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5/11/2020 Conga - Wikipedia
Clave-neutral

The basic son montuno conga pattern is called marcha, or tumbao. The conga was first used in bands
during the late 1930s, and became a staple of mambo bands of the 1940s. The primary strokes are
sounded with open tones, on the last offbeats (2&, 2a) of a two-beat cycle. The fundamental accent—2&
is referred to by some musicians as ponche. [7]

1 e & a 2 e & a Count
H T S T H T O O Conga
L L R L L L R R Hand Used

Key:
L: Left hand
R: Right hand
H: Heel of hand
T: Tip of hand
S: Slap
O: Open Tone

Clave-aligned

The basic tumbao sounds slaps (triangle noteheads) and open tones (regular noteheads) on the "and"
offbeats. [8] There are many variations on the basic tumbao. For example, a very common variant sounds
a single open tone with the third stroke of clave (ponche), and two tones preceding the three-side of
clave. The specific alignment between clave and this tumbao is critical.

Top: clave. Bottom: basic conga tumbao on one drum. S: slap,
O: open tone, h: palm heel, t: finger tips.

Another common variant uses two drums and sounds bombo (1a) on the tumba (3-side of the clave). [9]
For example:

1 . & . 2 . & . 3 . & . 4 . & . Count
X X X X X Son Clave
X X X X X Rumba Clave
H T S T O O H T S T H T O O Conga
O O Tumba
L L R R R L R R L L R L L L R R Hand Used

or
1 . & . 2 . & . 3 . & . 4 . & . Count
X X X X X Son Clave
X X X X X Rumba Clave
H T S H T O O H T S H T O O Conga

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conga 4/9