Tuning Congas

[nasaisgramps]

Can someone tell me how I may be able to tune my
congas? What is the difference between a "C", "G",
and a "E"? I'm not musically literate, so anything
might help. Saludos to everyone.
PEACE-nasaisgramps

[CongaCaja]

nasaisgramps,

hi. well, I confess to being a newbie at tuning congas, but I am fairly well-qualified to answering your question about musical pitches (I have degrees in both music theory and music composition).

So to your question:

What is the difference between a "C", "G",
and a "E"?

These are all pitches. What consitutes a musical pitch is a bit too deep for what you need to know about conga tuning (lots of acoustical stuff with respect to frequency relationships). Just think of pitch as the qualities of a note that make it sound higher or lower than another note.

Think about a musical notes that your hear from a melodic instrument like a piano or guitar. A note has (at least) two aspects to it, pitch and the duration. In the U.S., we have a system of letters that we assign to the pitches so that we have a way to refer to them. In much of Europe, they use a system of syllables instead of letters (do, re, mi...), but I won't go into that.

The letters are C, D, E, F, G, A and B. If you go above B, then the letters start over again with C, D, E etc. These letters correspond to the white keys on a piano. Now, you might say "hey, what about the black keys of the piano?" Well, some of the lettered notes have notes in between. For example, between C and D, there is the C# (pronounced "see sharp") and it is a black key on the piano. "C#" means pitch that is a little above C. You might also see something like Db or D flat. This means the note that is a little below D and in fact, it is the same as C# (all black notes have two names).

Whew!...believe it or not, I am just scatching the surface of music theory. However, you don't need to know much more. I can imagine you are thinking "how do I know which pitch is which if I am looking at a piano?" Well, check out the images in the links below.

http://www.talkbass.com/images/lessons/keyboard.gif

In the image, you see a pattern of 2 black keys then 3 black keys, then 2 black keys again, etc.? Well, the pitch C is the first white key to the left the 2 black keys and it is labeled in the image.

If you are using a guitar to find a pitch,...well, that's too complex to describe because it's not as visual as the piano.

If you don't have a melodic instrument available, my suggestion is that you purchase a pitch pipe at any local music store. They are cheap, small and have the pitches clearly marked.

By the way, remember that the pattern of pitches repeats. So, when conga players talk about tuning the 11.75'' conga to "C" and the 12.5'' in tumba to "G", they are referring to the the G that is below (not above) the C.

Well, I hope that I helped without confusing you too much.

Best of luck!

cjk



Edited By CongaCaja on Sep. 24 2002 at 07:02

[nasaisgramps]

CongaCaja,
Hey, how are you? Hope your well.
Wow now I know I'm definitely musically illiterate.
I think this will take me a little bit of time to fathom.
But anyway I'll give it a shot. I really do appreciate your
help. Thanks immensely.-nasaisgramps
PEACE.

[CongaCaja]

Hello again...

Didn't mean to overwhelm you. Really, don't sweat it. If you are using a piano tune, print out that link that I referenced and keep it handy.

Otherwise, go buy the "pitch pipe" that I mentioned (should be only a few bucks). You can get it at almost any musical store. Toot a few notes that you see labeled on the pipe and it will all start to make sense.

take care... cjk

[120decibels]

Congacaja,

Nice work! That was a great introductory summary of notes, pitch, etc. Yes, you've just scratched the surface, but you've done a great job of summarizing the first couple of intro to music theory classes.

Would you like to take on Harmony, Form and Analysis, or maybe Jazz Improvisation ?

Zach

[CongaCaja]

hi zach,

well, maybe I went overboard on explaining pitch, but that's just my former life as university teaching assistant coming out. oops! :0

actually, I'd love to discuss harmony, form, acoustics, digital signal processing and any other theory topic with anyone is interested...I love that stuff. but, I think I'll let others start those topics because it does seem a bit tangential from conga playing...no? ???

saludes...

cjk



Edited By CongaCaja on Sep. 25 2002 at 04:50

[tamboricua]

Hi Congaforum, hope all is well! Check out a very nice article on tuning congas at:

http://www.lpmusic.com/Play_Like_A_Pro/Tech_Support/tuningconga.html


Hope this helps!

Saludos, Jorge Ginorio

http://www.rhythmweb.com/jorge



Edited By tamboricua on Sep. 24 2002 at 19:18

[benbaboon]

you can also check other strings in this forum. I believe Johnny Conga gave the specs on the standards in one of them
cheers -bb

[120decibels]

CongaCaja,

You're right, this probably isn't the place for a discussion of acoustics and signal processing. However if you're interested, drop me an email. Its what I do when I'm not playing congas.

Zach



Edited By 120decibels on Sep. 25 2002 at 09:42