It would be unnecessary - and perhaps unwise - to share all he taught me, being after all a personal and gradual learning process, internalized and put in practice. Later on I went to jam sessions playing percussion (so after some lessons and self-education) with other people, and composing instrumentals.
That’s the bigger picture, that is not very specific or special. Many people learn to play an instrument, either through formal lessons by teachers or in a school setting (or nowadays online), while others more or less teach themselves, through books or the Internet in modern times.
Drummers (trap/kit) and percussionists play of course no “chord” instruments, so the mathematical “basic knowledge” that implies is not needed. Of course there are examples of great “chord instrument” musicians who could not even read music and did all “by ear” or “feeling”, but nowadays in the Western world some formal theory seems to be the starting point for aspiring instrumentalists.
Also in other cultures, young learners are for a period apprentices with more experienced musicians, as in e.g. Africa, where there are also specific “castes”/social classes of musicians (griots/jeli) within societies, preserving knowledge.
TECHNICAL AND CREATIVE
“Formal” lessons should however be a guiding point, not a “blueprint”, especially if you know yourself to be the “creative type”.
In the music world you roughly have the “technical type”, who do what the rules say, and people like me of the “creative type”. As also in the Western world, males are more active as instrumentalists, so a certain technical/exact sciences bias is there, to some annoyance. The latter especially when they advice more creative musicians, from a “rule” focus, even instruments they do not play.
Be all that as it may, and those fools aside, I took some lessons by others – with a proven record of quality and knowledge - teaching me some useful patterns, and giving me useful advice.
This includes drum/conga patterns. I will specifically focus on one of them, for their wider connotations, beyond the technical.
CABALLO
First I focus on the Caballo, or A Caballo, pattern, which means Horse (or By Horse) in Spanish, and refers to a Conga pattern, said to come from the “Son” musical complex from Eastern Cuba. In time this would feed into what we know as Salsa (largely based on Afro-Cuban music, like Son).
The Tumbao pattern is most known of all Cuban conga patterns, I think, and is also known from Salsa, as are the patterns from the Rumba complex, like Guaguancó (also other parts of Cuba: Havana/Matanzas).
Even people who do not know what the name Tumbao and Guaguancó (a Conga pattern) refer to, might have heard these rhythms in Latin and Salsa music.
The (A) Caballo pattern is a bit less-known, though known in percussion and Latin circles. As the name suggests it imitates the walking – or galloping – sound of a horse, being the joke of it, you might say. This can be fitted well in different rhythms.
I learned this Caballo (horse) pattern, and later tried them out on other music genres, also during live jam sessions in Amsterdam and around. More swing- and shuffle-based genres (Blues, Jazz, etc.) as well, and also on Funk, Rock, or Reggae. Even on Country-like music – not very rich in percussion, usually – it seemed to fit well.
In Cuban music, songs by the Buena Vista Social Club, - like Chan Chan - usually are cited as containing examples of that A Caballo rhythmic pattern, though you have to listen well (listening and “feeling”), and it is often mixed with other older Son/Afro-Cuban patterns.. It certainly has a tradition, and somehow relates to rural areas of eastern Cuba, where horses are known since colonial times.
Horses arrived in the Americas with European colonialism, yet prehistoric antecedents of the wild horses actually originate from present-day America, crossing to Eurasia. We’re talking about around a million years ago, and in America they became extinct, later reintroduced by Spanish and later colonizers.
The modern horse - however - we know today was domesticated around 2200 BC in Eastern Europe, making the modern horse European, albeit with extinct American antecedents.
BURRO?
After having played this “caballo” pattern on conga’s (and other drums, like the bongo), also during jams, both the curious/intellectual as the “creative” sides of me were awakened, apparently. Donkeys are also used in rural areas, in fact more common among poorer rural people than “elite” horses. I have seen donkeys in Cuba, as well. The question then came naturally to me: how would a “donkey pattern” on conga(s) sound? How do donkeys walk?
From this questioning, I came up with the Donkey pattern – played on conga drums - , calling it El Burro (the Donkey in Spanish), as it arose in response to the Cuban “caballo” patterns.
