My 'kung fu' slap and regular slap..

[JohnnyConga]

This is actually the very first way I learned to slap-straight into the slap, from my first teacher Hank Fields. It was his way of showing that you don't have to raise your hand very high to get one, but this is also an unconventional approach to the slap and nobody ever uses it or even maybe knows it can be done that way, near the end I show a couple of 'out to in' slaps to show the difference...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2fkrplDeB0

[Anonimo]

POST REMOVED BY THE AUTHOR

[goingquinto]

Well, I started late, and I ain't stopping. Deal with it.

EVEN IF YOU SAY STUFF IN ALL CAPS, IT STILL WONT STOP ME.

And I hope it doesn't stop anyone else either. I love these conga drums. While it's true that not everyone can be Anga or Gio, I think everyone who wants to can find joy in playing the congas. And that is what it's about to me, having fun.

[SpEd]

Some just can't get over the idea of a DESTINATION.... while others like us just enjoy the RIDE.
SORRY, TOO LATE AINT IN MY LANGUAGE!
I feel richer and blessed for the drums in my life..... broke? NOT

Anyway, thanx for sharing JC. Always amazed at how some can get sounds out of skin.
BTW, any trouble with palm injury when you were learning this as a first slap?

[Mike]

many of you were not men't to be conga ,bongo ,timbales players .You may play traps perfect and are good at that or may play another instrument to perfection very well. To start to learn to play conga at a late age or any other instrument it is just crazy .You will not learn the true aspects of the instruments ,it become very difficult for you to under stand and worst of all you spend money that really don't need to in book ,teachers and instruments that later on it's wasted money sold you instrument for fraction of what you paid and at the end you have learned nothing. I have seen students that study under the tutelage of great musician's and I have put them to play a simple tumbao or a marcha on a set of bongos and can't play for the life in them. With this said if you find your self having problems in learning , you read and do not understand , see a teacher for 3 month's and nothing gets through then playing a percussion instrument of this source is not for you .You will be giving some one money paying there bill and you will be broke in long run.

YOU WERE NOT BORN TO BE A CONGA ,BONGO OR TIMBALES PLAY TRY SOME THING ELSE IT MAY BE BATTER FOR YOU

That is a post that is really annoying to many people - why write it at all?
Its inherent, if not open arrogance made me fly in to a fury early in the morning.
So who is "meant" to play congas? Who decides? God?
So you would like nobody except for a handful of greats ever to play conga I guess?
In fact if one took your statement seriously, then nobody should play any kind of instrument, let alone compose music...

As a music teacher I do believe that you can initiate something with ALL kids - how they
evolve is another question of course, but what is important is also the joy of sharing and
playing music together in my opinion. As regarding conga playing, hey, consider the roots of rumba, it is for everybody!

Of course proper technique and feeling, sabor in playing is important, but what I just
do not need is this kind of I´ve-seen-it-all-nobody-can-play-properly-these-days-attitude.

Come on, Cuco let´s just not get so negative.

Live and let live.

Merry christmas.

[Derbeno]

New Plan's in the works Johnny Conga will know be known as the Karate kid of Conga drumming. . Many here will criticizes what I am about to say but it a true fact many of you were not men't to be conga ,bongo ,timbales players .You may play traps perfect and are good at that or may play another instrument to perfection very well. To start to learn to play conga at a late age or any other instrument it is just crazy .You will not learn the true aspects of the instruments ,it become very difficult for you to under stand and worst of all you spend money that really don't need to in book ,teachers and instruments that later on it's wasted money sold you instrument for fraction of what you paid and at the end you have learned nothing. I have seen students that study under the tutelage of great musician's and I have put them to play a simple tumbao or a marcha on a set of bongos and can't play for the life in them. With this said if you find your self having problems in learning , you read and do not understand , see a teacher for 3 month's and nothing gets through then playing a percussion instrument of this source is not for you .You will be giving some one money paying there bill and you will be broke in long run.

YOU WERE NOT BORN TO BE A CONGA ,BONGO OR TIMBALES PLAY TRY SOME THING ELSE IT MAY BE BATTER FOR YOU.

Here a quick story I studied radiology in collage spent 4 years of my life in school to be come a drummer for numerous Latin bands during 60-80's made more money in music than radiology and today I am retired and still do odd music job . Today it just for fun there is no money in Latin music.

If someone in late life picks up any instrument, takes a few lesson so they can play along to records or play for themselves at home to relieve some stress after a hard days work......what on earth is wrong with that????? Dear oh Dear!!!!!!

[Mike]

[quote="DerbenoIf someone in late life picks up any instrument, takes a few lesson so they can play along to records or play for themselves at home to relieve some stress after a hard days work......what on earth is wrong with that????? Dear oh Dear!!!!!![/quote]
Yep, indeed.
And "late life" is a relative term!
If someone wants to know, I picked up congas with 21 after having played the trombone for 10 years, and it has been my greatest passion ever since, i.e. for the last 22 years. And yes, improvement is still possible.

