Conga drums are an integral a part of most Latin American music. In North America, every person has heard of a conga line and unfortunately, most of us happen to be forced to join one at one point or an additional, often in the course of a wedding reception. However the music in the conga is far too diverse to become pigeonholed as wedding reception music. These instruments are utilized not merely in genres like salsa and rumba, but in Afro-Caribbean religious music also. Conga drums are a very important facet of life in South America.
How to play the timbales be played from either a sitting or standing position, although for the latter, the drums should be mounted on a rack. An artist who plays conga is called a “conguero.”
Although the average height of a conga drum is about three feet, there’s really enough size variation to warrant distinct names for various sized drums. However, there’s some confusion over these names. One supply maintains that the drums are called, in order of largest to smallest, the “tumba,” the “conga,” the “quinto,” the “requinto” and the “Ricardo,” the last being named for Desi Arnaz’s character of Ricky Ricardo on “I Adore Lucy.”
An additional source calls the largest the “tumba,” but refers towards the smallest because the “nino” and gives no names for the middle sizes. Nonetheless other names consist of the “segundo” as well as the “supertumba.” Clearly, there’s no standardized set of names. Even the term “conga drum” can at times be confusing. While some specialists preserve “conga” could be employed in both English and Spanish, other people aver that it must be utilized only in English and that “tumbadoras” should be employed in Spanish. All and all, it may be quite bewildering.
But there’s nothing at all confusing concerning the rhythms in the conga drums. To generate these rhythms, congueros use 5 simple tones and strategies: the open tone, the muffled tone, the bass tone, the slap, and the touch.
The open tone is just what its name implies-a clear resonant tone having a distinct pitch created by striking four fingers near the rim from the head. The muffled tone is just like the open tone, but the fingers are held against the head to muffle the sound. The bass tone is created by striking the head using the complete palm from the hand. The slap method produces a popping sound, as well as the touch, once more because the name implies, is a approach of barely touching the fingers or the heel in the hand towards the drum head. A final approach exists in which the conguero uses his elbow to apply pressure to distinct components from the head. This is not a standard approach, but it is generally used in contemporary salsa and rumba.
As talked about, the character of Ricky Ricardo helped popularize the conga, although the instrument he played on the show was really a lot more equivalent towards the Cuban “boku,” another type of drum. The music of the conga remains well-known right now, in part due to the current recognition of Latin music and Latin ballroom dances.