These are wider connotations beyond “technical musical” skills, which run the risk – like all numbers-based “exact” sciences – to become cold and boring, even if (eventually) turning out “groovy” in a musical mix. Rhythm is not just “counting”, but also “soul”, in my view. Also “imagination” and knowledge giving it substance.
THE ANIMAL
I started to wonder how donkeys – also in the horse family, after all – differ from horses, as animals. My mother grew up in rural SW Spain, and told me she had donkey’s, horses, and mules around her (along with goats, sheep, cows, bulls: the Mediterranean picture), but I did not.
I only saw real donkeys in what in the Netherlands are called “kinderboerderijen”, model-farms for children, housing farm animals for educational purposes, aimed at children, mainly: goats, peacocks, sheep, rabbits, geese, pigs, and donkeys.. usually also a bit “rarer” animals, as cows still had an economic use on the Dutch countryside , and were seen more often. Donkeys, however, were held mainly at those kinderboerderijen/model farms, for novelty purposes. I later learned that donkeys – even if held at real farms, stayed inside, as their fur do not protect against rain, and donkeys dislike water.
In the Netherlands, there are quite some manèges - horse riding schools - which kept horses, and I saw people riding horses regularly, sometimes in fields. Donkeys I saw less, though there were a few times.
To make a long story short: I had to search actual donkeys, and further studied through (less-real) online/Internet sources, or nature documentaries. Just to get the sound of them walking, or galloping, which my mother knew from her youth, as other people from rural areas.
As I thus heard about donkeys as common in rural Spain at that time, I began to question if maybe they were more common in Spain – and wider Mediterranean areas – than in a Northern European country like the Netherlands.
ORIGIN AND CHARACTERISTICS
Further study about the origins and current spread of donkeys led to interesting information, of some things I did not know. The origin of the donkeys is traced to Eastern Africa (Somalia, Ethiopia, Nubia), in drier climates. They were first – interestingly – domesticated in Nubia, around what is now Sudan and around. So originally African. This domestication by pastoral people in Eastern Africa (following those of oxen, etc.) took already place around 7000 BC, so much earlier than the mentioned one of horses in Europe.
The drier and less hospitable (desert-like, arid) climate must have shaped the genetic makeup of the donkey: indeed it is known as resilient, and as “stubborn”, even in popular sayings. Its characteristics were shaped by surviving in deserts, unlike the horses (from wetter grasslands), hence its resilience, endurance, eating patterns, but also e.g. bigger, rotating ears – and good hearing - , loud noises (yee-haw), and a more independent nature, even after domestication. They are quite strong (relative to body weight, stronger than horses), and are known for good memories, e.g. in remembering long routes exactly. They are also known as “prudent”, avoiding dangers calmly.
Other interesting differences with horses and other equines I learned about in some interesting documentaries I saw. Donkeys tend to be “hydrophobic” (eschewing water), due to their desert origins, see mostly canides (dogs, wolves) as main enemies, and also, as said in a documentary, “are the only equines that never flea from danger”. They are thus much less fearful than e.g. horses, and also when encountering problems or dangers, stay calmer than other animals – or even humans. Donkeys always keep their cool. Kind of like the Shaft (“..the ‘cat’ who won’t cop out when there’s danger all about”, as sung in the Shaft theme song), of the equines.
CULTURAL IMAGE
In Western history, some stereotypes of donkeys as somehow “dumb”, “nitwits” or slow, arose, as well as insults based on this.
In Greek culture and myths (around their god Apollo) this image of “dumb” or “stupid” was already there. In one story, Midas (the expression Midas Touch come from this Greek myth), a king who wished he could turn everything he wanted in gold, had his ears turned into those of a donkey, as punishment for judging music wrongly. He favoured someone he knew over Apollo’s, who was known as vane but played good. Those Greek myths are sometimes strange, with more hidden symbolism and morality. A difference with the Bible stories, where the moral intent and symbols tend to be clearer. Punished with donkey ears, while donkeys actually have exquisite hearing (better than other animals, and better than humans).. Ironic…
William Shakespeare, the famous British writer, was in fact very negative about the donkeys, deeming them stupid, and inventing in his works even “new” words for the English dictionary, as “donkey insults” (like jackass, and all words with “jack” or “ass”, “you know jackshit” means you don’t know anything, etc.). This became normalized within Britain and the English language. This in time also in sharp contrast to the almost “adored” status of the other equine, horses, in British culture.
