Hey guys, Paulo here from Conga Chops.com,

and welcome back to our quick-tip lesson series where we’re learning some different fills,

phrases and concepts, that you can incorporate into conga playing.

Now, before we get started, make sure you hit like, and subscribe, and turn on your notifications for the channel,

so you’ll be the first to know when our next lesson is up.

Today I want to show you a couple simple variations we can create within the tumbao,

using the same exact figure for each one,

and simply changing up the orchestration.

Now, in terms of our conga playing, when we talk about orchestrating or voicing a pattern,

we’re referring to the sounds we choose to play each note with.

Now, whether its swapping a slap for an open tone or playing the low-drum instead of your main drum,

re-orchestrating or re-voicing a pattern,

is one of the simplest ways to make the most out of what you already know.

The figures we’ll check out today,

can be used as small variations that won’t disturb the flow of the tumbao,

as part of a groove in a longer phrase,

or can even played just once in an entire song to create a different shape to use in your playing.

Now for this first one, we’re gonna use our two drum Tumbao,

that has the tumbadora on the two side of the clave, as a foundation.

Let’s check it out.

So, I chose to play those three open tones: right, left right,

followed by: palm-tip in my left,

to make the variation flow more comfortably for me, within the tumbao pattern.

But you can feel free to stick those tones however you’d like.

Now, don’t forget you can slow down any part of this lesson, or any of our lessons,

from the settings menu in the bottom right hand corner of the video player window.

And don’t hesitate to re-watch whatever you need to and take notes.

For this next variation, we’re gonna take our three-note shape, and re-voice it.

So instead of playing an open tone on beat four to start the variation,

let’s move that over and play it as an open tone on our low-drum.

Now this time let’s use our modern one drum tumbao as the foundation.

And don’t forget to clap the clave along as you listen,

so you can start to feel how these variations line up.

This variation is particularly versatile,

in the sense that you’ll hear it played regularly both in the “down” and “up” sections of an arrangement.

Now remember that a “down section”

can loosely refer to any part of an arrangement

where the timbal player is playing mainly cascara,

the conga player is playing their main groove on one drum, and the bongocero is playing bongos.

And when we refer to the “up section”,

it’s the part of an arrangement where the timbale player is mainly playing bell,

the conga player’s main groove is usually on two or more drums

and the bongocero is playing a handheld cowbell.

So, this variation works equally well in a one-drum groove, or with our two-drum tumbao.

Which contrasts the first variation in this lesson,

which you’ll more commonly hear in an “up” section for the most part.

This next variation can also be commonly heard in “up” or “down” sections.

In a down section, it would mainly be used as a transition or as part of a longer groove.

And in an “up” section it’s used more freely, either as a transition, or just a variation in the groove.

Let’s work on it over our two drum tumbao with the tumbadora on the two side of the clave, as a foundation.

And pay close attention to the sticking, which will be a bit different than the last examples.

So, you can see that the sticking of those three notes went from being:

right, left, right. To: right, right, left,

so we could play those two consecutive low-drum open tones.

Then, I played to closed slaps: right, left. To get back into the groove.

So, now that we have these three variations,

let’s hear what it sounds like if we use them more freely, at a faster tempo.

We’ll work on them over our Modern Montuno 1 Practice Loop in 2-3 Clave from CongaChops.com

These phrases are a super simple way to add some variety to your tumbao playing,

and they also offer us a great way to do so,

without disrupting the constant eighth-note flow that we need in the tumbao.

Now, all we did, was take the same three-note figure and re-voice it.

So, feel free to apply this same concept to any other short figures you already know and see how they sound.

Remember that we always want to be aware of how what we’re playing, fits in respect to the clave.

In this lesson, every example we played was in 2-3 Clave,

with the variation happening in the last beat of the “three side,”

leading into the downbeat of the “two side.”

Now, these could also work if we played them on the last beat of the “two side” of the clave,

leading into the “three side.“

But, it’s much less common, and might sound a bit unnatural depending on the context.

This is why it’s super important to listen to different tracks, and different players,

to start to develop a feel for when it sounds natural in the course of an arrangement,

or a particular section, to start use these.

Listening for and analyzing all of the different variations and phrases we’re learning

will ultimately help us build our musical vocabulary very quickly,

and help us develop our own personal taste,

especially in terms of what we want our conga playing to sound like.

So, make sure you work on these slowly with a metronome at first as you begin to master them.

Once you feel comfortable with each one, try practicing them in a musical context,

maybe by playing them only a couple times throughout the course of an entire song.

Or, playing them or repeating them closer together in a specific section,

to really create some variety in your tumbao.

Now, just be mindful of what’s going in terms of the rest of the instruments and vocals on the track.

Now, if you wanna know more about what we do on Conga Chops,

and how you can challenge yourself to get better every day,

come check us out at congachops.com.

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I’ll see you in the next lesson!