Johnny's Conga Camp review (March 2008)
Saludos Hermanos
My name is Ozzie Rivera a Native of Brooklyn New York, currently residing in south Texas. I have been around afro-Caribbean music all my all life and have been playing congas off and on for about 10 years. however out of the 10 years of playing congas I have only been playing seriously for just a little over two years. For the most part I have been self taught by watching others play and by watching instructional videos.
Over the past 2 years I have made good improvements in my playing, technique, speed and learning different rhythms. But, at the time I sort hit a plateau where my improvements became kind off stagnant.
So for the first time in my career I decided to get professional training as the videos where not doing it for me anymore.
I decided to attend to Johnny’s conga camp for several reasons.
1. Johnny is seasoned professional veteran with 40+ years of experience.
2. He has good understanding of the educational and practical training value. In other words the brother knows how to teach.
3. Weeklong camp as oppose to an hour a week type of training.
4. Johnny is also an accomplished percussionist and band leader who is recognized and by respected by his peers which include some of the best percussionists in the world.
5. Personality, not once has Johnny come to this board as an arrogant person who only thinks of himself. Always willing to give insightful input and share his knowledge.
6. Work ethics, I knew that Johnny’s camp was not going to be a fly by night type of camp. He will make you work but, he will also be right there working with you.
7. I am a firm believer in the mentor mind set, learn from the best, and I can honestly say that via research and spending time here on this board that Johnny is one of the old and new school percussionist in the world, and I honestly believe that. You don’t have to take my word for it. Ask anyone who has attended his camp.
Ok, so I made contact with Johnny agreed and scheduled a date for the camp. I had a budget but the flights from Corpus Christi, Texas to Seattle were putting me over the budget. Johnny took time from his personal time to help me find plane tickets and or move the camp schedule around to help find more economical flights to Seattle.
So, I leave Corpus Christi on a Monday and here is where all the fun starts, bad weather in Texas delayed my first flight to Dallas Ft worth where I was supposes to take a connecting flight to Seattle which I missed.
By this time is like 10 pm and American airlines tells that there no more flights to Seattle until the next morning. So they placed in a hotel and set me up to leave in the morning. I leave the hotel in the morning and it is raining cats and dogs. And I’m thinking to myself this is not good. To make a long story short, because it really is a long story. I didn’t end up leaving Texas till 9pm and after 4 flights either being cancelled or delayed due to the weather. Every time a flight got cancelled or delayed I had to call Johnny and let him know the new arrival times. By the time I arrived in Seattle I had gone through so much drama and called Johnny so many times that I actually felt as if I had known him all my life. LOL
Johnny picks me up at the airport and we had a few laughs about eventful day I had at the airport. we arrived at his home put my bags up and still had enough time to get about 2 hours worth of work in. we also discussed goals and expectations.
From there on till the day that I left was balls to walls nonstop work. I must say that Johnny was a better teacher than I had expected. He quickly recognized my strengths and weaknesses and tailored a training regime to help me overcome my weaknesses and reinforce my strengths. Most of all Johnny was very methodical and patient in understanding when I had to take a break from the burn out factor.
And also knew how to slowly build you up to difficult exercises I couldn’t perform prior to the camp.
We worked hard and diligently. But, above all it never felt like a drag and we had a lot of fun working together. Of course after the day was over the studio was available to do your homework and work on implementing some of the stuff I learned up to that point to my style of playing.
Johnny also took me out to some of the local clubs where friends of Johnny where playing and introduced me to them. Of course Johnny was asked to sit in as guest and even gave his friend the endorsement for me to sit in on a song. Johnny just told me one thing as I was getting ready to play the song "PLAY TIME" nothing else. LOL
In conclusion, I learned years worth solid playing that I wouldn’t have learned on my own or with videos. Johnny taught me how to practice the right way to maximize your time. Even though by the last day I was pretty burned out and in Johnny’s words "man, your left hand is shot" I was challenged at pace that I could handle. But what do you expect it’s called "intensive conga camp" and it was nothing short of that.
two weeks after arriving back in Corpus Christi I played a gig and I had purposely not told the band members that I had attended a camp just to see what their reaction would be. And as I had expected they were dumbfounded at how strong, timed and clear my sound was. One of my friends later told me that while we where playing he was saying to himself “this mf has been practicing" LOL he also mentioned that it’s as if I had turned to playing professional overnight. It was at that time that I told them that I had attended the Johnny’s camp and they all complemented the work he did with me. I also had many complements from other seasoned players that heard me play that night.
Overall I’m very pleased with the time spent with Johnny and plan on attending another one of Johnny’s camp in the future.
If you are serious about your playing and are willing to put in the work, then this camp is for you. I highly recommend it, not just beginners but for all levels. Johnny’s knowledge is so vast that he can Taylor training regime for anyone.
And last I must say that I met someone who I can honestly say is a friend. I have e-mailed Johnny several times to ask more questions and he has responded promptly. Completing the last phase of training with "follow through"
Well that’s all can say. If you wish it know more you’ll just have to attend camp.
Much thanks to Johnny and good luck to the rest you.
Sincerely
Ozzie
Follow the link below to check out some pics.
http://launch.ph.groups.yahoo.com/group ... rowse/5f54
Pa-tra ni-pa cojer impulso.