Differences in Africa and Western technique

[Simon B]

I'm going to be buying a Djembe soon, and there are a couple of African-orientated hand drumers in my area who I can see for basic lessons. What I'm thinking is, how different are the techniques between 'Western' conga playing and African (or Western?) Djembe playing? I guess an open tone is an open tone, but what about slapping, heel-toe etc?

Simon B

[benbaboon]

Simon, while some of the the things you'll learn from your djembe teacher will come to bear when you learn conga, quite a bit is different. To get the most out of a conga you will need conga lessons as well.
ben

[zealot]

I play djembe as well as congas and have found a good place to learn djembe has bee in a drum circle.
The strokes do differ. I have not encounter the closed slap and African drumming does not appear to feature heel and toe. I was in The Gambia over Christmas and did a bit of drumming with locals who were amused at my 'weird technique' when I used 'heel and toe' stokes. The other thing I would add is beware of some of the synthetic djembes made by a well known drum company. The edges have quite 'sharp' angles which can give you some nasty bruises if you play loudly for an extended period. Of course, this could just be because I hit it too hard and have bad technique!

[JohnnyConga]

Playing Jembe is totally different than playing congas. There is no "shuffle" on jimbe,or "closed slaps". It is all open slaps, with palm bass, and as I was taught you play "off" the drum not down on the drum like congas. so "on" with congas "off" with Jimbe. You can watch any african jimbe player and he plays "off" the drum with the hands in an upward motion,versus conga which is a down motion. Hope that helps..
At your Service.....JC JOHNNY CONGA....

[yoni]

Interesting thread! I might add that I see more double strokes in Latin drumming, while much African drumming seems to use more alternating strokes (hand to hand).

Here's one basic difference I know between djembe and conga slaps: In most conga slapping, the fingers are curved, the hand slightly cupped. But in Senegalese djembe playing the slaps are with straight fingers - the hands only bend at the first knuckles (the ones you punch with).

I am sure there are many types of African djembe styles and techniques, depending on the locale you're in. Same for conga - techniques can vary with the type of music, the location, even with the individual.

I hope the two differences I noticed between Afro and Latin drumming (doubles and slaps) help out.

[Simon B]

I am sure there are many types of African djembe styles and techniques, depending on the locale you're in. Same for conga - techniques can vary with the type of music, the location, even with the individual.

That's a really interesting point. I've got questions in my mind now! How does Cuban technique vary from 'Western' conga technique? Are there differences between Latin technique and say funk/R&B technique, or between, say New York players, and west coast American players? And so on.

In terms of Latin v other styles, to generalise I think R&B percussionists tend to use less of the great variety of strokes that are available - e.g. different types of muffled tone - heel-toe in particular. Perhaps because many are multi-percussionists who don't have the luxury of being able to work and practice with the conga drum to the extent that the 'conguero' can. Nonetheless many are great players in their own right, but perhaps approach it more in a Brazilian fashion - which is transferrable to different hand-drums.

What does this amount to? I think you need to get down with Latin music in order to get the most out of the drum!

Simon B