How To Play Bongo Drums: A Basic Guide to Bongo Drums

Bongo is a super fun instrument, but are you wondering how to play bongo drums?  Anyone can play a bong with a bit of practice. For many years Bongo has been a part of Latin percussion instruments. Bongo Drums has been defining Caribbean, Cuban, South American, and Petro percussion music for many years.

Bong drums can be played as a solo, but it is the soul and life of any rhythm in most cases. The presence of bongo drums adds life to any party that no other instrument can.

Here in this article, we will talk about how to play bongo drums and many other aspects.

Basic Setup

The bongo set consists of two drums:

• Hembra (larger drum)
• Macho (smaller drum)

Proper Positioning

Sitting Position:

• Sit upright on a chair with feet flat on the floor
• Place bongos between your knees
• Position larger drum (hembra) on the outside, smaller drum (macho) on the inside
• Keep arms loose at your sides

Hand Position:

• Left hand over the macho
• Right hand over the hembra
• Palms should face each other
• Fingertips rest lightly on drumheads

Basic Techniques

Open Tone:

• Strike near the edge (not on it)
• Use the top half of your fingers
• Release quickly after striking
• Creates a resonating sound

Muted Tone:

• Similar to open tone
• Keep fingers on drumhead after striking
• Produces a lighter sound

Advanced Strokes

Basic Stroke Types:

• Mute strike: slap edge while deadening with other hand
• Heel: strike with thumb
• Toe: rock hand to strike with opposite fingers

Tips for Beginners

Sound Production:

• Strike the center for rich, powerful sounds
• Use edge areas for varied tones
• Start with simple eighth-note patterns
• Practice basic rhythms before attempting complex patterns

Important Considerations

Tuning:

• Ensure proper tuning for optimal sound
• Use only quarter turns when adjusting
• Use the correct tuning wrench for your drums

Remember that mastering bongo drums takes practice and patience. Start with basic patterns and gradually work your way up to more complex rhythms as you become comfortable with the fundamental techniques.

What is Bongo Drums?

Bongo originated in Cuba as an underlying instrument of traditional African drums. These are hand drums, and you don’t need any stick to play them. The basic construct of bongo drums is like other percussion instruments. The basic construction is based on a circular wooden frame, and there is a drum head at the top of it.

Figure 1 Bongo Drums

Typically animal skins are used to make the drum head. However, these days you will find bongo drums built with synthetic heads.

The number of drums in a bongo set is two. There is a larger drum which is known as hembra, and a smaller one, which is known as macho.

Bongo drums are rarely used as a solo percussion ensemble. In most cases, timbales, conga drums, and calves are used along with bongo drums. There might be other optional instruments, such as djembe, tambourine, cowbell, tambourine, and a standard drum kit.

The Basics of Bongo Drums

The Bongo drum is an instrument, and like any other instrument, it has some basics.

• Bongo terminology and anatomy
• Bongo tuning
• The process of holding the bongo drums
• The hand parts you should use to create the sound
• Techniques for Bongo drums
• Bongo sheet music and notation
• Basic Rhythms to play Bongo drums.
• Some basic rhythms to play
• Genres and playing styles

How to Play the Bongo Drums

We have included the process of learning bongo drums in the previous section. Learning and instruments need two things – passion and patience. If you lack any of those two, you can not learn any instrument. Playing a musical instrument is producing art, and art demands passion.

Figure 2 – Playing Bongo Drums

Though it’s impossible to cover everything about how to play bongo drums in such a short scope, we will try to provide you with the basics.

Here are the steps of playing bongo drums:

• As you have learned by now, bongos are hand drums, and you don’t need nay stick to hit it. So, you have to strike the drum heads with your fingers. Do not use your palms, as they can not produce clear sounds, and you can not control sound coming out from your palm.
• But how would you deliver different types of sounds? Here are the steps:
• You need to switch between macho and hembra. If you did not forget, hembra is the larger one, and macho is the smaller one. When your primary bongo drum is hembra, you can generate accents by using the macho.
• The next trick is using single, double, or even three fingers. When you are striking the bongo drums with two fingers, it’s better to create accents by removing one finger and using just one. You can produce a fainter tone with a single-finger strike. If you want to produce a heavier tone, you should use three fingers.
• Changing the location of the drum where you are striking is another way of changing the sound. Sound changes according to the changing position of your finger on the drum. You can serve accents by altering finger placement, and that will produce different sound
• Martillo is the basic bongo pattern in Afro-Cuban music. “Martial” means “hammer,” and it is a steady eight-noted pattern.

