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Posted: **Thu Jun 10, 2010 2:15 am**

Wow Bongos I'm almost in disbelief you gained insight from my drunken tirade I posted earlier. The idea fell from the tree for me but I suppose sometimes the most unlikely conversations will spark that bulb which will induce the insight to progress.

Posted: **Sat Jun 19, 2010 3:16 pm**

tigre77 wrote:...but I think this post is spot lighting a small band situation where musicians are short and everyone needs to step up a notch in order to fill the auditory void, no? Which in that case regardless of latin jazz or salsa everyone must fill more to compensate for the lack of *fill_in_the_blank_instrument/musician*, or so I think. Granted, I lack the experience to lay it down definitively but is there any truth to my understanding of this post? Of course this is assuming bongos band mates are not selfish bastards who make him play less so his shine does not envelope their puny musical aurora. Siempre positivo!

nail

head

hit

if not, its still a great thought that may help one to find a balance point and make an adjustment in their playing, or contemplate if it is or is not appropriate in the current situation. i am very fortunate to play with a band in which it is always appropriate to step it up a notch, although subtlety in doing so is generally appropriate as well.

Posted: **Tue Mar 08, 2016 9:42 am**

Omelenko1 wrote:When you play Afro Cuban music (Salsa, latin dance music) you have to play a straight tumbao and for the most part on "one conga" only, when the coro or mambo comes, then you incorporate the tumbao using two congas. When the sonero is singing you keep the tumbao on one conga, the timbalero plays cascara and the bongocero plays martillo. When the mambo breaks and the coro begins, the conguero incorporates the tumbao on two congas, the timbalero plays the bell and the bongocero plays the cowbell. This is the "mandated" discipline that must be followed when playing Latin dance music or Salsa.

Thanks for an interesting thread!

I'd love to know more about the rules of the Afro Cuban "mandated discipline" as Dario calls it. I'm very aware that there are right and wrong places to play certain things. I've found lots of resources explainging rhythms through this forum and the Tomas Cruz / Spiro / Ed Uribe works etc but I've seen less on traditional structures of the music, in the sense of when is expected to to play X and not Y. Or when is it ok to do A but not B etc.

Hope that makes sense?

If anyone has any resources they can direct me to I'd be very interested to learn more.

Thanks!

Posted: **Tue Mar 08, 2016 1:48 pm**

Hi Estragon,

You mentioned Uribe, but do you have"Essence of Afro Cucan Percussion & Drum Set" by him? I had it for years and never really explored beyond the first section on the individual instruments, but a while ago I took a dive into Part 2 "the Rhythm Section and Song styles". There are charts there and some pretty heavy lifting for a basic sheet music reader like me, but with a little help from a more advanced reader I found it a lot of what I think you may be looking for.

Posted: **Tue Mar 08, 2016 10:05 pm**

Thanks, I'll revisit that. Don't think I gave that second section as much attention back then.

I'm not a great reader of music either but I can do through most of the stuff in that book, one note at a time y'know.

Will definitely check it out again, thank you.

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