by Fish » Thu Mar 27, 2003 12:24 pm
Congabebe,
D means right, S means left - I suspect that rhythm is in Spanish but I know that the words for right and left in Latin are dexter and sinister respectively so I'm prepared to bet it's derived from that.
As for the technique question, that's somewhat trickier. I feel that there is a definite difference between the light touch and the muted tone. The muted tone to me is much more of a "tone" (well, duh) - it has a definite place in a rhythm whereas light touches are usually just used to keep the rhythm kicking along and are rarely heard by anyone other than you.
In playing the muted tone try to play exactly like an open tone but leave your hand on the skin. The touch is quite hard to get right in that it must have none of the fundamental tone in it but it is awkward to keep the hand on the skin to dampen it. The way my teacher taught me to play touches is not to think about them - just to concentrate on the other tones (the accents if you will) and let them fill out the rests.
Reading over you post, I must admit I'm a little confused by your syntax. You mention ghost notes. Ghost notes are another name for the touches (Sorry, I'm not sure if you knew that or not). You also mention the tumbao fingers. This differs from the tones mentioned above in that it is played towards the top of the drum while the others are played roughly in the same position as the open tone. Also it is designed to be the second part of a two-part technique (heel and fingers). Thus it becomed awkward if it is played continually without heels interspersed. In sound it is similar to the touch but is used in different circumstances.
Hope something here helps....
Fish