Gringo giving youtube lessons should study this...

[claveson]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gy6Fc9gfEP4&NR=1

[vinnieL]

That is simply beautiful

[BMac]

Now that is more like it ... of course that is playing without attempting to provide a lesson.

I don't know what to think of that Expert Village stuff. I read somewhere that they've created 150,000 videos. There is advertising involved so there may be a revenue source. There doesn't seem to be any content quality control though, beyond lighting and decent video production. I don't get it. Can you make enough money on hit-count based revenue for advertising content on YouTube to pay for thousands of videos? It's hard to believe they pay their "experts" ... I'm assuming they work for free and are worth what they are paid, but I may be wrong. Has anyone seen a story of Expert Village's business model?

Well now to change the subject to good videos, what do y'all think of these next two?

Slow, basic, one drum, broken down into parts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-J3UArM ... re=related

Comfortable speed, musical playing demonstration, variations, two to three drums:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CYYo5Dq ... re=related

I set out to find instructions for Brazilian Samba rhythms on congas and have started with these two. Other than fishing around for more videos, I don't know how to check authenticity. But other videos do support these insofar as the same or very similar rhythms are played by other people in other videos for "Brazilian Samba" rhythms. In any event, I like the rhythms in these two videos and they're well taught with good video showing the players' hands.

Yes, I've thread jacked this to a conga subject ... forgive me ... but I found the strange bongo lesson videos while looking for conga content.

Cheers,
BMac

[Jibaro]

I don't know what to think of that Expert Village stuff.
It's hard to believe they pay their "experts" ... I'm assuming they work for free and are worth what they are paid, but I may be wrong.

Expert Village on YouTube - and now eHow.com do have some folks on there in certain disciplines that are experts and decent teachers...
Johnny Conga has a few; but they appear to be the same YouTube videos that are NOT ExpertVillage branded. I think what they do is somehow advertise that they're looking for instructional videos on certain topics and then assign them to whoever gets a video in first. Obviously they're not very selective, but every once in a while a good one gets in. I found this blurb:


Expert Village editExpert Village is a user-generated instructional video site. Owned by parent company Demand Media, Expert Village has recently surpassed 50,000 how-to videos through its platform that connects freelance filmmakers and videographers with specific production assignments.

In essence, Expert Village operates by presenting “assignments” for experts; these are based on topics that are the most searched for on the web. After the experts create a how-to video, Expert Village purchases the rights from the video’s creators. The diversity of instructional videos is quite evident as soon as you enter the site. How-to videos range from eyebrow-waxing, checking automobile batteries for corrosion, to baking traditional Challah bread for example.

[ABAKUA]

Well now to change the subject to good videos, what do y'all think of these next two?

Slow, basic, one drum, broken down into parts:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-J3UArM ... re=related

Shocking technique, terrible tuning. Should not be teaching.
Break down concept of parts/lesson etc good, however for the begginers who dont know better, he should be atleast counting it off to start.

Comfortable speed, musical playing demonstration, variations, two to three drums:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CYYo5Dq ... re=related

Intermediate level player, tones just moved around on the drums, nothing really flash there.
Good concept, good tones etc. Not really teaching per se, but something an intermediate player should be able to follow/mimic etc .

Simply my honest opinion.

[BMac]

Abakua,

Your honest opinion is appreciated. I agree on all points in fact. The guy with the one drum ... what's with no tuning? The guy with the two drums ... yep, easy "variations" come from just hitting another tone. That trick works every time with audiences and non-drumming musicians though. Bring several congas and switch up the tones ... they'll think your playing a thousand different rhythms. Shhh! ... it's our little secret!

Finding good video instruction is tough. I have seen some video lessons from some professional players respected as the best at what they do (Hidalgo comes to mind for example). Sometimes I can learn nothing from them other than to appreciate that they do their thing well. But doing a thing and teaching a thing are two different things. A good conga/bongo instructional video needs some overhead camera work, looking down onto the drums, and things need to be presented in a slow fashion if I am to understand what they are doing so I can mimic their playing. The hottest players often just don't slow down enough to demonstrate movements.

Here is another dirty little secret about the hottest players when they teach. They often say one thing and do another. For example, in teaching a lesson slowly, their heel-toe placement is up on the drum, but then as soon as they say "okay let's play at music speed" their technique shifts to another faster style of movement in which their palm leaves the drum head and hangs off the rim, so that only slaps and tones are placed and executed.

So sometimes it's the players that are just a bit ahead of me, overall or just in one small way, that provide me the most useful lessons. I am reminded of a breakthrough moment when I was a kid taking swimming lessons. One kid told me to forget for now trying to take a breath with every stroke. He told me instead to swim a few strokes to get coordinated movement going and then take a big breath and go a few more strokes ... quite contrary to what I was told by every adult swimmer. But suddenly, boom, I was almost swimming and soon switched to breathing with every stroke. It took another beginner to teach me how to take that first step.

I was up until 2am copying those two guys in the videos. I looped their rhythms to play seamlessly separate from the videos, even transcribing their playing to paper, and listened and played until the rhythms were scribed into the bone of my skull. I think the lessons available to me from those two videos are complete.

Next.

Cheers,
BMac

P.S.: I almost forgot as I wrote the above dissertation. Setting aside issues like tuning and slap technique, are these rhythms "samba?" Are they Brazilian? Does the underlying content of the videos have any authenticity? ... or ... Are they just cool rhythms I've learned but are best left unassociated with Brazilian samba?

[Derbeno]

Bmac,

Do you have Micheal Spiro's Conga Drummer guide book?

There is a short section on Samba de Roda and the importance of 'touches' in between the slaps and open tones in order to make the Rhythm complete and give it the true Brazilian swing.

Neither of the examples above do this which gives it an empty feel. When you hear or play it with touches you will instantly see the light.

Initially it is not easy to mix soft touches with stronger notes but like everything practice makes perfect.

Drop me a PM with your email if you need the track or transcript.

[bengon]

The first video is a legit rhythm for samba de roda. When I'm playing this rhythm, I usually play it as is on one drum, or add a low drum open tone on the two and four, mimicking the surdo. There's a number of variations to do as well.

As far as the technique, while this particular player doesn't have very good technique, one thing to remember is that the Brazilian slap on an atabaque is different from how it's played on a conga drum. They play it far into the center.

The second video isn't any actual samba patterns that I know. However, outside of samba de roda, the congas/atabaques aren't normally played in samba. These are samba inspired patterns in a band setting and while they aren't traditional, I think in a non-traditional setting they work very well.