A newbie saying hi to all you conga heads ...

[alabubba]

As a fellow newbie, I want to encourage you to find a knowledgeable teacher and have a series of personal lessons, especially during the period where you are learning to make the tones. I have had four lessons with my teacher so far, and it has absolutely been the best investment of time and well worth the treasure. Even though you can learn much from videos, they can't replace the value of the coaching you can receive one on one from a teacher.

I think it is fair to compare the physical conga skills you are developing to those of a baseball pitcher - very fine motor skills that must work in coordination with one another throughout many joints to be muscularly efficient and functional at the same time. Nobody that I'm aware of has ever become a big-league pitcher without having a coach.

Also, I'm finding that my teacher, via the exercises that he assigns for me to do, is "cutting through the fluff," and in a very tangible sense, helping to set the table and optimize the time that I spend with my drums so that I will become more musical with them more quickly than if I went from video to video and book to book on my own. As an old fart of 56, I like that very much, because my purpose, stated simply, is to make as many good musical memories (and friends!) as I can in this life, for as long as I can.

Thats my $.02 worth, I hope you find some value in it!

[Boston]

Yeah I'd really like to grab some lessons at this early stage, save picking up bad habits. Going to buy a drumming magazine etc and look in the classifieds this weekend.

Have also bought the Stick Control for Snare Drummers thats mentioned so often, oh and have raised the baskets an inch which has helped no end with the positioning of my wrists, my arm is now 90* to the drum head, it was a little low before causing problems for the thumb strike.

Slowly but surely .........

[Congadelica]

Welcome Boston .
Your in good company here bro . so much knowledge and expierience . If your serious about wanting to learn properly as not to get bad habits .
This is a good place to start .
http://www.ovm.co.uk/

I have worked with Raz the director Tutor of this group and cant speak highly enough of his methods of tuition .
I hope you enjoy your new found passion as much as I did . i remember bursting onto this forum in a similar way to you . I have learned so much from here , I could have wasted heaps of ime trawling the web , but this place is awesome .

marco

[Boston]

Welcome Boston .
Your in good company here bro . so much knowledge and expierience . If your serious about wanting to learn properly as not to get bad habits .
This is a good place to start .
http://www.ovm.co.uk/

I have worked with Raz the director Tutor of this group and cant speak highly enough of his methods of tuition .
I hope you enjoy your new found passion as much as I did . i remember bursting onto this forum in a similar way to you . I have learned so much from here , I could have wasted heaps of ime trawling the web , but this place is awesome .

marco

Cd, thanks for that link, EXACTLY what i'm looking for. I come from a DJing history basically, progressed onto sample based dance track production. I'm 40, parents never got me to take music, cant read music or play an instrument properly, biggest regret of my adult life ..... drumming, like staring into a fire, seems so natural, and I seem fairly comfortable with it.

I'm currently jamming with my bongos/congas to dance music, i've got that inbuilt, head nodding, toe tapping rhythm going on from the last 20 years of my musical career and i'm getting it to work well with the bongos, lol, although i'm sure you'd all frown and say its got no form or something, but having trouble implementing the congas into the general 'sound'.

But this is where the problem lies .... I'm having trouble trying to keep to a predetermined pattern, i.e, the youtube lessons, stick control pages, Martillo even, none of it seems to fit with my internal vibe. I can happilly tap away with a fairly quick 'on the fly' pattern to a dance track at 130bpm, but I'm embarrassed to say I can't maintain the Martillo at even a slow pace, 50-70 bpm

So, I think I need a tutor for at least a short while. Over the last year i've bought various instruments to dabble at learning, although only to a level that allows me to sample 4-8bar sequences for looping in arrangements, but with the bongos and congas I feel some sort of 'at ease' kinda state of mind. Like when I'm having a little hour jam on my bass guitar .... its just ... well, boring ! lol, I start jamming with my bongos and congas (even with my beginner skills) and suddenly 2 to 4 hours have dissappeared (hence sore hands yesterday).

I think i'm kinda drawn to bongos and congas as I have a leaning towards latin influenced dance music, I'm always adding some sorta spanish guitar lick or some dope bongo riff, I especially love sax ........

I feel the key to this whole bongo/conga thing is learning the lating rhthms and patterns ..... properly, and I think thats where a good tutor would come in handy.

[Congadelica]

I can completly conect with you bro , I was like you im 44 now but 2 years ago I had a kinda calling to all things percussion.
I quickly learned that there is no easy way to master these fine intstruments practice practice , slow and precise controled and equal sounding strokes is were its at .
I think if you find a local teacher (there a a few good ones in the smokes)thats London guys he he
Snowboy or Robin jones may be worth looking out for . Im sure if you google you`ll find.
I saw somplace maybe snowboys myspace he was advertising as a tutor on latin percs.

enjoy the 4 hour monkey banging sessions . i say that toungue in cheek you will need to get it out of your system , as you settle down and start to learn clave patterns you will then be able to place tumbao and guaguanco in some electronic 4 / 4 bouncing dance track .

Another thing if its your thing , maybe lookout for a local afrobrazilian bateria , I joined the Samba about a year and a half ago , I have learned lots from samba , Im fortunate now that I get to play congas in some of the rythms we do . Having a brazilian teacher helps big time , Eraldo is the man , hes taught he lots . and its g roup situation , you wont feel like billy no mates banging you skins by yourself .

Enjoy the ride is my new Church , its were I heal my hurt .

Suave

marco

[Boston]

Found myself a fairly local drumming group that meets up on Monday nights, so going to go along Monday week, hehe, can't wait