The work of Shakespeare’s contemporary (a bit earlier) counterpart in Spain, who wrote Don Quijote, Miguel de Cervantes, was more positive. The protagonist, the idealist knight Don Quijote rode a horse he named Rosinante -, but his steady helper (and "sidekick" avant-la-lettre) was the more down-to-earth Sancho Panza, who in turn rode a donkey (then common in Spain) alongside him. This donkey is in the Don Quijote novel described quite affectionately, as a loyal companion, on their journeys in this famous story.
Yet, after Ancient Greece, Rome, and England, also in Spain, and other parts of Europe (Germany, Netherlands, France) donkeys were described as dumb, used as insults for humans considered unintelligent or stupid/dumb-witted. The Spanish “rumba flamenco” pop hit Borriquito (1972) – even an international hit – used it as such, the lyrics going: “you are just a stupid little donkey (also “borrico” in Spanish), I know more than you”, as a kind of jokingly out-bragging. I heard the song through my family contexts. Singer Peret comes from a Catalonia-based Roma family.
I personally liked the other 1970s international Spanish flamenco pop hit I heard likewise through Spanish family, “Poromopompero” (Manolo Escobar), better, but that’s my taste. Borriquito was a very simple song, but sometimes those big international hits don’t have much substance, lyrically or musically, as we all know, haha, just a catchy, careless flow, sometimes.
In other continents, the donkey does not always have a better image, and their dumb or stupid image unfortunately also recurs in parts of Asia and Africa, or as “simple” and “slow”, “A donkey that goes to Mecca is still a donkey”, is an unflattering saying in the Islamic world, while in some languages of Ethiopia (with quite some donkeys still) the stereotype in sayings is not so much about the donkey’s stupidity, as more about coarse, simple manners, and irresponsibility. At least there are some positive sayings in some Ethiopian languages (Amhara, Oromo) referring to donkeys too, besides negative ones. Some include also the hyena: the natural enemy of the donkey in African contexts. This explains that “canides” outside of Africa (dogs, wolves) became also the biggest enemies of donkeys. Hyenas after all belong to the canide family too.
In Jamaica, donkeys were long commonly used by peasants and small farmers, horses being considered for richer or white (British) people, as a Jamaican friend of mine told me from his youth. Despite the same (British-inherited?) “dumb image” of donkeys, they are more seen in practical terms, as needed - or even respected - part of country life.
The same applies in rural Cuba, where a “fun” Son song (El Burro De La Loma) even describes how the Burro (donkey) parties and dances along with the music. US singer (R&B) Chuck Berry also has such a theme (donkey dancing to its rider’s music) on the 1961 song The Man and the Donkey.
In old and new Jamaican Reggae and Dancehall, in Cuban Son, but also in music from Colombia or Mexico, or Dominican bachata, donkeys mostly appear in lyrics as part of rural stories, not always negatively.
In some, more lewd Reggae or Dancehall songs from Jamaica the “donkey rod” refers to a (supposed) “well hung” (big penissed) man, for that reason preferred by women. Like horses, donkeys are known for that (relative big penis).
Despite these widespread and international, often negative stereotypes of stupidity, the donkey’s remarkable natural qualities were used by men after domestication, for beasts of burden or other heavy work in agricultural and other areas (carrying goods – pack animals - , cultivation, plowing, sheep herding, even hiking nowadays). Humans make use of their endurance, strength, lack of fear, and good memories for terrains. Also their way of walking (crossing legs while walking) is quite unique, allowing passing through narrower spaces. In the same vein, donkeys move better through uneven, mountainous areas than horses. The “stupid” image is thus not even based in truth.
Despite this domestication, the donkeys remained more independent than horses. It was said in a documentary that they can be “educated, but not trained” – unlike other animals (dogs, horses), reminding of “cat-like” features. One Spanish saying therefore warns that a donkey should be in front, else it escapes. Like in Ethiopia, Spanish sayings about donkeys can be good, bad, and neutral.
All these “supposed” traits sound - in fact - like cool characteristics!
NUMBERS WORLDWIDE
According to recent sources, there are a total of about 45 million donkeys at present worldwide. Less than I thought, actually.
