Really knowing how to articulate afrocuban syncopa - ideas on quinto language articulation

[qualitydag]

Ok, here's a thought that I want to share with you all. The practice of technique is VERY important. I came from snare drumming backround as a kid and in high school I was a snare drummer in a marching band. I practiced rudiments like crazy, so I want to say that all this talk about sSs and stuff is something of the utmost importance. Practicing technique will make you able to express profound emotion without have to worry about getting all tangled up.
Now saying this, I can't emphasise the utter importance of getting to caught up in technique at the expense of not knowing how to place articulation in the most funky way possible. I'm concerned that some folks will reley on mathmatical practice only. I've seen many salseros, as I mentioned in another reply, play with tremendous flash, speed, power and technique, all for not. The missed the mark by a universe. The most profound playing one can do is from the core of basics.
Being able to ARTICULATE Afro Cuban Syncopation is an art that releys upon really knowing how to throw just one note anywhere within the clave rhythm and make it shake your whole being.
My teacher used to tell me, "drive through a town at 50 miles per hour and you get through it real fast, take your time, go slow, and you see the real character of it.

no matter how much technique we learn, if we don't know how to place just a single note so that everyone shivers when they hear it, a 1000 rolls or 16th or 32 or 64th or flams or ratamcues or paradiddles won't mean a thing except for the person who is playing them. I admit that I am very impressed when I see Jiovanni playing, but it doesn't bring me to the state of grace that pancho quinto's phrasing does or Papaito on the timbalitos.

Now, try this:
lets say you have a phrase
ssss.o.o.oo.ssss.ssooo.o.o.sss..

Lets divide this phrase into sections
1. ssss.
2. o.o.oo.
3. ssss.
4. ssooo.
5. o.o.
6. sss..
Pick a section to place a roll in and make it play until you get to the next section, then come in right on time. Do this in each of the sections, then try placing a roll within a section but coming back out of it before you leave the section. Try placing a roll for just one or two notes within a section and then keep right on playing the rest of the phrase without loosing time.

This is a good way to learn to have restrictions with a technique so that you don't loose the sense of funkiness that the phrase offers. Don't give up the root language for a misplaced or exagerated technique.

Another thing that you can practice is:
ssss.o.o.oo.ssss.ssooo.o.o.sss..

switching the different sections within the pattern
ssss....ssss.o.o.oo.sss.sss..o.o
ssss.o.o.oo.ssss.ssooo.o.ss.....
...o.o.oosso.o.oossooo.ssss.ss..

This is a good way to learn how make ideas out of ideas

The next thing you can practice is how to make ideas out of ideas so that they have something to do with each other, in other words make them flow into each other.

This is where having a root sense of the articulation needed to express oneself comes in extemely helpful.

This you can only learn, in my opinnion, by banging out basic syncopation so that you know where it feels good to throw down in a particular moment or NOT:)

http://afrocubanchops.com



Edited By qualitydag on May 16 2003 at 09:19

[JohnnyConga]

For those just starting out I don't recommend you start trying to play Quinto until you have mastered the Salidor parts and the tumbadora parts first and then work your way to quinto. You must also understand "conversation" in the drumming of Rumba, that is developed over a period of time amongst the drummers themselves. so don;t be in such a hurry to quinto before you have some kind of experience with the other two parts first or it won't make any sense at all, just rifffing. Everybody is in such a hurry to be the baddest quintero but it's the salidor and the tumbadora that do all the work. Take it from a Bronx/Cuban rumbero.......At your Service...JC JOHNNY CONGA

[qualitydag]

Good advice Johnny. One of the things that I clarify in my book is that if beginners want to learn from it, they should think of it in this way:

Learn syncopation from this book, don't think that you are learning
to play quinto, use each lick in the book as a hand coordination exercise and for really encorporating syncopation deep within side.
Each of the licks can be thought of as an exercise in rhythm rather than learning to become a soloist. By learning syncopation, one can really develop one's handcoordination, timing, and rhythmical sense. That is why the book suggest beginners can learn from it also.

