Pitch tuning congas - How do I do it?

[Rhumba Russ]

How do I tune my drums to notes such as C or G for example ? :angry: ? I dont have a great ear for pitch like a guitarist or piano player might have. Would a guitar tuner work?? If not, then what practical way can I achieve this?

[kinoconga]

RumbaRuss:

I use a keyboard piano to tune my tumbadoras to F,C and G.
I normally tune my tumba to "F" below middle "C", Conga to Middle "C" and Quinto to "G" above middle "C".

It works for me.

Try it.

Sincerely,

KinoConga

[106-1028519773]

Do you know this song?

Here comes the bride
G C C C

Remember it when your tuning your Congas.

[CongaCaja]

If you don't have a piano, keyboard, guitar or other melodic instrument available, I suggest that you pick up a pitch pipe at your local music store. The are small and relatively inexpensive

cjk

[Rhumba Russ]

Thanks for your replys..but I still have the same problem. I own guitars and a keyboard, but I can not by ear tune my drums. For instance, I can not tune guitar by ear, only by a electronic tuner, nor can I tune my self to another guitarist by ear. I know when my drums sound nice and complement each other and always tune them as such. But I would like to adopt classical cuban tuning or tune my drums to the bass player for example....any more ideas?

[CongaCaja]

Ok, I think I understand the problem a bit. I think you having troubling hearing the fundamental of the pitch of your drum. Learning to train your ear is a bit of work. I had to do the same when I started my studies of music theory at the university (years ago).

My suggestion is to practice singing the pitches that you get from the melodic instrument (guitar, piano, etc.). The reason is this will let you hear the pitch in two different timbres (the guitar and your voice) before trying to tranfer that to the drum. Also, when striking to the drum ( to test it's pitch ) be sure to hit a clean open tone. This tone will have a stronger fundamental frequency than other strokes.

Also, be sure you lugs are in tune with each other. This will reduce strange overtones.

I won't go into the acoustics too much except to say that each note of a melodic instrument (with the exception of the pure sine wave oscillator) consists of many frequencies. When tuning an instrument you wan to focus on the fundamental (lowest) frequency.

Btw, the higher frequencies of a pitch have different relative strengths in each instrument and it is one of the reasons why a guitar makes a different sound (timbre) when it plays middle C (for example) and when a trumpet plays middle C.

Trying to sing the note will help you internalize the pitch as well as let you hear it within two contexts (timbres). Remember listen for the lowest part of the sound.

Try it. Perhaps it will help. Best of luck

chris

[Rhumba Russ]

Much respect, that was I answer I needed. I thought that I was posing too awkward a question and that I would not get an answer that could help me. I will be sure to try it tommorrow...practice makes perfect! Again, many thanks..Rhumba Russ :p

[cabdriver]

i got a bit confused reading this discussion,


So a good tuning would be;

Tumba F below middle C
Conga C
Quitno G above middle C

So if I only have conga and quinto:
Conga C
Quitno G above middle C


/cabdriver

[Conuno]

Hi,
I'm new member of the forum and I play conga since many years ago.
I would say that a "good conga tuning" depends basically on the style that you will play. For me tunning 3 congas by 5th (F C G) is not the best choice.
Let's say that you will play salsa or afrocuban music and let's say that you have 3 congas. Then G-Bb-C will work quite good.
If the band has a big rhythm section (more than 2 percussionist), then you can put the congas a little higher, i.e. A-C-D. What I mean is, some times when I play in a small format (4 musicians) I prefer to tune in G the tumba, to fill out spaces but if the rhythm section is complete I tune a little higher.
Remember the song of Dizzy Guillespie "Manteca" :
Chano Pozo Oye Manteca
G Bb Bb C C Bb G C Bb

For me the Use of three or more Congas is focussed to play melodys and in this way you can create nice melodys.

Another possibility is by 3th like a major chord or minor chord depends on you.
If you have only 2 congas I suggest to do it by 4th G-C or A-D.

Normally, in this intervales the instrument reach a good and warm sound with projection.

But remember I'm talking about Salsa, Cuban Music and Latin Jazz.

greetings

Conuno

[jeroen]

you can listen to this video http://www.congahead.com/Movies/valdez.htm

i've copied this tuning to my (4)remo nuskyn conga's and it gives a nice melody

[Simon B]

Please - it must be remembered that the sound of a conga drum is a complex thing in which all sorts of imprecise elements are lurking! In my opinion - though the tuning of congas is a consideration - we should not be overly concerned with exact matching as the harmony instruments are. We have a dark, complex sound that can hold its own amongst other elements, complement them without needing to operate on a like scale!

