playing alone

[jorge]

One of the problems with practicing with CDs is that if your timing goes slightly off, the conga player has you covered and you don't hear it. Playing live with a band, you definitely do hear it, and the audience hears it even more. That is why "music minus one" recordings are good for practicing, they have all the parts except the one you are practicing, so you can hear better when you sound off time (or when you are slammin!).

Listening to the demo Tonio posted, that Muy Caliente CD by Rebeca Mauleon, Orestes Vilato and others could be made into a mono recording without the congas. The stereo recording has the bass panned hard left, the piano hard right, one bell halfway right, and another bell slightly left of center. The congas are panned center. The old karaoke trick to mix the right channel with the reversed polarity left channel takes out everything panned center and leaves everything panned to one side or the other. This would take out the congas and most of one of the bells, and leave the piano, the bass (out of phase but it doesn't matter in mono) and one of the bells. That would be a "music minus one" type of recording, in mono, leaving a space to play along on congas without playing on top of another conga player. I think I will try it. Thanks JC for letting us know about that recording.

[Mike]

Rebeca Mauleons Play along-"Caliente" Cd plus Charts is the best thing going to practice along with the rhythm section...and the challenging part is to follow the charts and "cop" what Orestes Vilato is doing on conga/bongos/or timbales...It's over an hour long with 23 tunes with charts to follow ..a GREAT! learning tool..."JC" Johnny Conga..

I´ve just ordered this book/CD-set and I´m really looking forward to it, JC, because it sounds like a great tool for practicing indeed!
Let´s see which channel to emphasize on the stereo...



Edited By Mike on 1188375077

[congamyk]

I use a program called "Fruity Loops"

You can build your own tracks.

[JohnnyConga]

Here is how i deal with "playing along" which i have been doing since I was 14.....and that is to "cop" whatever the conga player is playing, period..... my first teacher said to me "if you can play what he can play how good are you?".... and that has stayed with me my whole career....like learning the Conga solo by Mongo called "My sound" lick for lick....challange yourself to learn it, lick for lick ...now if u can cop that solo what does it say about you and your learning and playing capabilities?....It was the very first conga solo i copped...plus my teacher also said " if your gonna "steal" steal from the Best!"....conga players should try and learn other players solos, just as sax, guitar and piano players learn solos from other Great players...so when u play along with Rebeca's Cd try and cop lick for lick what Orestes is doing on congas, and make that the challenge...i have now put to memory all of the 23 cuts on that cd and can sit and play thru it all without stopping,while following the charts and making the breaks, ponches and everything else in the music, its over an hour long....Johnny Conga...

[Congadelica]

I use a program called "Fruity Loops"

You can build your own tracks.

I downloaded the demo version of this program , I must say its pretty neat I may buy it .
Thanks for the head on this one mike