The Percussion of Toto's "Africa" - Chris DeChiara

#toto #africa #percussion This was another fantastic collaboration between myself, Zink, Bill, and Jose. These guys are phenomenal musicians and I was happy to be asked to play on this. It's a song we've all heard a million times but I never got the chance to dive in deep and explore what was going on. If you're interested in that kind of thing, keep reading. The original video is what you see in the center and if you want to see that complete video, check it out on Zink's page here-    • Africa  (Toto Cover)   Chris DeChiara - Drums, Percussion Jose Mora - Bass Guitar Bill Whitney - Vocals, Keys, Mastering Zink - Vocals, Guitars, Mix, Video Here is a rundown of the instruments I'm hearing on the original track and some explanations. I think the drum kit was recorded in sections and I'll explain that as well. CONGAS - The actual groove is what I'm playing in the intro and verses. In the choruses, I'm ad libbing. Typical combination of bass tones, taps, and slaps. I wish I had better congas when recording! CAXIXI (in left hand) and MARACA (in right) - You can hear a constant quarter note rhythm happening in the track that's hard to discern the specific instruments played. But it's definitely either of these or a combination as in one video I watched. Thus, I wanted to get a mixture and full sound using both these instruments. COWBELL - Playing a quarter note pulse throughout, I got the gnarliest cowbell I had, played with the shaft of the stick and slightly muted the bell. SHAKER - I decided on my trusty Meinl plastic shakers, using the yellow/blue combination. 16th note pulse throughout with a slight accent on each beat. WIND GONG - This sounded best to me since it has that nice, quick, thin spread. An actual tam tam would've sounded too Oriental for this song. WIND CHIMES/BELL TREE: The track has a bell tree, not wind chimes. I didn't have a bell tree at the time (of course I ended up with one a couple weeks later) so came up with this alternative technique. I left the mute on the wind chimes and just quickly glissed a triangle beater over some of the chimes. Worked like a charm! COWBELLS (high/low) - This might be the most curious one. On the track, an agogo bell pattern is played between two bells, but the instrument doesn't have the usual high, tingy agogo bell sound. What sounded closest to the track is when I played two cowbells with similar pitches as the track and with the tip of the sticks on the open end of the bell. MARIMBA - Another instrument that was tough to tell exactly what is in the recording. It's easy to think it's xylophone, but it would've had to have been played in the low register judging by the register of the recorded track. Doing that with soft mallets didn't sound close at all. Using hard mallets on the low end didn't come close either. I found that playing on the upper register of a marimba, using medium soft rubber mallets produced the closest sound to the track. It had the "xylophone quality" with the register and articulate, light mallets but more of the sound of marimba which resembles the track much more accurately. DRUMSET - I came to the conclusion that the kit part was recorded in parts, the main samba groove and the fills/chorus groove. At least, that made the most sense to me. In the intro and verse sections, it's only bass drum and snare (tuned low and muffled). No hihat. In the choruses, there's snare, bass drum, ride cymbal, cymbal crashes, and a tom hit before the last syncopated crashes before the next section. So, I recorded the kit takes like this: 1. Intro/Verse 1 2. Fill/Chorus 1 3. Verse 2 4. Fill/Chorus 2 5. Solo section 6. Fill/Chorus 3 7. Outro 8. End fill If some of the main groove section had the same amount of bars, I just used the same take instead of recording the same exact thing over again. All the chorus grooves are separate takes as they have the big fills before them which are always different (and basically clave patterns). There are also separate , single cymbal hits that I played on both chinas from the kit. Those are on the Fill/Chorus takes. OTHER VIDEOS YOU MAY DIG: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list... COME SAY HI OR BOOK A LESSON/CONSULTATION: Website: https://www.chrisdechiara.com Instagram: @deechdrums Facebook:   / chrisjdechiara   SINGLE STROKE ROLL LESSON: www.chrisdechiara.com/store 13 STRATEGIES TO BECOMING A SUCCESSFUL MUSICIAN: www.chrisdechiara.com THE RITE OF SPRING - A PERCUSSIONIST'S GUIDE (ON SALE NOW!) https://buy.bookfunnel.com/klamu5wm7l DRUM GEAR: Tama Superstar Classic- 8,10,12,14,16 6x14 Ludwig Supraphonic Snare Soultone Cymbals (ones played): 14" Gospel Hihats 17" Custom Brilliant Crash 18" Custom Brilliant Crash 18" Explosion Crash 21" Natural Prototype Ride 17" Gospel China 18" Extreme China Shure, MX1000, and Sennheiser mics Studio One Professional Final Cut Pro X GoPro Hero9