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Posted: **Wed Apr 04, 2007 8:14 pm**

A few years back when I started working on Guaguancó and other rumba styles the thing I found challenging/really hard/nearly impossible was the huge amont of slaps called for.

Was meeting a new drum friend a short while back and we were exchanging info - saw his Guaguancó slaps weren't really what I thought of as slaps at all. Talked about this and he commented that they weren't supposed to be.

This sent me back to an old book I relied on pretty heavily (don't ask the name or who wrote it - I photocopied sections from another friend long ago when I was poor student and didn't get those bits). Sure enough there was something about this which I guess I missed.

He described the Guaguancó slaps as "Tapado strokes"
Quote:
'...slaps or higher pitched muted tones ... in general not as accented as a slap would be".

Haveserached the forum and the internet for "Tapado" and found nothing.

Comments

ps.

does make playing Guaguancó much easiler useing these half assed slaps! Plus I don't feel like I'm yelling all the time on the drum.

Darrell

Posted: **Wed Apr 04, 2007 10:16 pm**

Hi Darrell,
The slaps on guaguanco don't need to be overly emphasised. They are more like soft taps (like you say 'tapaos') with the fingertips, though sometimes in parts of the rhythm they can be a little more emphasised than this.

I learned the correct technique on this when I was in Cuba studying under a teacher (Guillermo Lopez Clemente) from the Conjunto Folklorico.

You could try You tube, there might be some examples on there.
ciao
Pavlo

Edited By pavloconga on 1175871329

Posted: **Thu Apr 05, 2007 12:22 am**

"Tapao" means to slap, it's a slang..Tapados are slaps...does that help...I can show u at least 5 different ways to play guaguanco and some don't use slaps and some use more...it depends on which one you are learning...or trying to play...."JC" Johnny Conga....

Posted: **Thu Apr 05, 2007 11:51 am**

Burke,
IMHO what is of more importance in these rhythms is to first consider the melody the different pitch drums are making. e.g. the open tone sounds of the 2 drums guaguanco.
The slap/tapado sounds should complement that melody and not overpower it.
Like JC says, there are many styles of guaguanco, some use slaps more, some don't.
regards
P

Posted: **Thu Apr 05, 2007 4:41 pm**

Hey Pavlo

Thanks for the great replys - definately with you on the melodic aspect. I use guaguanco to tune drums.

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yet another slap question!