Today we're gonna build on the concepts from last week's lesson, and work on some Marc Quiñones inspired fills.

Now, for those of you who aren't familiar, Marc is one of the most recorded percussionists in modern Latin music. His incredible taste, musicality, and facility on congas, bongó, and timbales have made him sought after by countless artists, ranging from salsa stars Marc Anthony and La India, to rock legends the Allman Brothers and the Doobie Brothers. Now I personally have heavily informed my conceptual approach to playing Latin music and pop music, and stole a bunch of licks along the way, from listening to Marc tear it up on countless records over the years, so thanks Marc!

The fills we'll work on today will serve a similar purpose as last week's, where we worked on playing phrases that added some intensity in the "up" section of an arrangement, and in the case of the first two examples from that lesson, we used the fills to emphasize the downbeat of a two-, four- or eight-bar phrase. So if you haven't already, make sure to check out last week's lesson for a quick refresher on how we can use these types of fills within a structured phrase.

For today's first fill, we're going to use the "and" of three on the "two side" of the clave as a jumping-off point. We'll play a build-up of constant eighth notes using low-drum muffled tones and open tones before resolving back into the groove. And we'll start our fill in the third bar of a four-bar phrase in 2-3 clave by playing two right-hand muffled tones on the tumbadora. Let's hear what it sounds like.

Remember that you can slow down, or speed up, this and any part of our lessons by clicking the gear icon in the bottom right-hand corner of the video player window to access the settings menu and adjust the playback speed.

Now, I really like using the low drum to initiate these types of fills because it really adds some extra weight to the sound of the fill. Now this type of fill is very much influenced by the salidor, or tumbador, in the rumba guaguancó, which is the lowest-pitched melodic drum in a rumba setting that's predominantly responsible for holding the groove and initiating and responding to rhythmic phrases, at times using fills like the one we just worked on.

So for this next fill, we'll again use the "and" of three on the two side of the clave as our jumping-off point, which will be in the third bar of a four-bar phrase. But this time we'll start with a couple of low-drum open tones, followed by muffled tones, a couple more open tones, and finish off with two more open tones on our main drum on the first two eighth notes of the following four-bar phrase. Let's check it out.

Now we can use this fill in an "up" section of an arrangement leading into any downbeat, just to emphasize a two-, four- or eight-bar phrase. Or we can also use it in a more structured way, like we worked on in last week's lesson, playing the fill in the fourth bar of a phrase just after we move from a "down" section to an "up" section in an arrangement.

So for this last example, let's just work on playing both fills at a bit faster tempo, once every eight bars, over one of our exclusive CongaChops practice loops.

So both of these fills can serve a similar function, but each has its own unique feel. Now you can of course use them freely at the end or middle of a section, as long as you're paying attention to the clave and of course what the rest of the band is playing. Now it's also important to note that we're working on these as two-, four- or eight-bar phrases, so we can get used to how they would work in a musical context.

Now you might use these fills just to add some intensity to a particular phrase or section, or as a musical response to something that's played by any of the other instruments in the band, including the vocals. So, with those things in mind, try to see if you can spot where these types of fills may be used as you're listening along to your favorite records, always paying attention to any contributing factor that you feel may have influenced the conga player's decision to play a particular fill in a certain space. By doing this, you'll start to develop an understanding for when these fills can feel natural to play throughout the course of an arrangement. And of course, at your discretion, feel free to start to implement these fills carefully when you're playing with other musicians to see how they feel to you.