playing congas and percussion with DJ

[martin]

Hi
I've got a gig playing percussion (mainly congas) with a (presumably house music) DJ in a club. Normally I play latin music. Any ideas on how best to approach this kind of thing? I guess for percussionists its important to be able to handle this type of thing as well as the regular gigs.

martin

[Simon B]

I have recently been doing the same thing. Remember that house music is pretty fast, so you will need patterns that you are confident with at speed, and which you feel you can play for extended periods of time. Guaganco variations are useful to adapt, although I lessen some of the slaps, muffles, and bass notes because I feel that these can interfere with the rhythm (a somewhat simplistic one) of house music. Indeed the club audience, many of whom are not particularly attuned to more sophisticated rhythms, respond well to 'disco' tumbous with regular tumba notes, e.g:

h-t-s-t-h-t-oo-h-t-00-h-t-oo

OO - tumba open
00 - quinto open
h-t - heel-toe (left)
s - slap

Leave out some of the heel-toe strokes if you need to (e.g just a heel to start the rhythm instead of heel-toe).

I do lots of regular rhythms like this, unfortunately I can't easily notate them because the strokes vary in tempo (e.g. from eighth note to sixteenth) which is why they are effective at speed. Mozambique variations can be good. Samba patterns too. Two important percussionists to listen to for ideas for such patterns are Paulinho de Costa and Ralph MacDonald. And our own Johnny Conga has a lot of experience in these styles - ask him!

Simon B

[tamboricua]

Hi Martin, hope all is well! For some ideas, check out Anga's "Anga Mania" video. There is a section in the video in which he performs along with a DJ.

Hope this helps!

Saludos,

Jorge Ginorio

[muddy323]

This is becoming very popular with the Hip Hop and Neo soul crews...I tried it once, but was not amp properly...but it only sound good to me :p ...you will need the volume turned UP, to be heard...any suggestions would be helpful

[RayBoogie]

I do the same thing here in NY. As stated, guaguanco and different variation of tumbao will do the job for House Music. You can also use songo and timba rhythms. Prepare yourself for the quick pace of House Music. Good Luck!

[martin]

thank you all..

[martin]

well, I did the gig last night,at last. And all the advice given here was spot on. guguanco worked well, as did la marcha. just a few variations and it sounded quite good. Songo and merensongo also sounded pretty good. a few quinto phrases in the right places also worked quite well. I have to say I found the speed of the music quite challenging but it's all good practise. Some of the house tunes had alot of percussion of their own so I just moved my hands up and down and pretended it was me playing

To be honest I didn't enjoy playing along with records as much as with people but I reckon it's something you have to learn to do as a percussionist since there are alot of gigs for this sort of thing.

thanks for the tips
martin

[yalla]

Well, just to add my little opinion... personally I had much fun playing on records but it was an Afro/Funk Disco, so the music was good to be enhanced with my congas and djembe, the people there liked this kind of music very much, and the DJ used to turn down completely the volume sometimes, and let me play alone for a while, then turned the volume up back... the audience appreciated this very much so I really enjoyed it!!! I did this one saturday night per month during the last three years but now this disco has closed...

[zaragemca]

A few times I have been able to get in the Club with DJ and the people response have been blasting( a few times I have the girls dancing around me all night),the only situation is(in my case),the knowlege of the structure of the music becouse the DJ's aren't telling me what they are going to play,I have to be ready to jump in whatever tune he set up.



Edited By zaragemca on Nov. 21 2003 at 14:53