Creating different tones and mastering bongo drums takes time. But these instruments are much easier to learn than other conventional drums.

Which Bongo Drums are better for Beginners

So, are you just thinking of becoming a hand percussionist? Sometimes beginners get confused seeing the options for available bongo drums in the market. You can choose from wooden and fiberglass bongo drums.

Figure 3 – Beginners can learn Bongo drums easily

Though science has progressed a lot, we can still not beat natural materials when it comes to building musical instruments. Wooden bongo drums produce clear and a wide variety of sounds. Therefore, most professional players prefer wooden bongo drums. The best wood for making bongo drums is Siam oak.

But as a beginner, you can purchase fiberglass bongo drums. If you want a more natural and deeper sound, you can choose wooden bongo drums also. But remember, the price will vary.

If the bongo is tunable, you can use a tuning wrench to adjust the tension of the drum head. You can choose from black or chrome hardware, but ensure that the instrument is sturdy and can handle the tuning key.

How to Make Bongo Drums

Bongo drums originated in Cuba, but today universal artists have made bongo drums a universal instrument. Fiberglass bongo drums are durable and stylish. But in terms of sound, they can not beat wooden bongo drums.

In Ariose Music, we build the best quality wooden bongo drums. There are two processes of making wooden bongo drums. You can hollow out a thick piece of wood or construct the shell from evenly shaped wooden staves.

Figure 4 – Basic parts of bongo drums

The second method is more as you can produce more bongos with the staves method. Top brands in the world use this for mass production. This method has another advantage; the sound coming from these mongo drums is better than other mongo drums.

The staves are glued together to form the shape. After the initial shaping, the bongos are cut into pieces to form different types of bongos. Cutting into the precise measurement is crucial as that determines the sound quality of the bongos.

Then manufacturers paint the mongo drums to give them a fancy look. After painting, they work with the head area. Animal skins are used to form the head. You can get synthetic bongo drums also, but they can not produce sounds like skinned bongo drums.

Bongos are a time-honored traditional percussion instrument adapted into the various genres of music but are best known for their influence in the world music scene.

Where to Buy Bongo Drums?

You can purchase bongo drums from both online marketplaces and from the local market. Many top brands in the world make high-quality bongo drums.  Online marketplaces are excellent places to find bongo drums.

Ariose Music is a leading OEM brand for bongo drums. We work with the top brands worldwide, and our wooden bongo drums are one of our top-selling products.

How Much Are Bongo Drums?

Bongo drums come in various qualities, and the price varies according to the quality. In addition, the price also varies for the building material. A wood-made bongo drum and fiberglass bongo drum’s price quality won’t be the same. Likewise, pure leather and synthetic head bongo drums will have different prices.

Here we have classified the prices of bongo drums according to their quality:

Type	Price
Entry Level	USD 40-90
Medium	USD 90 – 200
Professional	USD 200 – 500

Bongo drums range from 40 US dollars to 500 dollars. And the price depends on various factors.

How To Clean Bongo Drums?

You can clean your bong drumhead with either a scent-free lotion or a little water. You can use oil that is skin safe and combine it with a soft rag. DO NOT use bleach or ammonia-contained cleaners or any other similar kind of solvents.

What Are Bongo Drums Made Of

The body of bongo drums is made of two materials – wood and fiberglass. Both bongo drums are different in quality and pricing.

The heads of bongo drums are made of cattle skin. Many modern bongo drums use synthetics as bongo heads, but skin bongo drums produce better sound and are of good quality.

Final Words

Ariose Music is a leading bongo Drums OEM manufacturer in China. We produce bongo drums for both beginners and experts. We hope this article on how to play bongo drums gives you sufficient information on this awesome musical instrument. Please comment below if you have any further questions.