Palm Tone Pitch - Similarity between two drums

[austinrick]

Being relatively new to the conga world, I don't know what to make of this:

My 10" & 11" congas are tuned @ m3 apart, by open tones. When I play full palm tones on each drum, the (bass) pitches are almost identical. Is this common? Is it just the acoustics of the room?

No biggie, except I can't produce distinct bass tones on the two drums; they're virtually the same!

Comments?

thx!

[taikonoatama]

It's normal, especially with such small drums. You're never going to have much bass anyway with drums that size - they aren't built or optimized for that. And even if you were talking about a full-size 11.75 conga and 12.5 tumba, the bass tones would not have the same definition in terms of an interval that you'd get with open tones - just ain't gonna happen. In most playing situations the bass tone is completely buried by other instruments, and really just adds a bit of underlying feel more than being used melodically.

One exception is in a folkloric setting, such a rumba, where you can actually here it, and a drum, usually the tumba, is sometimes raised off the ground with the feet to accentuate it and even do some melodic improvisation. But with one person and two drums? Wrong instrument for that.

~Taiko

[austinrick]

Perfect answer! Thank you!