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Can any one give advice on (or tell me about their experience with) a cowbell/foot pedal setup with congas? I'm interested in playing clave while playing my two drums, and had heard good things about this kind of setup.

Any thoughts or recommendations would be great! Thanks.

Chelsea

Chelsea wrote:Can any one give advice on (or tell me about their experience with) a cowbell/foot pedal setup with congas? I'm interested in playing clave while playing my two drums, and had heard good things about this kind of setup.

Any thoughts or recommendations would be great! Thanks.

Chelsea

Hola Chelsea, hope all is well! How do you like your new Meinl Marathon Exclusive drums? The Cowbell and foot pedal thing is definetely very recommended. You can start by playing clave along as you play, and start to internalise it in your playing. You have to check out my friend and mentor Michael Spiro. He has a very interesting set up these days. He mounts two cowbells on foot pedals, a low pitch to his right feet and a higher pitch to his left. When he plays batá rhythms on the congas he plays the okónkolo part on the bells. Very cool stuff! Also he came out with a very nice idea what he calls "Chekere on a stick", he was able to mount a chekere on a hi hat pedal. He sounds like a full Afrocuban ensemble. Hope this helps!

Saludos, Jorge Ginorio

http://www.rhythmweb.com/jorge



Edited By tamboricua on Oct. 31 2002 at 16:31

Thanks Jorge, that's given me some good ideas. The chekere on a stick sounds interesting too..

One more thing - what size cowbell would be good to start with? A smaller or larger one?

I love my new Meinls, thanks. They're fantastic. I haven't stopped playing them for weeks and weeks.

Chelsea

Chelsea wrote:Thanks Jorge, that's given me some good ideas. The chekere on a stick sounds interesting too..

One more thing - what size cowbell would be good to start with? A smaller or larger one?

I love my new Meinls, thanks. They're fantastic. I haven't stopped playing them for weeks and weeks.

Chelsea

Either one will do! You can get a Chacha bell or a Mambo bell.
It depends on what styles are you currently performing. I do have several bells and blocks that I do mount on my foot pedal brackets.

Hope this helps!

Saludos, Jorge Ginorio

http://www.rhythmweb.com/jorge



Edited By tamboricua on Nov. 04 2002 at 15:38

oye jorge, explain to me how you can play clave and congas at the same time, that sounds way cool. Also are you from the
Bay?
Thanks
carlitos

carlitos wrote:oye jorge, explain to me how you can play clave and congas at the same time, that sounds way cool. Also are you from the
Bay?
Thanks
carlitos

Hola Carlitos, hope all is well! I'm originally from the island of Puerto Rico, but currently residing in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Actually, there are several ways that you can play clave and congas at the same time. One is using a foot pedal bracket. Using the pedal bracket you can mount on it a "Jam block" or any type of cowbell and play it with your feet.
The other way is to mount the "jam block" or cowbell on a stand or in a LP percussion claw attached to one of your drums. In this way you use a stick for the clave or cowbell and play the congas with your other hand. This way is more limited, since your playing the congas with only one hand. A good example of the second technique is Oscar Valdes creation the "Batumbatá". On the tune "Bacalao con Pan" by Irakere, Oscar plays the basic rumba iyesá iyá pattern and the late Jorge Alfonso "El Niño" plays his part using a mounted cowbell and five tumbadoras. Angá explain this invention in his video "Angamania", check it out.

Hope this helps!

Saludos, Jorge Ginorio

http://www.rhythmweb.com/jorge



Edited By tamboricua on Nov. 03 2002 at 19:01

Hi Chelsea

If you feel good with the three-way (potentially four) independence thing then go with it. You tend to find that small or large cowbell, you will produce a lot of volume, because the wooden beaters - compared to a timbale stick - are huge (I stuff a pair of socks into a Toca rhumba bell that I sometimes mount up, so as to damp it down). What some percussionists do is mount up temple blocks (sort of wood-cubes) to a pedal - Toca do one called the Tone Block - and these sound amazing. You can get them in different pitches. Some of the Latin-orientated kit drummers do incredble things with their feet - I saw a video of Horacio 'El Negro' Hernandez in full solo flight while doing clave on the left and accenting another bell with his right!

Simon B

Hi Simon,

when reading your post, I had Horacio 'El Negro' Hernandez´s solo in CALLE 54 in mind, a terrfific trio with Michael Camilo on oiano and a bass man I don´t know. He´s for sure renowned for being an expert on left-foot clave + human octopus on drumset simultaneously.
(By the way, have you seen the CALLE 54 video or DVD?)

Bye,
Mike

have you seen the CALLE 54 video or DVD?)

Hi Mike -

I haven't seen this, no. Is that the name of the group / project then? I am particularly into Latin video / DVD at the moment - it's great when you can see what's going on at the same time!


Simon B