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PostPosted: Tue Jun 21, 2005 8:19 am
by akdom
hi there and thanks for your comments david

The fonts will change. as you can see, this is the press kit version with smaller pages than what it will be.
The pictures I posted for now are just random pics. So the n'tama is just to show the general setting of the page.

And yes, it is an enormous project...

Thanks again and feel free to comment more, this site will be your site

B

PostPosted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 7:36 am
by Bongi
Hey!

I have a traditional goat skin, rope tuned african djembe and the skins are dry. I would like to know what kind of grease or oil can I use to maintain the skin. Do I have to unrope it or can i use some grease even when it is tuned up (roped).


Can anybody help me?

Thank you very much!

PostPosted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 2:46 pm
by Garvin
Use very little. I would reccomend just a little bit of Karite (shea butter). Too much will allow the skin to stretch, lose its tuning or worse. I would not take the rope off unless you mean to pull the whole drum or change the skin completely (which you should do annually depending on the amount of playing you do). I am currently refurbishing my djembe and have gone through quite a process. Maybe I'll post some pictures for you.

From what I've read of this 3 year old thread there aren't a lot of djembe players on this forum, but everyone seems to own one. It's important to know how to take care of these drums in order to keep them sounding good. One more quick tip. If you think the skin needs oil, then the drum itself definately does. I would rub a generous amount of whatever you use to keep your congas oiled on the djembe as well. I just put about a cup of lemon oil into my djembe, and it drank it right up!

PostPosted: Mon Aug 06, 2007 10:31 pm
by Smejmoon
If I have to use just single drum I take my big djembe. It's easier to play than congas and has nice bass sound. Congas are great because they are more melodic, but then you need to carry several drum.

I think it's easier for conga player to learn djembe than other way around. Because better technique is required just to get basic sounds out of conga. On djembe it's easier to get by with less skills.

PostPosted: Tue Aug 07, 2007 2:52 am
by Garvin
But djembe and conga are two totally different things. I cannot possibly imagine a single instance or gig where I would substitute a djembe for congas or the other way around. I'm sorry, I don't mean to be harsh but what you say about technique is just wrong in my opinion. Now, I'm not saying one is better in general or harder, easier to master etc... But I get defensive for the djembe because people have a tendency to treat it like its just this simple drum, when in my short experience with it I see just as far to go as conga.

As far as getting by with less skills. I think it's completely the opposite. With conga you have the ability to hide within the melody of tumbao, or something. With djembe you really have to know what you are doing or else you'll just sound like one of those drums circle dudes... No offense to the drum circle dudes, but that shtuff won't cut it at a gig.

Sorry for goin' off too.

PostPosted: Wed Aug 08, 2007 3:14 am
by Smejmoon
Garvin wrote:But djembe and conga are two totally different things. I cannot possibly imagine a single instance or gig where I would substitute a djembe for congas or the other way around. I'm sorry, I don't mean to be harsh but what you say about technique is just wrong in my opinion. Now, I'm not saying one is better in general or harder, easier to master etc... But I get defensive for the djembe because people have a tendency to treat it like its just this simple drum, when in my short experience with it I see just as far to go as conga.

As far as getting by with less skills. I think it's completely the opposite. With conga you have the ability to hide within the melody of tumbao, or something. With djembe you really have to know what you are doing or else you'll just sound like one of those drums circle dudes... No offense to the drum circle dudes, but that shtuff won't cut it at a gig.

Sorry for goin' off too.


Just for sake of argument :)

Djembe and conga are not totally different but very similar. They are both wooden cylinders covered with skin. Now I agree that there are differences, but lots of playing techniques are overlapping. I use the same stroke for open tone, open slap and palm bass on djembe and conga, except on djembe I always retract hand. Now there are techniques that won't work on djembe, becouse goat skin is too thin or on conga, becouse of different shape of instruments body and positioning and cow skin is too thick. Still there are lots and loths of similarities.

Regarding less skills I did not mean that djembe players are more skilled or other way around. Masters obviously are very different, but they also play different music, except one example that I'll mention later.

It's easier for good conga player to learn djembe, becouse it's just requires better technique to get sounds out of conga. For example on djembe the slap sound is easy and relaxed. You can improve it a lot by using best position and tweaking of timing, but I have never met one, that could not learn basic slap from me in a week or two, without any stress. Now on conga there are people that can not do slap after years of probably sloppy studies. I know my left hand slap still is sloppy. The initial learning curve is steeper.

Other thing is that congas require much more wrist action. You can not get by without that. On djembe you can. But if you have developed wrists it pays off on djembe.

I did not say that djembe is simple drum. Congas could be simpler, but I don't want hurt feelings in both sides ;-) If you want to see complex drums, check tablas or something. :)

On both drums you have to know what to do in musical context, or feel that or you name it ..

Now, when my arguing power is burned, I'll add that this year I met drums that are something between conga and djembe. They have goblet like shape and cow skin. They were melodical, had bass sound and even though it might be hard to tune them they could be best of both worlds. I did play them much, but that was an impression.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bougarabou

Almost forgot the story. I don't have musical examples right now, but to me it seems that some quinto solos are very similar to djembe solos. They use basically open tone and couple different slap sounds. They interpret rhythm in similar ways. Instruments and players could be freely substituted. I'd be glad if musicologists would correct me :)




Edited By Smejmoon on 1186544630