Open slaps - method

[Mojuba66]

Hi There!
which's the best technique for getting good open slaps strokes?
I 'm very undecided on what technique to adopt x my strokes.
thanks

[ABAKUA]

Do you mean,

'how do you do an open slap?'

or

'how to develop your strokes using open slaps?'

I imagine you mean the second one..
If so, like anything bro, practise makes perfect, try slow slaps, alternating hands and gradually build that up, speed is not important, what is important is the consistancy in the sound you produce, so once you have mastered your open slap tones, build the speed up gradually, if you have a metronome, use it.
You will find over time that your speed will increase, but what sets you apart from other player is not speed, but sound.
Soon enough you will be doing nice open slap rolls and chops..
RRRRRRRRRRAAA KAKAKAKAKA hehehehe.

No point in being fast if your tones are not defined and clear.

Sound first, speed later.

Marcelo.



Edited By ABAKUA on 1103077497

[Jongo]

I have to give my old conga instructor, Neftali Medina, big props on teaching technique. He would make us work on our slaps quite a bit. It is hard to describe technique in a post but basically Neftali made us think of our hand as a whip and just the fingertips touching the drum on the stroke to give that nice slap. I think one of the main problems that me and the other guys had was that we would try to strike the drum too hard and end up hurting our hands. It does take strength but technique is really what determines your sound. A guy from Brasil told me this one time. "Treat your drum like your woman. If you hit her she is not going to respond for you, but if you touch her just right she will give you everything you need." Work on that technique so you can touch that conga just right.
Juan

[Mojuba66]

Hi!
my question is how build a good open slap...
thanks x your replys
sorry x my english

[Colacao]

No sicreto Mojuba66,

pratica, pratica é pratica

Lo so, mio italiano e malissimo, ma fa niente, continuo con mio malissimo inglese

No secret, there is many ways to do Open Slap

In the middle of the skin
with the hand more or less like spoon
with the finger more or less closed
with the hand more or less "outside" the edge of the drum

You need to find the good position
you need to work the weak hand

Djembé is good for sound and particularly the Open Slap (maybe some lesson with good teacher)

Drumset rudiments is good too.

You need to develop the wrists.

Here a little exercise, but there is a lot, try to find yours by your own too.

from the basic Palm-Tip :

PTTT PTTT after you PTTT TTTT etc...

After you play the Tips stronger, and you feel that becomes like slaps...try on the edge and look for the good sound.

I hope that help you
A rivederci, Hasta luego, auf wiedersehn, à bientôt

[zaragemca]

Saludos I'm sorry but....in reality there are about 7 or more differents factors which influence the sound of the congas and the crispy sound of the strokes(including the open slap).



Edited By zaragemca on 1103226951

[Colacao]

Saludos Zaragemca,

I said no secret and you say there is 7 secretos !!

The characteristic of a secret is that nobody know about this secret... :p but if you can tell us more about the reasons that the sound is better ?
Personally I practice drum rudiments. One of the goal for me is to adapt all this technic to traditional rhythmes and remain musical that is not easy to do.

Con respecto

[zaragemca]

Saludos Colacao,the main idea which I'm trying to convey is that when we speak about a subject we could never generalize,we only could speak to the best of our knowledge,becouse there is always something that somebody might know that we don't know(not only in this field,but in all fields),and some great percussionist in Cuba in Africa and some other places,always have their cookies hiding under the table,and they only give those cookies to the one they like(like when father give knowledges to sons,etc),which is usully the way that percussion have been transfered to the next generation in Africa,before drumming school were set up.But anyway I didn't said that were secrets,but factors which would influence the sound of a percussion instrument(in this case the open slap in the conga)...1.- The thickness of the skin...2.- the diameter of the top...3.-The body of the conga...3.-The material of the body(type of wood,etc...4.-The hardness of the percussionist's finger-tips(hands)...5.-the motion of the hands...6.-The dimention of the body...7.- What part of the conga surface is striken...8.-The tuning of the instrument...9.-The conditioning of the skin-head...10.- The kind of skin-head...11.-The humidity in the environment(for real skin).etc.As you could see now there a lot of factors beside practice,practice,practice.Gerry Zargemca.



Edited By zaragemca on 1103505915

[Mojuba66]

Saludos zaragemca !
bravo ...with your explanation,i understand a lot of things.
your opinion is correct x me.
Now you should be so kind to explain any individual point...(if u want)
in particular #4-5-8

Thanks a lot

ps. thanks also to Colacao...all of your opinions are for me a treasure

[Colacao]

ok Zaragemca,

I see what you mean.

It was just some technical suggestions.

Still close with drum spirit

:;):

[Mr. NoChops]

Saludos I'm sorry but....in reality there are about 7 or more differents factors which influence the sound of the congas and the crispy sound of the strokes(including the open slap).

In reality, I've never seen anything constructive coming out of you, Mr. Zaragemca, so anyone is simply wasting their time asking him for help on anything. He's like a politician...it's all pure rhetoric, with no substance at all. It's a shame that you, Gerry (or whatever), want to waste everybody's time on such an otherwise great forum with your BS.

Anyway, sorry for the rant, I just can't stand so-called masters who are nothing close to being one, yet act and talk like one.

