FROM AROUND THE WORLD Gane oee Treo Bongos —— - Having spent the last fen thine to go a litle more mainstream, For tha nex! theo ping tobe taking a look at bonyos and the playing uban and Brazilian music If any cf you drummers out there are consideriny adding sume hand percussion to your salup, then Il slrongly recommend bongas. They ic easily affordable, very portable and have a lot of possible pplication bbe i witn sticks orhands, ‘Sat yourself up wilh a pair af bongos on a sland and some shakers a general hand percussion, Set this up of tho hi-hat side of your il and invest in x double bass drum pedal, Now, by turning to your left, you ‘can yet some bongolshaker groaves going an sill Include the meat ui the bass drum. This could I comawhere in any group's repertoire ~ afterall, playos tabla with hard rockers Thunder once. you ure thinkiny about what drums to buy. then | would strongly recommend that you spend at least £120. It's simply not worih ccanomising, because you'l only love out when you want to replace them wth something batter. Make cure you get a pair that has the proper Iour-oolt "hoop to hogy” alt tuning system {ie. roeloating and ‘uh no lugs affixed to the shells Right, on to sound pronucton. What were going to look at are the basic stking techniques, a simplified form of the Cuban Marto (man tea-oh) and come basic rhythms along this line. Next time wel devete the whole article to an in-depth ok et the “humbstip’ technique used in Cubsan bongo playing. Iris; most common for the bongas to be played sitting down, although it is also perectly wdrniseibla to sland-mount them It we lvokat Fig. 1 We coun 208 the way ha drums aro held bulwooe the logs. This really case 0} linding the most comfortable position tor you, Th necessarily comfortable drums to play, and the bolts can dig int legs. I get around this by loosening the whole tuning carriage ‘and postioning the bulls se they fallin the crease of ine log behind y months on the Indian vibe, | felt was about instalmonts I'm niques found in ea Peon td Poros rei the knoe. You! will alsa eae ftom tha photo that the drums are anglad sightly downwards. All hese points are subjective, but one thing that is ‘absolutely lecossary is thal the playing surtage does not fall below the kneas, The Hads have to be proud. This makes access to the playing surlace ansier anu helps to evoid the player resting nis arms on his legs, which must be avoided, One linal note; lor righthanded players, the larger drum should be on the right eed eae een ‘The high pitexed sound ie artioulsted by sirking wilh the tip of Wo fest finger for quieter playing (as in Fig. 2) or with Ue tips ofall the fingers foriouder ploying (us 19 Fig. 9), should strike us near the edge o! the drums possitie and sould create a vary high plichad cracking eoure. This Is due portly to the tuning. The small dium should be cranked up a& high as you dare 90, whilst the larger drum should be tuned opproximatoly two thirds as higi a thls. Listen for the tones. oF eavh drum and the interval between thom to decide this, And don't forget to decune tham when you are not tsing them> Try this single stroke with both hands and begin to work on a smooth and even single stroke pallern al & slow tempo: R LRLAL AL. = Se | ‘iit fo Bol be oaae ote dun, —— you nat time for the Inthe meuntine. play up Bonga. bongo play up. thing Peter Lockatt 1997 Cee seen Right, some shythme to be gelling on with, Ex. 1 ie the simp. lifiad Martillo rhythm whilst the ramaining examples are general rhythmic mots x1 SIMPLIFIED MARTILLO pasa Rou R LR LR Oo pS SSS x4 SAMBA STYLE GROOVE PaaS po SS SS