Basic Bass Technique: Playing the Conga

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Part of the video series: How to Play the Conga

Summary: Play a bass line on a conga using a basic bass technique; learn how with tips from our expert conga player and percussion instructor in this free conga video tutorial.

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Presenter

By Ryan Larson
eHow Presenter

Ryan Larson is a young jazz composer whose teaching technique focuses on the basics of music theory in all 12 keys. When applying his 12-key technique to understanding the logic behind...read more

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studio6460 said

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on 4/30/2009 You really need to read the comments people are leaving on Youtube. These Conga videos are not good. You cannot play congas, and you most certainly are are not any kind of conga expert. By creating these videos, you have made a fool of yourself on youtube. Do you not read what people are saying about your videos there? And I don't mean the regular mean-spirited YouTube crowd, I refer to knowledgeable people, conga players, and musicians who believe you are providing a great disservice by passing yourself off as an expert. It is unfortunate that some young aspiring congeros may come across your videos and, not knowing any better, accept that you are teaching proper technique. You are not. Read what everyone else is saying about these videos.

Video Transcript

"RYAN LARSON: Now we're going to go over two basic strikes, our bass note and our slap. Now, what you're doing for the bass note is you're striking in the middle of the conga. You can hear that. But you also want to take the palm of your hand and mute the edge of the conga 'cause when you hit it--see, now I'm getting a little reverb around the edge. So, if you mute that, you get a nice, straight bass tone which is good to counteract that high pitch from hitting the edge. Now, when you're hitting the edge, what the sound is actually doing is rolling down the edge of the conga. And you could even knock it. And you get different sound effects that way and you can hit the middle with your fist too and it gets a good effect. But the main two traditional ways, either hit it like this when muting the side or you can use your palm. I like using this 'cause it gets that high end out of there and it just gets straight bass. And you got your straight slap where you just take the front of your fingers there and slap it around against that head right there. And it might be a little hard on your fingers at first but the more you get used to it, you just start rolling."

eHow Article: Basic Bass Technique: Playing the Conga