How to Play Congas: A Guide to Conga Drum

While congas are Cuban, its roots trace back to Africa. The instrument is an essential timekeeper in various forms of Afro-Cuban music, as well as other types of Latin music, such as merengue, bossa nova, and salsa. The Latin percussion instrument, typically played as hand drums, is also heard in countless genres, from pop, rock, and folk to jazz, soul, reggae, and funk.

There are a few types of conga drums, including requinto, quinto, tres dos, tumba, and supertumba. Each type produces a different sound:

1. 1. Quintos: These drums are the smallest and thus highest pitched.
2. 2. Tumbas: The tumbas are the largest and lowest pitched.
3. 3. Tres dos, tres golpes, or segundo: This is the middle drum, though it is most commonly called the conga.

Conga sets have three basic parts:

1. 1. The shell: The shell is the body of the instrument and commonly made of wood (usually siam oak or American ash), though they are sometimes made of other materials, like fiberglass. Wood congas produce warmer, fuller sounds than fiberglass congas.
2. 2. The drumhead: The conga head is usually made of rawhide, though synthetic heads are also available. As with the shell, natural rawhide heads produce warmer sounds than synthetic heads.
3. 3. The hardware: This includes everything else that brings the shell and head together, such as rims, bands, and tuning lugs or nuts. Chrome hardware is most common on modern congas.

Like other percussion instruments, congas are not tuned to a specific note. They’re tuned to open tones based on their size, meaning the quinto, tumba, and conga are all tuned to different pitches. Typically, conga drums are tuned between a major third or a perfect-fourth apart.

1. 1. Use a wrench: Tuning lugs can be stiff, so use a wrench or similar tool to turn the lugs. Many modern-style drums come with their own conga tuning wrench.
2. 2. Turn the tuning lugs: When tuning, turn the lugs clockwise to tune the pitch down, and counter-clockwise to tune it up. To correctly tune a conga, each lug needs the same number of turns, regardless of the direction.
3. 3. Test the pitch of the drum: Once you've tuned to your desired pitch, slap the drums to test the sound. When the bass tones are resonant and the open tones rise, you have correctly tuned your congas.

Playing the congas correctly depends on how you hit and tune the drum. While there are variations in technique, there are five basic ways of hitting the conga:

1. 1. Slap: Strike near the center of the drum with the flats of your fingertips while keeping your hand somewhat cupped in order to create extra resonance.
2. 2. Bass: Strike near the center of the drum with the full palm of your hand.
3. 3. Open: Strike near the rim of the drum with the base of all four fingers (near where the fingers meet the palm) and let your hand quickly bounce back up.
4. 4. Muted: Do an open strike, but leave your fingers on the drum to muffle the sound.
5. 5. Heel-Toe: Strike the drum toward the center with the heel of your palm, then follow with your fingertips—there are two strikes, but they’re part of one motion.

Practice the five basic conga strikes on a makeshift instrument (or the real thing, if you’ve got it) until you get a good feel for them and the drum(s) that you’re using. When you’re ready, turn on your metronome and try some basic sounds and conga patterns, like the cha-cha-chá rhythm: open, open, slap on your dominant hand, while your “floating hand” adds a heel-toe between the open and slap.

Experiment with dynamics—hit harder or softer and pay attention to how this affects your ability to keep time. When you’ve mastered the basic rhythm, up the tempo and go again. Do the same with the other popular conga rhythm patterns, like the tumbao or guaguancó.

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