One Player Rhythms

[quinto governor]

Hello! Are there any other rhythms besides guaguanco that has been adapted for one player? Thanks!

[RitmoBoricua]

Hi. You can adapt lot of rhythms to one player. One good example is New York City adaptation of the Mozambique, in Cuba Pello El Afrokan (it's originator) used a myriad of percussionists to play Mozambique, when it was adapted in NYC by La Perfecta (Eddie Palmieri) only one conga player was used with one timbal player. Same thing can be done with "Plena" from Puerto Rico where usually you have three players playing "pleneras" you can adapted for only one conga player. I hope this help you, there are a lot more examples. Take Care And Happy Drumming



Edited By RitmoBoricua on Mar. 23 2003 at 13:42

[JohnnyConga]

EVERYTHING IN lATIN MUSIC FOR THE CONGA DRUMMER HAS BEEN ADAPTED FOR ONE DRUMMER..Bolero,Cha cha cha,bomba.plena, dengue,caballo,and the list goes on...At yoUR Servicee...JC JOHNNY CONGA...

[quinto governor]

Thanks guys! Sorry I asked that question like that. I knew that! Guess I was sleep deprived when I wrote that. Here is another question. When jamming with a large group almost all the time no one plays the traditional style, so when one drummer starts off playing a guaguanco( all the parts except the quinto soloing) what should or can the other drummers play.IT would be nice if a video was made that showed the different rhythms broken down part by part and then shown how it could be played by one drummer.

[TresGolpes]

There are several other parts that can be added:

Clave
Palitos in sync with the clave
Shekere
Cowbell
Bombo - you can simulate this with a Tumbadora horizontal on somebody's lap
Bongos

So right there you have 6 more players.

Also note that in AfroCuban music besides the percussion, there is a wealth of SONGS and dance. If you took a CD with 20 rumbas in it, Carlos Embale for example, you will find that if there were only instruments in the CD it will get quite repetitive after a while...but...once you add the singing/melodies, you add that human "heart" to it and each rumba becomes magically different than the others !

[congabebe]

Hi,
I have the 2nd video by Bobby Sanabria (for 2 and 3 drums), He does a good job breaking down some of the parts of Salidor and Bembe? but not all. He puts together an ensemble to show as an example and to play along with so at least you can see how it works. He tries to break it down in parts/tumba/conga/quinto/cowbell/clave etc. This maybe helpful but I am sure there are more videos and books that may go into depth more. I am still searching myself. I like the video and recommend it.

Peace,
congabebe