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by **Isaac** » Sun Aug 08, 2004 7:55 am

I'm working on improving my hand independance more
in my practicing lately. Anyone have any unique
exercises we could share?
One that I'm trying but am far from mastering is
starting a slow marcha with both hands and graduallly
speeding up one hand and keeping the other the same:
ie. double time on the left hand only. The real challenge is to
be able to continue playing and gradually shift the double
time to the right hand and the left going back to the regular
original speed. - all without pausing. I'm building this up
very slowly.
If you have some exercises to share it would be great for
all of us. There are a few others involving keeping a rumba
clave with one hand and doing the whole guaguanco with the
other.

~ ISAAC

by **CongaCaja** » Sun Aug 08, 2004 7:11 pm

hi Isaac,

Here's a build-it-yourself type of independence exercise that my teacher, Mike Spiro, showed to me.

1) use two drums, left hand plays on one drum and the right hand on the other

2) play a poly-rhythm between your two hands. The most simple is 3-2 polyrhythm...commonly called "three against two". Both hands should be playing the same articulation type...aka all opens or all muted...whatever.

3) Now, with one of your hands, begin playing a cycle of articulations that differs from its role in the polyrhythm. For example, if your left hand is playing the "3" of a 3-2 polyrhythm, have that hand play slap->open->slap->open...etc. That's a cycle of 2 different articulations. Or slightly more difficult, mute->open->slap->bass->mute->open->slap->bass... : a cycle of 4 articulations, but still using the hand that plays the "3" of the polyrhythm. The point here is that the number of articulations in the cycle is the different than the hand's role in the polyrhythm

4) Finally, while maintaining the articulation cycle, begin an articulation cycle with the other hand. So, if the right hand is playing the "2" of the 3-2 polyrhythm, this hand begins playing a cycle of 3 different articulations such as slap->open->mute->slap->open->mute...etc. Again, the important point is that he number of articulation types, 3, is differnt from the hand's "2" role of the polyrhythm.

Once this has been mastered with 3-2 polyrhythm, the same steps can be applied to other polyrhythms...4-3, 4-5, etc.

Well, I hope that I was clear, but let me know if I didn't explain this every well.

cjk

Edited By CongaCaja on 1092034110

by **Isaac** » Mon Aug 09, 2004 3:04 am

Thank You, Its a very good explanation and
also a good challenge. I'll try it.

Isaac

by **akdom** » Mon Aug 16, 2004 1:18 am

Hi there
You can use traditional bata drums rhythms and play one hand on each drum. This will help you a lot. You will have to hit the to drums at the same time ith different sttrokes ex: tone and slap.
Beleive me, after a while, you'll get them and have a lot of fun.
Also play the clave or cascara on one hand and the tumbao on the other one for example. Then once you got it, invert hands.

Hope this is helpfull.

by **Colacao** » Fri Aug 27, 2004 11:35 am

Hi,

The technic of palmas (hand claps) in Flamenco is interesting, because one can play without instruments.
For example one can use this technic to practice independance with rumba clave :

for example with the foot you play rumba clave and with hands
you play claps :

c= claps C=Claps accent f=foot

1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
C c c C c c c C c c C c C c c c
f f f f f

After that you moves the accents

1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
C c c c c c c c C c c c c c c c
f f f f f

1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
c C c c c c c c c C c c c c c c
f f f f f

ETC...you must develop gradually

For example you can make the accent with the voice...

If somebody know how to practice without instrument,
I'm interested.

