New to the board

[bongoron]

Hi everybody! I played bongo for fun in my youth, and returned to bongo/conga a couple of years ago. My daughter got interested in djembe' and I just went from there so we could play together.

I play in our church worship services, after a period of study and intense practice lasting a couple of months. Our Christian contemporary music makes me feel a little limited on rhythms...just don't get to use that many...but I still feel blessed to be back in it. I bought shalloch drums... a three drum set, and matching bongos. My budget is near zero, and I've learned to really make them sing anyway. I have recorded them and they do sound nice! It was really a no-brainer for me because of the permanent low budget...three drum set, or equally cheap two drum set, or nothing.

I recently played some Lp giovanni hildalgo drums. They sounded different in my church, but not necessarily better. Church acoustics...not the best. The main difference was the lightness of the touch for the same sounds at higher volume levels. For me, the sound guy fixes any possible problem that might cause. Proper head care and careful tuning does the trick. I have one trick for the high volume numbers...I use aluminum finger splints (from wal-mart)individually wrapped in athletic tape. I even use the exposed ends in some numbers to make other sounds on the rims or light scratching sounds on the heads.

Virtually all my other instruments are hand-made. I even use an old camera tripod for a bongo stand...with some parts from an old golf hand-cart. I made my own tuned chimes from 1/2 inch copper water pipe, and shelf brackets. They can be played as bells in a melody or harmony as well as normal wind-chime duty. I made rainsticks from nails, beans, BBs, rice, pvc, and cardboard tubes for different sounds.

I just love to make music, and everything that makes a musical sound ends up on my home-made rack. I use u-bolts, and hospital bed parts like triangles. I have bathroom faucet housings for bells, and clave's made from yard-tool handles. I use the inside parts from old table lamps as metallic claves and strikers for the other metal instruments. I made shakers from an old bicycle tire pump and BBs, and plastic easter eggs and rice. If I'm a hack, nobody has noticed yet . In fact, people give me things to make sounds with! I use the "little goes a long way" philosophy of hand-percussion, and never try to overwhelm. I mike my setup with a single samson studio condensor mike attached to my quinto (center drum for me), and my sound man mixes me however I need it, depending on if I am doing vocals or not. He's very helpful...runs my mike through it's own compressor. I am in a great spot on the stage, and fairly easy to isolate from the band, even with the condensor mike. I am happy about my music, and excited to find this forum. I have been reading here for a little while, so I decided to join.

God bless!

-Ron

[Bataboom]

Ron, glad your here man, and glad you finally spoke up after reading first a while.

I too and a church performer. I started out playing trumpet about 10 years ago, then I filled in on drum set when the regular was out. Then my pastor asked if I would be interested in playing the djembe on the off songs that Im not playing trumpet on and for the slower alter call songs. I took that and ran with it, after a ton of online research and hard crashing practicing and learning I started a youth school west african percussion class of 15 students. In between all that I got a set of congas to play in church as well as the djembe.

Not until too long ago I got interested in Latin Jazz percussion and a few of us in the group are trying to pick up on the feel of it and we play it after services or in spare time etc. Im loving it. I am currenty getting a few congas for the house as well so I can practice and play congas at home as well.

My stage position isnt as isolated as yours sounds, I am mic-ed with a single mic on stand and the sound guy adjusts me accordinglly. But Im smack dab in the middle of everyone, I have a keyboard player to my right, and to my left with thier big monitors on stands, behind me is the 4 or 5 back up female singers. I would like to be pushed off to the side some place where I can get all fonkey with no one around me lol.... but for now this works.

Anyway we have a few church playing percussionists here and Im sure glad you joined in hope to hear more from you soon, my djembe class performs tmorrow night for the second time its gonna be exciting ! This is us here Im on the left with my back facing the camera....


Pay no attension to the "christian percussions" thread
we went a little crazy there LOL

Feel free to add me to msn messanger if you have it.



Edited By Bataboom on 1137908222

[bongoron]

Thanks! My stage position is all the way to the band's left, on a raised platform. There is a keyboard several feet away, on my right, and a guitar in front on the lower level, also slightly to my right. Because he uses his amp as a monitor, it's pointed away from my position. I have a small hotspot monitor, and I can hear the keyboard off its internal speaker. Our stage is a semi-circle, so I'm right at the front, even though I'm on the rear upper level. Make sense? My monitor levels are very low, so my studio mike rejects them pretty well, as I tilt it toward the quinto. I play the bongos unmiked...they really pop! The mike gets the conga and the tumba too. I can tilt it up for singing when I have vocals, and it lowers the drum levels automatically from the new position. I have a mike under the tumba for bass impact effects on the subwoofer channel, but it isn't always used...just for the really powerful numbers. I also play tumba in the basement on Wednesday nights...unmiked with the stand on the hard floor. It carries in the hard room, even though the guitars are amped. I really like the schalloch drums...bang for buck-wise. I know they aren't the max, but they really perform well in my church, and I get alot of encouragement from everyone. When I don't play, like last week with the flu, I really hear about it from lots of folks. They were the most I could afford, and having three really gives me a versatile setup for worship music. I do two-handed bass tones as part of my pattern in many songs...conga on the left, and tumba on the right. It makes it easy to add more bass while maintaining my rhythm patterns. I can also do three drum patterns. I got them for 249 bucks on sale, so I'm very happy. I've moved them around alot for different "gigs" at the park and other places, and no sigh of any wear at all. An occasional dab of lanolin, and they keep on making great tones. I tune them for whatever the most prominent key is each sunday. Many of my parts are actual melodious drum parts using all three open tones to accompany a piano or guitar solo. I like that drumline. Djembe is good for me, too. I play it at outdoor gatherings around the fire, etc.

