Cuban Conga – All about the Tumbadora
with Christian Weaver
This short workshop aims to give an insight into the Cuban Tumbadora (Tumbadora is the Cuban name for drums often referred to as congas, but more about this later). In all its different sizes, all of which have multiple names, the tumbadora is the most common and popular drum in Cuba. It is used in many popular music styles like rumba, salsa and carnival music, as well as many types of religious ritual music such as bembé and guiro.
The workshop will introduce the background of the instrument, how it is played (Cuban popular technique), and how its voice is used in a typical Cuban street/carnival music setting.
If you play already there will be lots to help you develop your sound and broaden your knowledge of Cuban drum melodies. If you are a beginner, you won’t learn how to play the congas in a few hours, however, you will learn how to start to learn to play congas, with a solid foundation.
Through exercises and examples, you will see how to use your hands on the drum, what to practice usefully, how to practice usefully and how to sing rhythms. Then we’ll start to put this to use by learning an example of a type of Cuban music where the tumbadora features. All together the workshop will start to demystify the world of the ‘tumbadora’ in Cuba, and show you how to go deeper into that world.
Christian Weaver studied with Pello el Afrokan in Cuba in the 1990s. He has many years of experience teaching Cuban music in the UK and currently directs the La Timbala/Oi Musica Cuban Big Band in Edinburgh.