Simon B

[RayBoogie]

I agree 100% with Simon. Our instrument is complex. I would say go by the feel of the band, drum circles, playing with a DJ, or playing home alone. If all drums are tuned in the same fashion in a drum circle I think it would be missing that element (the contrast) which make a rhumba. Also, I'm not trying to say not to tune las tumbadoras to a certain way, all I'm trying to say is go by the feel of whatever or whomever your playing with. Just my two cents.

Question. Have you ever let someone that doesn't know how play the congas, play them, and tells you "Wow, it thought it was easier than it looks"?

[kinoconga]

Hi,
I'm new member of the forum and I play conga since many years ago.
I would say that a "good conga tuning" depends basically on the style that you will play. For me tunning 3 congas by 5th (F C G) is not the best choice.
Let's say that you will play salsa or afrocuban music and let's say that you have 3 congas. Then G-Bb-C will work quite good.
If the band has a big rhythm section (more than 2 percussionist), then you can put the congas a little higher, i.e. A-C-D. What I mean is, some times when I play in a small format (4 musicians) I prefer to tune in G the tumba, to fill out spaces but if the rhythm section is complete I tune a little higher.
Remember the song of Dizzy Guillespie "Manteca" :
Chano Pozo Oye Manteca
G Bb Bb C C Bb G C Bb

For me the Use of three or more Congas is focussed to play melodys and in this way you can create nice melodys.

Another possibility is by 3th like a major chord or minor chord depends on you.
If you have only 2 congas I suggest to do it by 4th G-C or A-D.

Normally, in this intervales the instrument reach a good and warm sound with projection.

But remember I'm talking about Salsa, Cuban Music and Latin Jazz.

greetings

Conuno

Hi;

I just tried Conuno recomenddations about tunig the tumbadoras to G Bb C, for three tumbadoras, and it does works very well. I used to tune my congas to F C G and I think I'll change from now on to G Bb C. The tumbadoras sound lots more coordinated between themselves. I like it.

Regards,

KinoConga

[Conuno]

Hi Simon B and Ray Boogie,

I have another point of view. According to my last post, remember I was talking about Salsa, Cuban Music and Latin Jazz. In these styles the Conga can be thought as the main axes of the rhythm section.
Something interesting: nowadays you can find in the recent recordings, that in the same CD the conga is tuned specially for each song. That means the instrument is an active part of the musical concept.
Of course, this doesn't occur on stage. Since one can not move the tuning on stage then one must find the rigth tuning for the all concert.

In effect the Conga is a complex instrument like all the other hand drums and the tunig is very difficut due to the big amount of overtones but it must be said, that it is really possible to tune a Conga, BUT THIS IS NOT AN EASY TASK. The quality of the instrument and the heads play an important role.

If you play in a rock band, with a DJ, folklore or whichever other style, of course, the tuning can be different, that depends on the style or on you.

Finally I will mention a little tip:
In the tuning process, after much trials ang getting crazy because I could not distinguish between the fundamental tone and the first overtone, I decided to recorded it. The sound catch by the recorder machine (the same through a microphone on stage) was clear and the fundamental tone was easier to recognize. This is a relative "easy" way to tune !!

regards Conuno



Edited By Conuno on Sep. 01 2003 at 14:22

[yoni]

Interesting topic! I agree with both points shown here.. drums are often the least tonal of any instrument, with all their overtones and so on, and that's fine by me. Percussion is often referred to as the "batterie", historically beaten and battered mainly for rhythm.


But congas played street-style (no stands) seem to give the purest tones of any hand drums. So when I'm playing along with melodic instruments (usually the case) the congas can sound to me really off if they're not somewhere in the basic tonality of the music...

For instance, a pianist I work with does lots of stuff in A minor and E minor, so I do find myself tuning up with him to specific notes within these keys, and the congas sound better to me this way. I may not tune them in the same intervals each time, but I try to get within the basic tonality of the tune, even re-tuning between pieces at times. Some guys even use electronic tuners (I saw Giovanni do this) but I can't be bothered with that.

When the congas are up on stands there seem to be more overtones; the tones aren't as pure, and maybe tuning isn't as critical then. But even with hand drums with tones less pure than congas, many are tuning as precisely as they can to the music they play with. I guess it boils down to preference. For me, the main thing in playing music is to enjoy. If others enjoy as well, that's an added bonus!


Yoni