[Bataboom]

I was looking at the same brand drums you play on a few months ago, I decided to go with a higher priced drum buying them one at a time until I get them all. How is the heads on them? The looked pretty good in the pictures. My very first home set was a cheap verve set, and they really was trashy bad. The heads looked like old beef jerky, I gave them to the school. I play on Meinle 2 headliners in church bought by the church and I have one LP aspire 12 tumba for a 3 drum set, im currently switching to synthetic heads on them for the simple reason when I get there everyone is praying and I cant just jump up there and tune them every service, so with the synthetic heads I can tune them just right and leave them. With the rawhide heads every service was a different tuning atmosphere the weather down here is really terrible.

I have one remo nuskyn head on the conga, im waiting for the store to get their shipment in for the other 2. Im having a blast playing at church, at home I started buying me a set of meinl luis conte congas, a step up from the headliner set, they really sound and look great im having fun playing at home as well.

Oh yeah, I did make me a clave set out of broom handles they work great if you cut them just the right lenth



Edited By Bataboom on 1137910674

[windhorse]

Oh yeah, I did make me a clave set out of broom handles they work great if you cut them just the right lenth

Yesterday, at our Saturday Rumba, Dave pulled out a pair of clave that still looked like unfinished tree branches. For not looking like much, they sounded great! He said that they were peach, or plum, or some kind of fruit branches. He said they had a been drying for a year.

[Bataboom]

wow lol !! thats kool

[bongoron]

The heads are about the consitency of the giovannis I played...just a tad less soft. However, I just put lanolin on them, and they really came back soft! Once I retuned, they are much easier to play. I got a little complacent leaving them at church and they were pretty dried out. I have them at home now to do lug greaing and wood polishing, head softening, etc. They really are like new drums to me after all that. Because I play on carpet, and miked, I don't hear any serious overtones. even in the basement on the hard linoleum the sound is really warm. At home, I have them tuned higher to experiment after greasing the lugs. I'm planning to record them ina couple days to listen to the difference in the heads. They are bison, but I'm probably not good enough to know the difference. I do sense a huge difference after the lanolin, though. It had been a while since I did it last. Here's a music room I'm putting together since my son moved out. It's 10.5 by 14. I have some foam to hang when I record in there.





I have the matching bongos..they are at church.
My small hand instruments are at church with my chimes, rack and table. You can see some hand-made shakers, and rainsticks in the photos, though.

God bless!

-Ron



Edited By bongoron on 1138054016

[Bataboom]

Man thats a really nice looking set. I was scared of the price, but they sure look like they are well built, the heads look nice as well. I was more scared of buying something I didnt hear was an ok thing before I went and got them, I did that with the verve set I had and that was a big mistake didnt wanna do that again.

[bongoron]

I know what you mean. It was a definite leap of faith. We had really good experience with musician's friend. There is an outlet store near here, and everything we saw there measures up just like the catalog states, so I went for it...they were on sale for $249 for the three of them. Now they are 199 for two and another 169 for the 12 inch. I got the bongos on sale, too...can't remember how much. As nice as they sound, the pictures don't do justice to the finish. It's really perfect. I haven't even waxed them and they just glow and reflect everything. I do use furniture polish spray on them...I guess there's wax in that. Hard to get a good picture with a flash...glare. I've had them two years now, and they've been around the block a little in that time.

I recorded them today...very happy! I used my samson studio condensor mounted on an LP claw to my conga. I also used a samson shure 58 knockoff as a room mike about 5 feet away from the set. I recorded them dry, and played with some doubling added afterwards. I use a Boss 1180 recorder. Both ways came out with very pronounced open tones, slaps, bass, drops, heel/tip, you name it, they all sounded distinctively different from each other. Plus, all three drums have a unique set of sounds, like they should. Very definite pitch difference, even when I hit them really hard. I had a blast tonight recording them. I listened to giavanni hidalgo before i did it for a reference. Tonally, my drums are very good..even compared to his (not to say equal to his...I'm not tone deaf :p ). If I ever get good enough to need better ones, I'll donate these to the church with a clear conscience...now I understand why the congregation wants me to stay in the band. My wife would like me to sit with her during the singing...I guess I'll just put her in the praise team next to me! That should work. Thanks for the kind words. Is your alias the same one you use for msn messenger? Let me know so I can put you on my contact list.

God bless!

-Ron



Edited By bongoron on 1138082202

[zaragemca]

Saludos,to both of yours,Bongoron and Bataboom,welcome to the percussion family,and keep the 'Production Enterprise alive".Dr. Zaragemca



Edited By zaragemca on 1138644829

[pidoca]

Hi Bongoron.

Welcome to congaplace. great to have you here. As Bataboom Said that are quite a few fellow church going folk here on the forum.

I was really inspired by your equipment and your love for the church and music.

I think all to often we ( me anyway) fel that we need to have the best equipment etcc... to make music. I can see through your threads that your heart is in the right place. look forward to hearing from you.

PIDOCA'S WEBSITE

God Bless
Pidoca

[bongoron]

Thanks! This past week our band didn't play due to a youth rally. I've had my congas home for the whole week, and will until saturday. I've been able to really put some intense practice in, and experiment with mike placements, stand heights, head angles..lots of details I've needed to iron out. I also decided to bring at least one drum home every week from no on, like I used to. I can set up my daughters djembe as a second drum for practice purposes. I've also been practicing with djembe and darbuka while singing in an unplugged environment. That's a very cool combo, if you haven't ever tried it. Those two drums and an acoutic guitar with two guys singing in occasional understated harmony..very mellow!