Learning how to play congas is a long yet rewarding process when you know what to practice and how to produce good sounds. So I thought about what’s important for conga lessons and compiled a list.
Conga lessons should include technique instruction on how to produce good sounds, strength-building exercises, pattern and rhythmic development, and some mentorship to guide you along the way. Once you have those things, it then takes a lot of consistent practice over a long period of time to develop into a good conga drummer.
The following conga lessons include a wide range of crucial techniques and exercises for learning how to play congas. They are a sample of the deeper lessons you can find here on Rhythm Notes, so check out some of the related links if you want videos and more information.
1. Conga Drum Setup and Tuning Lesson
The drum setups are simple. You’ll either sit to play or stand. If you are right hand dominant, the conga (usually 11 3/4″) will be in front of you and the tumba (12 1/2″) will be to your right.
If your setup includes three drums, the third drum can go in between your conga and tumba or to the side opposite the tumba. Some drummers play with the quinto in the middle, conga to the left and tumba to the right. Reverse the conga and tumba for left hand dominant, of course.
How to Tune a Conga Drum
Like most instruments, conga drumming starts with tuning. It’s the only way to know if your technique is producing the sounds properly.
Conga drum tuning can be well organized through predetermined pitch intervals or just by ear in a relative manner.
Some drummers use perfect fourths or fifths by referencing a pitch from a piano, while others simply sing the pitch to themselves and go with what’s good.
If you know the tune “Bridal Chorus (Here Comes the Bride),” you can use the first couple of intervals to establish a perfect fourth or fifth.
- Perfect fourth: The interval on the lyrics “here” and “comes the bride.”
- Perfect fifth: The interval on the lyrics “all” and “dressed.”
Tune the drums high enough to cut through the other instruments but not so much that the resonance is cut off. This is especially true for synthetic drum heads because they can lose their conga drum tone very fast when tuned too tightly.
The intonation of the head is one of the critical steps to sounding good. To make sure that the head is evenly tightened on each tension rod, tap the drum head near each rod to compare the pitches. Make adjustments accordingly to make each area near the rods sound the same.
If you are using real skins for drum heads, detune your drums whenever you are transporting them or if the moisture is likely to change in the room where they are stored.
Detuning the heads can extend their life and reduce the stress on the drum shell and hardware. This is mostly because the moisture and temperature changes can raise and lower the tension on the drums significantly.
Related: Conga Tuning – Tips and Tools for Sounding Great
2. Heel and Toe Strokes on Congas
The heel stroke is the most important stroke. This is only the case if you play it right and practice it well. The secret is simple, however.
All you have to do is drop it, don’t push it. There’s a little more to it than that, so let’s break it down further.
Follow these steps to establish a strong foundation for your conga technique.
- Place the palm of your hand relaxed on the conga drum head.
- Lift your hand while keeping it parallel to the drum head.
- Drop the palm onto the head and relax.
- Breathe and maintain good posture.
- Repeat these steps for your right and left hands.
The process explained above is for the most fundamental stroke because the heel stroke sets you up for the next most important stroke — the toe.
The secret to the toe stroke is the wrist turn and acceleration toward the head, which is opposite to the heel stroke with no acceleration. It’s in this acceleration that you’ll build strong wrist turns, which will help all of your other sounds.
Check out this exercise. It’s one of many exercises you can play to practice heel and toe strokes.
Related: Good Sounds on Congas – Developing 5 Basic Techniques
3. Conga Sounds – Tones vs. Slaps
I told you the secret to the most important stroke, so I’ll reveal another secret. The only technique difference between a tone and a slap is whether the fingers are kept straight or relaxed in the execution of the stroke.
Both conga tones and slaps are a wrist turn. You can use your arm for any of these strokes if you need more volume than the wrist turn can provide.
How to Play Open Tones
- Play an open tone by striking the drum with the palm side of the knuckles.
- Keep your fingers straight before relaxing once the hand strikes the drum.
- Adjust your hand with slight movements to find the sweat spot for your hand and the drum head.