[qualitydag]

For those folks who are interested in how to apply very basic rolls in a timbalito lick without loosing Afro Cuban ARTICULATION, please come and see a very short movie.

http://www.afrocubanchops.com/timbal.html

Dudes, Clifford

[Simon B]

A question. In folkloric rumbas, does the quintero have specific licks that are played for the dancers, e.g. a five stroke roll for a certain move from the dancer, and so on - or is it a case of interplay without strict rules?

Simon B

[JohnnyConga]

From my personal experience of playing for dancers over 35 years,the "role" of the quinto is to "accent" the movements of the lead dancer. It is also the role of the drummers to memorize the "choreagraphy" of the different "dance rhythms",aside from knowing what rhythms to play. Believe me when I tell you that the "quintero" is not thinking in terms of a 5 stroke roll with a certain movement,it is purly improvisational but certain licks will be repeated for certain movements, that also depends on the 'quintero's" improvisational ability. Hope this helps...At your srvice..JC JOHNNY CONGA....

[qualitydag]

The only rule that I can think of about playing with a dancer(s)
is that you don't ignore them. You do have to "mark" their movements but not follow them constantly which would be very constictive to the quintero.
Marking is playing a note when you see a "vacunao" thrown and you try and hit with the vacunao. Look at the different parts of the dancers body. Knees spreading heal or toe taps, elbow and hand thrusts, head or shoulder movements, the torso bending down, hands dropping low. These are all aspects of dance movements that dancers can you. You hit the quinto rhythmicaly as they use accented moves.

Another way to play with dancer(s) is to:
a. play the exact rhythm that the dancer's feet are dancing or
b. play a lick/chop that is funky which starts and ends exactly as the dancers dance step starts and ends.

Now for Columbia the quintero usually will want to be more watchful with the dancer than in guaguanco or yambu.
There can be a more friendly competition between the dancer and the quintero. One of, who can fake the other out. The dancer might try and sneak a quick or very syncopated dance step and then the quintero, if he/she is sharp enough will get it if not...
"You missed my step"

It's kind of the same thing with guaguanco when the male dancer wants to vancunao the woman and if she is sharp enough she'll brush away his vacunao "dude you wish" or she misses the covering up motion and he knows "got you"

As far as rolls are concerned, in rumba it's better to make sure you can articulate the quinto language first. Rolls and other rudiments are really not the thing that gives funkiness to the language they are just a little something that one can do to add a little extra energy once in a while so that it doesn't overshaddow
the feeling of what's going on.

Clifford
qualitydag@earthlink.net
http://www.afrocubanchops.com

[Simon B]

Thanks for the info guys. Second round . . . I'm thinking about the dancers now. How many people in the US are proficient rumba dancers? The language of the drum always spreads quicker than that of the dance, I think. In the UK there are a number of proficient congueros for example: rumba dancers, though? I could not name one. Yet 'salsa' dance teachers we have coming out of our ears. How close is salsa dance to rumba?

Simon B

[qualitydag]

How close is salsa dancing to rumba dancing?
Chicken and newpapers, in my opinion, however one thing that could help you with learning the concept of playing with dancers is

1. Play along with folks who are dancing salsa.
If they are dancing to a mambo rhythm then play mambo and try and mark their steps as they are dancing, but don't do it as a continual pattern.

Play the rhythm on a conga drum or 2 or 3, what ever you like and make sure that you are playing the rhythm that they are dancing to, if you don't know, then watch their feet, play a basic "tumbao" rhthm and practice the CONCEPT of playing with dancers
with the salsa dancers. This won't help you to play with the rumba language, neccesarily, but, you will learn how to:
a. watch intently the rhythm of the feet, the way the man pushes the woman and brings her back, twirling.
b. you will learn to pick out how the body parts of each of the two dancers move.
c. you will learn to create rhythmical licks that start and stop with a twirl, a pattern stepped by the dancers etc.

I think that this is the next best thing you can do for now.
Wait a minute! Why not buy a rumba video on line? Then you can watch the dancers and practice wth them. You will also be able to listen to how the quintero marks or plays rhythmical short patterns with the dancers.

Hope this helps.

Clifford qualitydag@earthlink.net
http://afrocubanchops.com

[Simon B]

Thanks - I think that is indeed my next step, getting some rumba videos to watch!

Simon B