different slaps?

[conga KID]

whats up y'all ive just been reading through the forums and have noticed that people have been asking about open slaps and muffled slaps etc.my question is how many different types of slaps are there because i can only produce one e.g used in tumbao etc so if there is different types has anyone got any instruction on how these are produced...thanks in advance conga KID

[Diceman]

Hey Kid, thanks for the info on Conga tuning.
Now Slaps.............
Closed (damped??)slaps with other hand resting on skin, as in one used in tumbao.

Single hand slaps a combination of a relaxed hand and special whipping action from the wrist, a sort of throw of the figertips. The base of the hand has to hit the rim of the conga a fraction before the finger tips whip through making sure the fingers dont bounce off the skins, unless you want an open slap. Useful for fast combinations of open/slap tones in solos.
A Brazilian guy showed me a slap he had seen, which uses the same hand position as the open tone ie base of fingers hits rim first and fingers bounce, but the finger tips only hit the skin and kind of grab it giving you high pop without moving the hand inboard for the usual slap. The other difference between an open tone and this type of slap, is that you open your fingers slightly for the slap. I have tried this with pachy success, but still revert to the old faithful when I am playing, more practice needed here. His is more efficient with just an opening of the fingers and a slight curving of the fingers to make fingertip contact.

Open slaps......slaps were fingers are allowed to rebound, you get a 'tang' sound a bit like timbales rim shots.
I also saw a weird but effective slap used by another Brazilian I played with, where the heel of the hand hit the centre of the skin and the fingers whipped through to hit the far side of the skin near the edge. I havent used it because it is a little inefficient as the hand has to move way across the skin to get the sound.
There are all sorts of combinations in between, but best see a teacher to show you, easier to learn than unlearn!!
If anyone has any more slaps, lets have them, or any other sounds etc
Diceman