by Mike » Fri Jul 06, 2001 6:16 pm
It´s funny, I play bongos and learned technique & stuff thoroughly, I am a self-taught conguero (13 years of studying books, listneing to tapes + cds etc.), but I quite agree with you, Martin: Although I know for sure I´m not Tito nor ever will be, timbales-plyaing makes me feelgood, it works with soloes and of course the pattern, but funnily enough I REAALY SWITCH OFF ANY LEARNED PATTERNS or TECHNIQUE while playing! This is quite in contrast to what I do when banging other skins.
I studied trombone (classical and jazz)+piano and came to percusion at the age of 21 only, but timbales playing is really cool if you are able to communicate while soloing (with drumset, piano-solo etc.)
To cut it short: No, I don´t hink you need necessarily decades of scholarship to play the timbales -as long as you are acquainted with the very basic techniques and, even more important, the musical contexts.