How to Play A Slap
- Strike the drum with a wrist turn and relaxed fingers in the same area of the drum as the open tone. The relaxed fingers will strike the drum with a slap sound after they flop forward when the palm side of the knuckles make contact with the drum head.
- Do not start with lots of force in your strokes. Add more force when your accuracy is good.
- Ensure your strokes are wrist turns. The arm can be added if you need to play louder than the wrist turn can produce.
Related: Conga Drums – A Guide for Beginner and Intermediate Players
4. Building Chops on Congas
The only shortcut to building chops on congas is playing heel / toe exercises slowly and with proper technique. This means dedicating at least 15 minutes per day warming up with a heel / toe exercise, like the one shown above, before moving on to faster, harder hitting playing.
Once you have good technique with your strokes, it’s time to lay into the drum with a little volume and speed. The two exercises shown below both build strength and stamina when practiced properly.
Tones and Slaps for Conga Strength Building
The following exercise consists of open tones and slaps. Make sure that you only play at tempos at which you can maintain the wrist turn technique.
If you find your self pumping your arms too much, slow down and build up your wrist turn. The heel / toe exercise above will help build strength for the wrist turn, too.
This exercise is good for coordinating the transitions from tones to slaps and vice versa. Focus on the most important technique difference between the two sounds — straight fingers for tones and relaxed fingers for slaps.
Mano Secreta Conga Drumming Exercise
The mano secreta is a Changuito concept that treats the heel / to strokes combined in one hand as a double stroke. This exercise is one of Changuito’s from old DVD conga lessons in which he and Giovanni discuss ways to build mano secreta.
Next Steps for Conga Chop Building
The next step is to play with a group. The chops you build from playing an hour to three-hour set can really tell you whether your practice is working or not. Once you recover from the gig, your hands will only be stronger for it if you haven’t damaged them through poor technique.
- 24 Conga Lessons
- 45 Rhythms
- 63 Pages
5. Conga Tumbao – Basic Cuban Rhythm
The conga tumbao, also known as marcha, is a common pattern used in son, salsa, and other pop music styles. It includes a slap and open tone backbeat with heel and toe strokes filling in between to thicken the groove.
Tumbao means to throw down or to lay down a groove. It’s a term that can be used to describe the bass, guitar, or piano part, as well. And it’s played with strength and a confident attitude.
The following conga tumbao patterns start with the basic one-drum tumbao and move on to adding a second drum and variations. Practicing patterns like these are an important part of conga lessons because they bring together the sounds and techniques.
Basic One-Drum Conga Tumbao
Basic Two-Drum Conga Tumbao
Two-Drum Conga Tumbao Variation
Now that you have a few conga tumbaos, it’s important to play along with salsa, son, or timba albums to develop them in a musical context. Listen for how fills are played during transitions and how variations are used to mark musical phrases.
Related: How to Play Tumbao on Congas – 21 Variations
6. Guaguancó for Two Drums
Guaguancó is a common rumba with two main regional styles from Havana and Matanzas. The three main drum parts are segundo, salidor, and quinto. The quinto solos with a dancer and standard rhythmic phrases as well as conversations with other drums.
The segundo and salidor have their respective parts, which are the focus of this two-drum pattern conga lesson.
The pattern has mutes, bass, and open tones. Slaps are optional and can be added to include quinto parts and accents. Typically, the quinto plays a lot of slaps, but the other drums can play slaps, too.
Approach this pattern by focusing on the mute tones. These three hits play a crucial role in outlining the drum parts and clave. In traditional rumba groups, the tres golpes parts would play rhythms similar to the mutes, bass tones, and open tones played on the conga.
Try simple variations with the open tones on the segundo part. Stay on the downbeat of the two side of the clave, and vary the part by adding or subtracting tones.
The salidor part is mostly the open tone on beat four of each measure, but mute tones and conversational licks can enhance the performance. Just avoid encroaching on the segundo part. If someone is playing quinto along with the two drum guaguancó, avoid clashing in the quinto part space.
