Stuck in my learning process

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Stuck in my learning process

Postby tigerjack89 » Tue Dec 01, 2015 11:43 am

Hi guys. I'm here to asking you advice.
I've been playing bongo for a little while now (3 months or so) and after I've learned different rhythms, techniques and patterns I'm really stuck because I don't really know how to continue in my learning process. I mean, with a guitar, for example, is a lot more simple: at this point you can download the charts of some songs and you try to play it. But with the bongo (and maybe percussion instruments in general) it's more difficult.
What do you suggest to do? Listening to some random genre of music and trying to add my percussion? Trying to emulate the bongo sound from some songs? Any other advice?
tigerjack89
 
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Re: Stuck in my learning process

Postby jorge » Wed Dec 02, 2015 2:22 am

Listen to the masters. Most can be found on YouTube, you can get to others from these.
The best site for selected bongo styles and solos was Fidelseyeglasses but sadly, the hosting company went out of business and most of the music files Mark posted no longer play. He put his heart into choosing, digitizing, cleaning and posting a huge number of outstanding songs by the greatest Cuban percussionists. This is a major loss to our world of students of Afrocuban percussion, I hope he still has everything on his hard drive. Even if the songs no longer play on his website, you can still cut an paste the titles and bongo players names into YouTube and get a lot of them. Highly recommended.

Yeyito Iglesias with Cheo Marquetti Aprietala en el Rincon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1cxKkC_H9o

Yeyito with Cachao A Buscar Camarones
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuquJCKWteA

Papa Kila with Arsenio Kila, Quique y Chocolate
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jbgLyGNe_c

A few others:

Papa Kila with Chappottin and Miguelito Cuni Alto Songo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3MBEYbYsKg

Mongo Santamaria Monte Adentro nice typical bongo style, sabroso
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rydD9o5RFCM

Mongo classic Mazacote, he plays bongo as well as congas on this song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v1rOylcbPw

Tino Alonso "Papa Gofio" with Rumbavana showing you a new playing style you never saw before!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sea3gr1anvk

Johnny "Dandy" Rodriguez La Mulata Rumbera on Congahead.com Sabroso, tremendous sound he gets from the bongos
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1s-W6hP4l8

Johnny Rodriguez bongo lesson basic martillo and riffs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8r0A3mllzUc

And my personal favorite bongo solo of all time, Septeto Nacional La Batidora straight martillo and tumba then a killer bongo solo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrklhbcCEgs

Si tu no bailas con eso no bailas con na'
Likewise, if those cuts and others you find with those guys on bongos don't inspire you to learn new stuff on bongos, may I suggest you get yourself a copy of Logic Pro or Cubase and start sequencing some EDM.
jorge
 
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Re: Stuck in my learning process

Postby tigerjack89 » Wed Dec 02, 2015 10:10 am

Thanks for your time @jorge.
jorge wrote:Listen to the masters.

Well, indeed this is what I'm trying to do right now, but I'm not too sure if it could be good for my learning process. I mean, it obviously helps a lot, but still I don't know if it could be useful now that I'm at a low-intermediate level. It seems like listening Jimi Hendrix' solos after some months of guitar. It certainly is a "Wow" moment, but don't know if it could help in my actual technique. What do you think about it?
Btw, I've downloaded all the videos you mentioned; thanks for this great list, I've only listened to some of them and it seems wonderful. I also have other video (such as the Bongo Players Video Series) and audio files (such as the album Candido Camero de Guerra - Brujeias de Candido) that I'm listening to in this period. I hope that it can be useful.

Likewise, if those cuts and others you find with those guys on bongos don't inspire you to learn new stuff on bongos, may I suggest you get yourself a copy of Logic Pro or Cubase and start sequencing some EDM.

What do you mean by this? I really am a newbie and don't know what you are referring to.


I've also looked at some books from Trevor K. Sallum suggested online: "Bongo Drumming: Beyond the Basics" and "Mel Bay Presents the Bongo Book". What do you think of them?
tigerjack89
 
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Re: Stuck in my learning process

Postby jorge » Sat Dec 05, 2015 3:15 pm

I am saying if you want to learn to play bongo you need to love the music, listen to different players who are masters, decide what you want to learn and focus on learning what you decided to learn. Don't try to learn what they are playing in the beginning, just learn to love the sound. Once you love the sound, it is much easier to learn the basics from a good teacher, videos, records, other drummers, a variety of sources. My sense is you are not there yet, hence my choice of classic bongo playing and solos I posted for you. Dancing helps a lot too, some would say you can't learn to play right if you don't know how to dance, because this type of music is all about dance. If you don't love it, give it up and learn some other style of music or become a dj or a music appreciator, all excellent choices as well for busy people not ready to dedicate a whole lot of time to the bongo. I haven't seen the books you mention and can't comment on them, but in general I think books will be just a tiny part of learning bongos from a variety of sources.
jorge
 
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Re: Stuck in my learning process

Postby CDEM » Sat Feb 27, 2016 9:00 pm

If you can read music, this video could help you

CDEM
 
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