by rhythmrhyme » Sun Nov 17, 2013 12:42 am
I would add that all drums have a "sweet spot" in their tuning range. It probably matches in some ways with the tonal qualities you hear when "knocking" on the shell. When in the sweet spot a conga will resonate with it's best voice, likely because the resonance of the head matches best at a certain tension with the shape and tonal qualities of the shell. I spend a lot of time tuning and handling my drums, not everyone does, but I know this spot for all of them. They also have a "secondary" resonance, that sometimes I'll push the drum to in order to have them meet a certain tuning interval goal. But, when playing a drum on its own, I always bring it back to it's natural voice.
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