This video features the traditional Afro-Colombian Tambora, which is the original form of the Slap Drum. The Slap Drum is the urban and modern version of the Tambora.
New Urban Drum Culture
Talk of the Town uses drumming to empower youth and the larger community in several ways.
There are atleast 8 scientifically proven benefits of drumming that positively impact young people, including enhanced mental health, improved math skills, improved memory, improved focus and problem solving, enhanced immune system, and more. We offer drumming classes and workshops at schools, youth centers, high schools, colleges, festivals and anywhere we are called to teach.
How the Slap Drum was Born
The story behind this drum program is a story and lesson in innovation. As Gonzalez was making a cultural return to his Colombian roots, and learning about Afro-Colombian drumming, he set out to get his hands on one of the primary drums used in traditional Afro-Colombian drumming, the Tambora
He loved how the Tambora sounded and noticed how similar it was to America’s Hip-Hop sound. The search started. The traditional Tambora is made of a single, cylinder, hollowed out piece of wood, with an animal skin as the resonator, or drumhead. Being that Gonzalez didn’t know where to purchase the drum, and could not travel to Colombia at the time, he put his mind on how to recreate the Tambora. He immediately identified American drumset drums as the perfect cylinder shapes, but still had to recreate the BOOM sound of the Tambora. He traveled around the San Francisco Bay Area looking for the skins used on the Tambora, but to no avail. He searched for the thick rubbery material used on Brazilian drums with the same result. One day as he was sitting at a friend’s drum set, he noticed a strip of duct tape on the floor-tom. He asked what the tape was for and his friend told him it was to dampen the sound a little, so that the drum wouldn’t ring so much; so that the sound would not be so high-pitched. This gave Gonzalez an idea. He had a single, used kick drum at home that another friend had given him. He bought some rolls of duct tape and started an experiment that would result in a new drum program. He disassembled the used kick drum, removed the head, and applied strips of duct tape that completely covered the head. He reassembled the drum. The sound was closer to that of the Tambora. He disassembled the drum again and applied another layer of duct tape. BOOM!
He found the sound he was searching for. He started taking the drum to the schools he was working at in East Palo Alto, and playing at lunch, to see how kids would react. They came running, wanting to try. He bought more used drums and applied duct tape. He landed after school employment teaching drumming, only to learn that he didn’t quite know how to teach drumming. So he took some group classes and studied how the drumming instructor would run the class. After a year of study his program really started to grow, and his first group of drumming students performed at McNair Academy.
Since then, New Urban Drum Culture has served well over 5,000 students in several schools in East Palo Alto, San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose; and more than 100 slap drums have been created and used to teach and empower young people all over the San Francisco Bay Area. Learn more here.