by Tone » Fri Oct 28, 2011 8:33 pm
well to get back to the original subject.
There are a few differences:
the biggest one being the open tone. On the conga the hand is more in the drum, you should hit the edge of the drum with the edge of your palm ( more or less depending on players, look at Giovannis instructions videos for example) Also you should use more of the weight of the hand let it fall down on the edge of the drum and stay there. On the Djembe you should hit the skin with your fingers and let them bounce off straight away, you will get a much louder and crisper sound that way, you should almost think of your hands as sticks beating the skin.
For the slap, they are pretty similar to the open slap on the conga, except that a lot of djembe players tend to turn their hand inward to hit the drum closest to the edge to get a higher pitched sound.
I know of many djembe players who also hit the drums with one finger side ways on the edge of the drum giving a very ringy sound, you could do it on conga but it doesn't really give such a dramatic effect.
Of course the bass technique is also different. On the djembe the bass is more important and really equally important as the other sounds. Again the hand comes off the skin right away to let the skin sing. On the conga the bass sound especially if the conga is on the floor and not tilted is much quieter than the other sounds and although important, is more of a support sound than actually part of the melody. In the rumba setting a lot of players lift the drum on the bombo to really get that bass sound!
hope that helps
tone