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Before we jump into the main topic, let see the brief history of conga. The conga sees it is inception in Cuba in correlation with the thousands of slaves being brought over predominantly from the Bantu-speaking Congo region of Africa during the 17th and 18th centuries (Ricky Martin, 2021). An explosion of cultural exchange and development took hold because slavery was finally abolished in Cuba towards end of the 19th century (Ricky Martin,2021). Impact, Rumba and other forms of drum-centric including the conga drums and other repective instruments began to develop (Ricky Martin,2021).

After that, Makuta drum is the most recognizable predecessor conga’s closest because it has barrel-shaped and tall (Ricky Martin,2021). Furthermore, it is used in private religious ceremonies of Bantu origin (Ricky Martin,2021).

Towards the end of the 19th century, Rumba is the first established genre to specifically call for a conga drum as part its standard instrumentation in the poorer urban neighborhoods of cities like Havana and Matanzas (Ricky Martin,2021). During the 1930s, the conga drum became a part of  the ensemble format used for playing the popular Cuban dance genre known as Son (Ricky Martin,2021). This issue give biggest impact on American Jazz music in the 1930s and 40s. A variety of other Cuban and The Son, subsequently lead to evolution and the commercial branding and creation of Salsa music in the early 1960s (Ricky Martin,2021).

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Conga is a Membranophones instrument and it categorize as a friction in sub-categories. When we talk about the friction, of course to play with the instrument, the musician must strike using hand, stick and cord.

So, the musician must play the conga using their hand or sometime they will use a stick.It depends on what kind of sound that they need when they perform. Besides that, The quality of the sound produced is affected by the areas when striking the conga drum. Different areas created a different sound (Harvey and Colton, 2014). For example, striking the rim of a drumhead can produce a tone that sound higher, while striking the center produces the original tuning of the drum.

Normally, musician will know that drums have a “head”, the membrane that covers the top of the drum, where the striking take place, and a “shell”, the wooden form that the rest of the drum is made of (Harvey and Colton,2014). After that, the air column within the drums serves the purpose of allowing the wave that is created on the membrane to resonate, means that it will produce a loud sound. The waves that are created on a guitar string is different with membrane of a drum. This is because guitar string formed on a two-dimensional plane.

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So, back to the track, conga sound affect by where is the area was striking by the hand of the musician. Basically, it has 9 different sound that useful to get easily to understand how the certain conga sound was produced.

First, how to produce a bass sound on conga? To solve this problem is drop the palm, with fingers up, near the center of the drum and bounce off. It will giving a deep resonant bass tone. Additionally, make sure the bottom of the drum is open to get a resonant bass tone (Kim Akitson,2013). After that, the tone or “go” and “doh” is made with the full length of the fingers held together. So, the way to produce the sound is strike about one third of the way to center and bounce off to give a full, warm, medium-pitched sound (Kim Akitson,2013). Please take note because this is the most important sound of the drum. Make sure to keep your fingers together so one finger   does not strike first to make the perfect sound.

The ”ku” “tu”. The muff sound (ku/tu) is also made with the full length of the fingers held together. To produce this sound, strike in the same area as the tone but press a little bit into the skin. This way will make a shorter sound and slightly higher-pitched sound than the tone (Kim Akitson,2013). Also, the muff is a variation sound (Kim Akitson,2013).Next, the name of the sound is “tea”. Not a tea of the cup but the specific name for the sound is tip. The tip is made with the wrist above the drum. When striking the skin, press in and it will producing a muted sound. Fun fact, this stroke will make a high sound if played near the rim of the drum and a low sound if played near center as long as the bottom of the drum is open (Kim Akitson,2013).

Additionally, this is one of the easiest sounds to make, it is call open slap. So, the way to produce is relaxe your hand, slightly cupped shape and strike the drum skin with contacting the rim with the muscle between the base of little finger and palm. Then, towards the outside edge of your hand. When the finger tips snap over toward center and bounce off, it will giving a high-pitched ringing sound (Kim Akitson,2013). Other than that, it has 2 more slap, one is call as a Closed Slap and another one call as a Muted Slap. The similar things about that 2 sound is it produce a short and high sound. However, the mechanism to produce it is difference. In order to produce a Close Slap, it must slightly cupped hand strikes near the rim. While to produce the Muted slap it must use two hand. One hand is to lays flat on the skin and mutes the sound while the other hand strikes the skin (Kim Akitson,2013).

The last two sound is interesting because it might need a skillfull to produce it. One of the sound is Palm tip. Basically, Palm tip produce a two sound with one hand but has two part to produce the sound. What it is means? Means that the hand rests on the drum and rock back and fourth between the palm and finger pads, with emphasis on wrist movement(Kim Akitson,2013). The first part produce a soft bass using by the palm, while the second part is a tip stroke from the finger pads. So, both parts of  the movement are press or closed strokes.

Last but not lease is Gliss sound. The Gliss sound is made by sliding one finger over the drum with slight pressure on the tip of the finger. Next, striking the drum at the beginning of the slide will help activate the sound. A bit of moisture on the tip of the finger will help and it is easier on some drums than other. Means to make this sound is easier on a low pitched drum and harder on a smooth skin because the finger is skidding across the surface  will bouncing very quickly and vibrating the head  (Kim Akitson,2013).

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Paoli Mejias Conga solo Precussion Carlos Santana in Stuttgart at the Jazz Open Air in 2016.

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Merriam-Webster. (n.d). Membranophone. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved April 27,2024, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ membranophone#:~:text=mem%C2%B7%E2%80%8Bbra%C2%B7%E2%80%8Bno,chordophone%2C%20electrophone%2C%20idiophone%2C%20lamellophone

Ricky Martin, January 22,2021. A Brief History of The Conga Drums, Conga Chops, Retrieved April 27,2024 from https://www.congachops.com/blog-articles/2021/1/1/a-brief-history-of-the-conga-drums

Daylan Harvey and Tyler Colton Whitely. (2014). Sound Quality and Striking Position of a Conga Drum. ISB Journal Of Science, Vol. 8 , Iss. 1-4. Retrieved 28 April 2024 from https://isjos.org/JoS/vol8iss1/Papers/JoSV8p2-CongaSoundQuality.pdf

Kim Akitson, April 6,2013. Conga Hand Position & Sounds, Pulsewave, Retrieved 28 April 2024 from https://pulsewave.com/classes-workshops/conga-hand-positions-sounds/