I hope to be comprehensible

Cola

by **franc** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 2:16 am

conga caja, hope all is well!!! what do you mean when you say'' the same articulation''?? in poly-rhythm??? thanks a lot!!!!! your, friens franc:O

by **franc** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 2:25 am

mi pana raymond. como estas? tanto tiempo!! estuve fuera por un tiempo por falta de p.c. i have a question for you ok. you know there are ''16 eigth notes in two bars, right? is it posible when you are soloing or phrasing to divide the 16 eigth notes in strokes or slaps??/ for ex. 3 -2- 3 and 4- 1- 3 etc. acentuating any note?? my best!!! your pana, franc:cool:

by **CongaCaja** » Tue Sep 14, 2004 5:08 pm

polyrhythm generally means "contrasting rhythms". In this context, it means playing X number of notes in the time period that Y notes are also played. ( replace the "X" and "Y" with whatever numbers).

Below are some simple examples.
"2 against 3"
|1.2.3.|1.2.3.| <- count this
|R.R.R.|R.R.R.| <- plays the "3"
|L..L..|L..L..| <- plays the "2"

"3 against 2"
|1..2..|1..2..|
|R..R..|R..R..|
|L.L.L.|L.L.L.|

"4 against 3"
|1...2...3...|1...2...3...|
|L...L...L...|L...L...L...|
|R..R..R..R..|R..R..R..R..|

"3 against 4"
|1..2..3..4..|1..2..3..4..|
|L..L..L..L..|L..L..L..L..|
|R...R...R...|R...R...R...|

Articulations are the different sounds that you can make with the drums. Simply stated, different stroke types....slap, open, mute, bass, etc.
Applying sequences of articulations to the polyrhythms looks like the following (an example).

"2 against 3"
|1.2.3.|1.2.3.|
|o.s.o.|s.o.s.| the "3", sequence of 2 articulations
|o..o..|o..o..| the "2", only 1 articulation

|o.s.o.|s.o.s.|o.s.o.|s.o.s.| the "3", 2 articulations
|o..s..|m..o..|s..m..|o..s..| the "2", 3 articulations

|o.s.b.|m.o.s.|b.m.o.|s.b.m.| the "3", 4 articulations
|o..s..|m..o..|s..m..|o..s..| the "2", 3 articulations

o = open
s = slap
m = mute
b = bass

suerte!
...cjk

Edited By CongaCaja on 1095377508

by **Cuidado** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 5:30 am

Hi,
thank you conga caja.
These exercises are really good in order to develop independance.
I know that Changuito uses these.
After, you can use time division to attain a high level.
Hasta la proxima.

by **CongaCaja** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 7:20 am

hola cuidado,

That would make sense that Changuito uses this type of exercise. This was given to me by teacher, Mike Spiro, and I know that Mike has done some study with Changuito (as well as many others).

Any yes, you are right. These can be extended to even more difficulty. For example, the polyrhythms that I provided all have one of the hands playing on the downbeat. This could be complicated by (at least) three more levels

1) the hand that is playing the downbeat could displaced off the downbeat. For example, playing on the first subdivision that comes after the downbeat.
1..2..
R..R..
L.L.L.

becomes...

1..2..
.R..R.
L.L.L.

2) neither hand plays a duration that is equal to the duration between downbeats

1...2...3...
R..R..R..R..
L.L.L.L.L.L.

3) an extention of #2, neither hand plays not even a multiple of the duration between beats.
here, the subdivision is 5 (notice 4 dots between downbeats). this number 5 adds new complexity because the polyrhythms is "3 against 2" and 5 is divisable by either 3 nor 2.

1....2....3....4....
R..R..R..R..R..R..R.
L.L.L.L.L.L.L.L.L.L.

And of course, the articulations sequences can be applied to these variations.

Trust me, I don't claim to be able to play all of these variations (yet), but, letting one's mind derive these can make for some fun goals.

cjk

Edited By CongaCaja on 1095377838

by **Cuidado** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 12:13 pm

Hi,
ouaaaahhhhhhhh, we really can say that these exercises are hard.
An other way to work independance is to use feet.
I saw a percussionnist (Carlos Nene Quintero) who uses much his feet.
He plays with foot bracket, charleston, three or four congas, cymbals.....
He's incredible.
Hasta la proxima.

by **CongaCaja** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 12:27 pm

yes, you are right about adding the foot.