To answer the topic:

Be relaxed - use the Bruce Lee technique. I.e: his hand is completely relaxed until a millisecond before impact when he clenches his fist. Same here. Your hand should be almost like a wet rag that you whip forward and just as the finger tips hit the skin, you tighten the fingers and "push down" on the skin. It all happens very quickly obviously, but that's the theory anyway. For me, having played the djembe for 4 years prior to ever touching a Conga, I got the gist of the Conga slap pretty quickly because I can basically use the djembe technique for nice, crisp slaps. It's the lefty that's real challenging though, 'cos it's nowhere near as strong as my right hand, and throwing it forward into a slap doesn't feel very natural.

Moreover, to get more speed on that whip motion (which the masters only need an inch of vertical motion for), it helps if you slighlyt tilt the hand to the right, as it is easier to get speed on a slightly sideways motion rather than a straight up and down motion. You could imagine trying to sweep some dust off the skin towards yourself, but instead of sweeping back, the fingertips stay on the skin where they came down.

I don't know if that helps, but it's more than zaragemca ever contributed to this forum.

Peace

[lido66]

Saludos I'm sorry but....in reality there are about 7 or more differents factors which influence the sound of the congas and the crispy sound of the strokes(including the open slap).

In reality, I've never seen anything constructive coming out of you, Mr. Zaragemca, so anyone is simply wasting their time asking him for help on anything. He's like a politician...it's all pure rhetoric, with no substance at all. It's a shame that you, Gerry (or whatever), want to waste everybody's time on such an otherwise great forum with your BS.

Anyway, sorry for the rant, I just can't stand so-called masters who are nothing close to being one, yet act and talk like one.

To answer the topic:

Be relaxed - use the Bruce Lee technique. I.e: his hand is completely relaxed until a millisecond before impact when he clenches his fist. Same here. Your hand should be almost like a wet rag that you whip forward and just as the finger tips hit the skin, you tighten the fingers and "push down" on the skin. It all happens very quickly obviously, but that's the theory anyway. For me, having played the djembe for 4 years prior to ever touching a Conga, I got the gist of the Conga slap pretty quickly because I can basically use the djembe technique for nice, crisp slaps. It's the lefty that's real challenging though, 'cos it's nowhere near as strong as my right hand, and throwing it forward into a slap doesn't feel very natural.

Moreover, to get more speed on that whip motion (which the masters only need an inch of vertical motion for), it helps if you slighlyt tilt the hand to the right, as it is easier to get speed on a slightly sideways motion rather than a straight up and down motion. You could imagine trying to sweep some dust off the skin towards yourself, but instead of sweeping back, the fingertips stay on the skin where they came down.

I don't know if that helps, but it's more than zaragemca ever contributed to this forum.

Peace

I agree with most of this advice except every cuban teacher I have had insists that the hand should come straight down rather than with a sideways motion. keeping movement to a minimum - eventually you have a 'one inch slap'.

I also agree that straight talk is more useful than mysterious half-talk

martin

[zaragemca]

Greeting for Mr.NoChops,...if you still doesn't know the real reasons why I'm considered a Master Percussionist,just do the same which other worriors have done before,come down to Houston,Texas and meet me in the percussion-field.I don't have to said nothing in respect to what you said of my advises,my posting in the forum speak for itself...As a 'Newbie' in this forum and the percussion field you have find the wrong way to present yourself and worst still the wrong person.



Edited By zaragemca on 1103568055

[untaltumbador]

Hi to all!
I agree with Zaragemca, to me, it all makes sense, these are all scientific probabilities. Zaragemca may correct me if I am wrong, but to his list, I would add, that, the environmental acoustics where the drum is played has some effects on the sound, any sound, as well. I guess once one has corrected all these variables the one left would be taste. How do we like our slap to sound? I have watched how master from Aguabella to Patato Valdez and not only do their hand position differs but the sound as well.

Untal

[Mr. NoChops]

Greeting for Mr.NoChops,...if you still doesn't know the real reasons why I'm considered a Master Percussionist,just do the same which other worriors have done before,come down to Houston,Texas and meet me in the percussion-field.I don't have to said nothing in respect to what you said of my advises,my posting in the forum speak for itself...As a 'Newbie' in this forum and the percussion field you have find the wrong way to present yourself and worst still the wrong person.

Here's the deal: I've seen your age old rhetoric on other forums as well, not just this one. I have never, ever seen you give any concrete, hands on advice regarding technique, regarding rhythms, regarding hand positioning. A master who doesn't share his knowledge is no master at all. The only thing you ever do is provide historical accounts of names or groups you've googled on the internet. Here's an example:
Someone asks: Which parts of the skin should I strike in the heel-tip motion?
Zaragemca's answer: "Heel-tip motion is the fundamental part of conga drumming. Heel-tip masters are [insert bunch of names of Congueros]. I have played heel tip with [insert names of Congueros and regions]. Heel-tip is only a very basic thing and small part of becoming a master percussionist. Heel-tip can also be applied creatively to bata, timbal, djembe and bongo drumming."

Ok great, so would you mind answering the question? Same earlier. Someone asks specifically about slap technique, and you provide a pseudo-intellectual analysis of the acoustic mechanics and environmental factors involved, but ZERO, NADA, NIX on actual TECHNIQUE.
Your posting on this forum (and others) truly does speak for itself. It speaks of jack shit. You have NOTHING to show, nothing to share, and we have nothing to learn from you. I know horseshit when I smell it, and I'm simply calling you on it.
Adios