When I was a teenager, I was discouraged by a "professional" trombonist ever to continue playing during a workshop,
I did not heed, listened to my music teacher and carried on, studied the trombone at university college.
Sometimes you just want to play, so you do it.

[Anonimo]

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[jorge]

To start to learn to play conga at a late age or any other instrument it is just crazy .You will not learn the true aspects of the instruments...
YOU WERE NOT BORN TO BE A CONGA ,BONGO OR TIMBALES PLAY TRY SOME THING ELSE IT MAY BE BATTER FOR YOU.

Since this thread has already been hijacked I will respond to the current discussion and also start a new thread called "Who can learn to play congas?". Maybe then JC can get back to his original topic.

Leedy, as usual there is some grain of truth in what you say. But this is the second post in this thread, who are you talking to? JC? I don't think that makes any sense. What do you mean by late age anyway? Why are you saying this in this thread? Making negative comments like that in someone else's thread without any obvious focus or saying who you are talking to without evidence is not helpful to anyone. It is a stereotype that is not always true. That is as bad as the Cubans saying Puerto Ricans and Dominicans can't play rumba because they weren't born into it. Or saying you can't learn radiology because you didn't take calculus and physics when you were in high school. There is some truth to those statements, but saying them that way is arrogant nonsense that can have a negative effect on some of the exceptional people who break the stereotype. Some of the best rumberos I know in NYC are Puerto Rican and Dominican, and play better than some of the Cubans. Mongo started out playing violin, conga was not his first instrument. Live and let live.

You should come to our rumba Sunday Dec 26 in NYC at the Brecht Forum, everyone is welcome, and if you can play you can play. Although it is mostly Cubans, there are Dominican, Puerto Rican, other Latino, White, African American and mixed ancestry rumberos who play great rumba. You might quibble with someone's style, but others will amaze you and everyone who lasts more than half a minute on a drum can play. Some started "late in life", there is even a singer from Venezuela who can sing guaguanco and columbia. There is a Japanese guy who started late in life and wound up playing bata with Puntilla's group who comes to the rumba in the summer. Last week there was a Cuban woman who sang a great columbia. Estamos rompiendo la rutina. People talk about Andrea Baro but very few women can actually sing columbia, and those that do are important and should be encouraged not told repeatedly they can't do it. Same with the late starters.

You need to question your stereotypes and change the ones that don't coincide with reality. Come to the rumba and you will meet people you never would have expected to be great rumberos based on your theories. I will post the time, place and directions to get to the rumba later this week. Get in your car, spend a few bucks on gas and tolls and come join us. I think you will have fun, and you just might have to revise your theory to accomodate the evidence.

[goingquinto]

Leedy2 Quote: I bet that you may play a better trombone than conga drum,and that you may have errors in playing congas that no one ever corrected you on.

As opposed to you, you don't make any mistakes. Your technique is perfect. You know ALL the facts. Everyone else knows less than you. And I've still never seen you play. Are there videos? Audio recordings? You know this post started as a post about alternate kinds of slaps from Johnny conga. What does you rant have to do with that? Maybe you could start your own thread, You could call it: everyone sucks but me.

[goingquinto]

Leedy2, Do you inspire this kind of negativity everywhere you go?

[Anonimo]

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[Mike]

Mike
I bet that you may play a better trombone than conga drum,and that you may have errors in playing congas that no one ever corrected you on.

So what ? I am really self-conscious to realize that the tumbadora is "just" my dearest percussion instrument. You learn all your life,
and that is simply what I like to do, especially when it comes down to conga playing. Technical deficiencies are there to be tackled, possibly overcome. Progress is a reward, and that is all I am satisfied with. Of course I am not young anymore, but attention is there.
Cuco, I can live very well with the knowledge that out there there are thousands of congueros who are better than I am, no problem,
but that is not the point. The problem is really that your negativity and bitterness surely have hurt many here at congaplace.

Now back to topic...

[roberthelpus]

Meanwhile: Looking at the vid and reading I think I get what you are talking about. I can slap with a flatter hand than that and is also how I learned them in the first place. When I teach slaps, I teach them using a flat hand on the drum because I got so tired of watching people banging their cupped hands on the drum and getting nowhere. Then I have to tell them to not watch me as I only use the flat hand now as a variation.

In no way take this as putting myself in the same league as Mr. Conga.

[jorge]

JC, how many different kinds of slaps do you think we can identify? Different slaps sound different on the same drum, and different slaps may be appropriate for different drums, different tunings, different skins on the same drum, different rhythms. You can play most of them one handed or muffled with the other hand on the skin. A good quinto or guiro (conga with chequeres) player may do 5 or more different types of slaps to make different sounds. Hard to describe them in writing, but maybe someone could do a video of the many different slap sounds you can get from a conga.