Conga Drum Buyer’s Guide 7. Funky Conga Patterns
The roots of conga funk patterns are found in the American soul music of the 1960s and 1970s. These songs were often produced with congas prominently in the mix, filling spaces with syncopated rhythms and Cuban tumbao adaptations.
American conga drummers, however, played a little differently than the Cuban drummers. The funk conga patterns are usually played with a hand-to-hand technique, as opposed to the heel and toe Cuban technique.
Conga lessons like this one focus on the hand-to-hand, syncopated rhythms of drummers like Eddie “Bongo” Brown. Although the example below is a bit generic, it comes from the themes that these drummers would use on albums produced by labels like Motown or Atlantic.
If you’re playing funk patterns on congas, you’re probably playing with a drum set. This means that you need to consider the drum set part to avoid clashing with the parts.
For example, if you play a slap when the drummer plays the snare, it can produce a clapping sound. This might be exactly what you want, but make sure that your part works with the drum set part and what the producer is trying to realize.
8. Songo and Timba – Traditional vs. Modern Conga Drumming
Songo is a Cuban style developed in the 1970s by Los Van Van. It’s a mix of folkloric elements and funk rock styles, and the conga patterns are really fun to play. Timba is sort of an evolution of the songo music, and in many cases it’s hard to differentiate the two.
Both of these styles of music are modern approaches to conga drumming that incorporate elements of rumba and longer phrases in the conga patterns. Some of the tumbaos (or marchas) are as long as two to four clave cycles.
The patterns shown in this conga lesson are from Giovanni Hidalgo and Tomás Cruz. Both patterns are like tumbaos that are funked up a bit.
Songo Conga Pattern from Giovanni Hidalgo
This songo sits well on the beat three backbeat. The heel stroke on beat three can be accented like a bass tone to really feel the backbeat. If it makes you dance, then you’re probably playing it right.
Timba Conga Pattern from Tomás Cruz
The pattern below is from Tomás Cruz’s conga method (check it out here). He wrote three books, and I think this one is from either the third or a YouTube video.
But either way, you should check out is marchas and approach to technique. He studied with the greats like Changuito and has developed the timba conga pattern in significant ways.
Timba vs. Salsa Percussion
Songo and timba are different from salsa in many ways. Salsa often uses a standard percussion instrumentation with a bongocero who also plays campana (cowbell). Timba and songo, for example, will often have a timbalero who combines the campana part with elements of traditional mambo bell parts.
9. Tumbao Variations for 1, 2, and 3 Conga Drums
One of the best conga lessons I had to learn, was that more conga drums is not the key to sounding good. Conga drummers should be able to get the job done and sound good on one drum. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t play multiple drums.
Conga drummers like Carlos “Patato” Valdes added a second and soon a third drum to their setup. The multi-drum configuration allowed more melodic possibilities, which made sense coming from Patato who was also a bass player.
The following tumbao variations include options beyond the basic tumbao. They are designed for one, two, and three drums and include the full pattern with bombo clave accents.
One-Drum Conga Tumbao Variation
Two-Drum Conga Tumbao Variation
Three-Drum Conga Tumbao Variation
10. Exercises and Tips for Playing on 3 Conga Drums
Three conga drums can be a lot of fun if you know how to transition from one drum to another. Conga lessons that include movement and coordination exercises will set players up to express their ideas on the instrument more freely.
Many drummers set up the third conga on the opposite side of the second drum. This means they are likely to play it with a hand that’s less often moving from drum to drum with the two-drum setup.
To overcome this issue of transition, consider playing alternating strokes when you would otherwise play double strokes. The open tones of a tumbao conga pattern are perfect for trying out this technique.
Doubles and Alternating Strokes Three-Drum Exercise
Final Thoughts
Conga lessons are important for developing your technique, sounds, and ability to move around the drums to express musical ideas. It takes a lot of work to sound good one this instrument, so it’s very important that you have effective lessons to guide your efforts.