "tumba," but refers to the smallest because the "nino" and offers no names for the middle sizes. Nonetheless other names incorporate the "segundo" as well as the "supertumba." Clearly, there is certainly no standardized set of names.

Even the term "conga drum" can in some cases be confusing. Even though some professionals retain "conga" might be employed in both English and Spanish, other people aver that it must be utilized only in English and that "tumbadoras" ought to be utilised in Spanish. All and all, it may be pretty bewildering.

But there is absolutely nothing confusing concerning the rhythms from the conga drums. To generate these rhythms, congueros use 5 basic tones and techniques: the open tone, the muffled tone, the bass tone, the slap, as well as the touch.

The open tone is exactly what its name implies-a clear resonant tone using a distinct pitch made by striking 4 fingers close to the rim on the head. The muffled tone is just like the open tone, however the fingers are held against the head to muffle the sound.

The bass tone is made by striking the head using the complete palm of your hand. The slap method produces a popping sound, as well as the touch, once more because the name implies, can be a method of barely touching the fingers or the heel from the hand for the drum head.

A final strategy exists in which the conguero utilizes his elbow to apply stress to distinctive components of the head. This is not a classic technique, nevertheless it is usually applied in modern day salsa and rumba.



As pointed out, the character of Ricky Ricardo helped popularize the conga, even though the instrument he played on the show was truly much more related to the Cuban "boku," yet another type of drum. The music of the conga remains well known today, in portion due to the existing reputation of Latin music and Latin ballroom dances.

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