I thought Is there anyone else who was making web site like mine in Mie? so I accessed in many serch engines and looked for it. Meanwhile, the display happened to change a registration sheet, so I had registered my URL without thinking well.
But I had selected a word "music instruments" as one of the keywords of it, it's serious! , of course not, but OK, I'll introduce some music instruments whitch is mine or is at my place temporary by photos, when there's nothing to write it down as today's diary like today, since I had registered the key word.
Here's my conga.
In another word, it called a pair of Tumbao and Tumbadora, or Tumbadoras as represented.
The origin is supposed to be made for reprodution of African drums in Cuba later.
Mine is only left one whitch has beautiful blue color, right one whitch is for lower sound has borrowed from my friend. hehehe.
Both are made from solid glass fiber, and handling is easy. But the sound of this type is less than one whitch is made of wood. Famous Gombops is the type made of woooood!
The drum head is popular to use the skin of cow, horse, and kangaloo. And the skin itself as used a drum head is the most important factor that decides good sound or not. Some Conga player said "When I have to change the conga head, first I get 5 or more new conga heads, then I try it one by one to choose the new favorite one." He also said "If you treat it carefully, you'll be able to use it for over 10 years."
By the way, did you notice that these cogas in the picture have different shapes? Left beautiful blue one is called "Patato model", made by LP (Latin Percussion) co. The model name seems to come from the conga maestro Calros "Patato" Valdes. Metal fitting ring that is used to make tension of the head is rounded not to hurt the player's palm. And this LP company is an American company, but the products after this model are made in Taiwan.
Right one for bass note is an old model and the shape is more fat and.metal fitting ring is not rounded. This type is made in USA or in Mexico.
Well, I tell you about the conga play, one player plays one conga in the first place, so it's not old as you think that one conga player plays a set of two congas. It's when the famous jazz flute player Herbie Mann first came to Japan that the maestro Calros "Patato" also the first in Japan as an percussionist of the Harbie Mann's group. At that time he used a set of one conga and one jyenbe for the bass note whitch is another kind of african drum. It' about 40 years ago. So, It is within 50 years since conga players start to use a set of two congas. When it comes to African Rumba session, it's the standard even now that one conga player plays one conga.
Basic pattern for the conga is called the famous Tumbao Moderno that means the way of modern conga play. How do I do it? Well, I think it's very difficult to explain by words, OK, the most important thing is to hear like this "TukPak Tuktoto TukPatototuKuku". hahahaha, you okay? This is the standard of conga play, but the standard is only the standard. Many maestros seem to have their own arranged version, I guess it's OK that all's well that ends well.
I've got this conga at the bulletin board of the jazz forum in NIFTY. One day, I found someone said "Sell conga at 200000 yen", and I asked for by e-mail and got it. Now I love this, because it costed about 160000 yen before. A few years ago, the prices suddenly went down to about half of before, even though it still costs about 80000 yen!
And my model teacher is a Changuito's Conga Video. Jose Luis Quintana "Changuito" is a famous cuban timbales player, but also an excellent conga player. Well, i can say that famous percussionists are all great. The conga player who used to be with him is Giovanni Hedalgo in Puerto Rico. He has a real super technique of congas.
__iOWonderful and marvelousOj^^