Conga Drums - A Confusing But Moving Family members
Conga drums are an integral component of most Latin American music. In North America, absolutely everyone has heard of a conga line and unfortunately, most of us happen to be forced to join 1 at one point or one more, often in the course of a wedding reception.
However the music of your conga is far too diverse to be pigeonholed as wedding reception music. These instruments are utilised not just in genres like salsa and rumba, but in Afro-Caribbean religious music as well. Conga drums are an incredibly essential facet of life in South America.
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The bodies of conga drums are "staved," or produced of numerous strips of wood or fiberglass, related to the construction of a barrel. Odds are that the ancestors of contemporary congas were, actually, created from salvaged barrels. The drum heads are of rawhide or synthetic materials and are screw-tensioned.
The height of the typical conga drum is about three feet, plus the instruments are usually played in sets of two to four. They are able to be played from either a sitting or standing position, although for the latter, the drums must be mounted on a rack. An artist who plays conga is called a "conguero."
Despite the fact that the typical height of a conga drum is about three feet, there is certainly essentially sufficient size variation to warrant distinct names for various sized drums. Nonetheless, there's some confusion over these names.
1 source maintains that the drums are named, in order of biggest to smallest, the "tumba," the "conga," the "quinto," the "requinto" as well as the "Ricardo," the last becoming named for Desi Arnaz's character of Ricky Ricardo on "I Enjoy Lucy."
One more source calls the biggest the "tumba," but refers for the smallest because the "nino" and offers no names for the middle sizes. Still other names involve the "segundo" as well as the "supertumba." Clearly, there is no standardized set of names.
Even the term "conga drum" can sometimes be confusing. When some authorities retain "conga" might be utilised in each English and Spanish, other people aver that it needs to be utilized only in English and that "tumbadoras" needs to be used in Spanish. All and all, it can be pretty bewildering.
But there is nothing confusing regarding the rhythms on the conga drums. To produce these rhythms, congueros use five standard tones and methods: the open tone, the muffled tone, the bass tone, the slap, along with the touch.
The open tone is precisely what its name implies-a clear resonant tone using a distinct pitch designed by striking 4 fingers close to the rim in 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 produced by striking the head together with the complete palm from the hand. The slap strategy produces a popping sound, and also the touch, once more because the name implies, is actually a system of barely touching the fingers or the heel of the hand for the drum head.
A final method exists in which the conguero uses his elbow to apply pressure to various parts on the head. That is not a conventional system, nevertheless it is commonly utilized in modern day salsa and rumba.
As mentioned, the character of Ricky Ricardo helped popularize the conga, even though the instrument he played on the show was essentially extra related towards the Cuban "boku," a further variety of drum. The music of the conga remains popular nowadays, in component as a result of current reputation of Latin music and Latin ballroom dances.
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