Though I haven't seen him use it foot with these independence exerceises...my teacher sometimes plays the 6/8 cowbell or clave with this foot pedal while he plays conga parts. It's good for understanding how parts fit together.

hasta pronto... cjk

by **franc** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 1:48 pm

congacaja, hope all is well!!! why is that i have difficult tapping the rumba clave with my foot while playing the congas, and so on.... how can i, or is there a way of practice and how is it??? your help will be appreciated. thanks a lot. your friend, franc:cool:

by **JohnnyConga** » Wed Sep 15, 2004 9:32 pm

Part of what will be on my Video is how to do exactly what you need to do. It is seperation of the mind and body...Start out slow tapping your foot as 1 2 3 4 count it out loud and tap. I know your foot wants to do what your hands are doing but practice this very slow and work into the tumbao...then start your count 1+2+3+4+ while tapping out 1 2 3 4...Let me know if that helps...."JC" Johnny Conga...

by **CongaCaja** » Thu Sep 16, 2004 1:20 pm

hi franc,

I am not sure what johnny's got planned for his video, but I am interested to know how he teaches this.

anyway, I will tell you how I would start. of course, it's not the only way to do this but is works for me. the assumption in these instructions is that you are trying to play either the tumba or the segundo part (but not both simultaneously nor merged) of the guaguanco while playing the clave with your foot. also, I assume that you know how to play the basics of the tumba and segundo parts PRIOR to attempting this with the foot. this is NOT a method to learn guaguanco!...just simply the way that I worked through the putting the parts together with the foot clave.

first, write the clave on paper for a visual aid (I'm a visual person so this helps me to start). if you know how to write with traditional notation, that's great, but if not, that's ok too (I wrote below in non-standard notation because that's easier to insert into this forum). either way, just be sure to line up you parts carefully with respect to their vertical relation on the page. I have changed the font so that everything lines up well. *If* you print this text from another application (though not necessary), be sure to use a fixed-width font such as "courier" or "courier new". this way you can see which notes are unisons (line up vertically together) and which fall in between.

note: I consider step 2 and step 3 inter-changeable. both the downbeats and the open tones are simple but important aspects to the tumba part so try it both ways. the important thing is to take each step slowly and be sure you are very comfortable before moving on to the next

step 1:
|x..x...x|..x.x...| foot

step 2:
add the downbeats of tumba part against the clave.
|x..x...x|..x.x...| foot
|b...b...|b...b...| left hand

step 3:
add the open tones of the tumba part
|x..x...x|..x.x...| foot
|b...b...|b...b...| left hand
|......o.|......o.| right hand

step 4:
add one more note to the right hand
|x..x...x|..x.x...| foot
|b...b...|b...b...| left hand
|...b..o.|...b..o.| right hand

step 5:
add whatever variant of the tumba part that you would like! for example...
|x..x...x|..x.x...| foot
|b.t.b...|b.t.b...| left hand
|...b..o.|...b..o.| right hand

step 6:
add or subtract notes to create variants on the tumba part and have fun!!!

For the middle drum (conga or segundo) part of guaguanco, you will not have the nice downbeats as you do in the tumba. Do each of these steps s-l-o-w-l-y and be VERY comfortable with each before moving to the next.
Note: the drum part is NOT broken down into "left hand" and "right hand" as is above.

step 1 : |x..x...x|..x.x...| clave (foot)

step 2 : |........|o..o....| add open tones
R R

step 3 : |...b....|o..o....| add bombo (the bass tone)
R R R

step 4 : |.ssb....|o..o...s| add slaps (poco a poco)
RLR R R L

step 5 : |.ssb...s|o.so...s| more slaps
RLR L R LR L

step 6 : |.ssb.s.s|o.so.s.s| a few more
RLR L L R LR L L

Last suggestion: practice playing the clave with either foot!

buena suerte!

...cjk

Edited By CongaCaja on 1095401548

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