Recent numbers show that some African countries (Ethiopia, followed by Sudan) have relatively most donkeys, while also e.g. Pakistan, Mexico, and now also China (many imported recently), have relatively many. Ethiopia has about 19 % of the whole global donkey population.
In Europe, Portugal, Greece, and Spain have relatively most, but there has strongly diminished over time (industrialization, agricultural modernization). Sources suggest that around the Spanish Civil War (1936) there were still around a million (!) donkeys in Spain alone, with even distinct subspecies. Modernization and urbanization since then diminished this strongly to now only about 30.000, some sources state. Still more than in more northern parts of Europe, but a strong decrease, nonetheless, and now endangered in parts of Spain. That there were a lot in Spain, explains why my mother encountered them often in rural Spain in her youth. I hardly (very rarely) saw them growing up in (and travelling through) the Netherlands, from the 1970s to now. Recent numbers estimate the total number of donkeys in the Netherlands (as of 2023) at around 9000 (to compare: horses about 450.000!).
While not particularly known as having “vegetarian” cultures, in both Spain and Portugal, donkeys were seldom eaten, seeming to be eschewed there for meat, unlike other beasts of burden like goats. In countries like Ethiopia and Somalia in Africa, this (eating donkey or horse) is even more a taboo. In other parts of the world, though, like China, donkey flesh is eaten, and in Italy too. So differing even within continents.
This eating of donkey flesh and supposed medical benefits of hides in some regions (as China) diminished the donkey numbers too, besides urbanization. Especially, the high demand for donkey hides for the popular Chinese e-jiao “medical” products, led sadly many donkeys to the slaughter for commercial gain in Africa (sent to China) and later in India (also for the Chinese market), thereby also depriving poor rural people of their working aid. Recently, though, most African countries banned this donkey hide export to China.
In the Americas, predictably, donkeys came first with Spanish colonizers, it is said already on Columbus’ second voyage, and became over time more common in parts of Latin America and the Caribbean (Mexico, Colombia, but also islands like Cuba and Jamaica).
SENSE
So besides for having special and cool characteristics as animal – and I think an unjust image of dumbness -, my conga pattern imitating the donkey trot/galloping, in response to the Afro-Cuban caballo/horse pattern, also makes sense historically. Plus – as an African animal -, also with a connection to Africa, as much of Caribbean music. The pattern thus makes symbolic sense.
A different animal (even if of the equine family), the donkey walks and gallops different from the horse, so the pattern I invented is also different: the Burro pattern on congas “keeps its cool”, is prudent yet steady, fearless, adjusts to “rougher” environments, and works dedicated/loyally, yet independent. Indeed like the animal.
The pattern I created, emphasizes more the lower (“hembra”) drum, with only “one” higher “slap” on the higher (“macho”) drum – to compare: the A Caballo/horse pattern has two high slap sounds -, and the Burro further has in-between triple soft/ghost notes. Prudent and “cooler”, this Burro pattern, than the Caballo one, like the donkey is also known as "humbler" than horses. Ha!
Herein this video I explain/describe my Burro conga pattern in more detail, also in relation to the existing Cuban Caballo pattern:
My “burro” conga/percussion pattern - like the overall flexible donkey - also can be fitted – I found out - in many grooves and music genres. Straight-rhythm and/or swing-based. I only have not tried it out so much on Country: I listen and play less on Country, but the few times I did, I chose the Caballo/Horse pattern: a Cuban feel, while referring to cowboy life, haha. That while there exist Country songs about donkeys (Little Gray Donkey by Johnny Cash, a Christian song), but more about horses.
Besides that, I could fit the Burro pattern rhythmically on very different music genres, with some skilful adaptations, which is I think also nice for other conga or percussion players to try out (Blues, Rock, Reggae, Funk, Pop, Latin, you name it). Perhaps even Ethiopian music.. Fun – and appropriate - to start with songs with “donkey” in the title, like some already mentioned in this post, from different genres (search further on Youtube: this post has just some examples). Drummer Bernard "Pretty" Purdie’s ‘Funky Donkey’ I can e.g. recommend: groovy to play it on! Originally from 1968, this groove is said to inspire also the Jamaican Reggae riddim Death In The Arena..