Hmmm. That seems like a "goodbye" to the topic, but may I just mention: I learned timbales waaay back in the late sixties, using an old book that featured Tito Puente. There were two comments relevent to "traditional" playing that may interest some readers:
1. ALL latin percussion was placed in those days like "the keyboard of the piano" - that is, lower tones on the left, high tones on the right. This included congas as well.
2. The standard tuning for timbales was A on both drums, an octave apart.
I'm aware that no two contemporary percussionists utilize the same tuning or even hand technique, and that's fine by me. I just thought your readers would be interested in the actual "traditional" rules.
FYI ... I did tell him to position the lower drum on the left, high drum on the right, as you mentioned in your point #1. Thanks for sharing the information about the tuning to "A". The reason that particular pitch would be used was that the songs were in a key that "A" would sound best in. If that applies to the music you are playing now, then the "traditional" tuning that you have mentioned would work. I don't think you can say that the "A" tuning is THE traditional tuning as I just cited several older professional players who do not use octave tunings, nor tuned to the note "A". I've got a lot of transcriptions of traditional songs, and there are many where the "A" tuning would not sound good in ... for instance if the song was in the key of G Major. The "A" would work, but it would sit in the mix as well as if it were tuned to a "G" or a "D".
Perhaps you could cite some players or resources that would support the octave tuning as being "traditional" ... I've love to learn more about that.
Bongos are tuned in a similar fashion, interval wise, and I do know that some traditional players would tune the drums in octaves ... so perhaps this is the case with Timbales as well ... I'm just not familiar with that being part of "tradition".
Lastly, the word "tradition" unfortunately just doesn't imply ONE way in many cases. I wish it did because it would make it a lot easier. But when it comes to pitches and tunings, there really are many ways that were and are used. It may be "traditional" to a particular city, town, region or group of players, but travel a few hundred miles in any direction and you'll find slight, even big, differences.
