What happened?

[Babaloo]

As a fledgling conga player of only a few weeks, I check in here regularly to see if I can pick up some little tidbit that will improve my playing or expand my knowledge. I feel very fortunate to have access to the wisdom and experience of Johnny Conga and the several other prominent musicians here. (Forgive me for leaving out other names, but I'm still sorting out who's who on here.) I'm grateful to all of you for using your valuable time to help others.

I don't post much for a couple of reasons. One, I'm not far enough along to be able to add anything to what discussions there are. Two, I don't want to ask questions that I can easily find answers to in the archives. I'd be very disappointed if this forum shut down. Ultimately, I hope to become a contributing member of the community. In the meantime, I'll keep practicing and honing my skills.

[jorge]

Announcing rumbas and other events in which we are playing is one of the most important functions of this forum, something to keep doing, not something to apologize about. Even if not too many people respond and actually come to the events we announce, it is a great use of the forum for people to be able to find out what is happening in a city like LA or NYC if they are traveling, or if they live nearby.
KC and others, keep on doing what you are doing!

[11am]

Well my 2 cents is this: It's a comfortable place to check in and browse. What's wrong with that? Facebook is Facebook, and i'm on that a lot, but, it doesn't have anything to do with this forum. The congas are a different kind of instrument and discipline. For the longest time, it was fairly secretive in it's essence, and you had to seek it out. it's cultist in a lot or respects, and that's not necessarily a bad thing, in and of itself, it's just prohibitive in nature sometimes. This is an instrument you learn to play from watching and listening, closely. There's a lot of video out there that never existed in the 60's and 70's, and there is not much to say in the way of words to describe hand positions and attacks? There is an abundance of threads from very knowledgeable people that made it their business to archive the history of the masters and seminal players thruout the music's history. The information is here, it does not change. Most of the masters of my generation are dead. ( I'm 60) That's reported here as well. Professional Music in general is a small field, and Congas are not used in 3/4 of it. And there are a handful of younger, great, improvisational players and a ton of traditionalists that are always at odds about how , what ,and who should be playing the instrument. That's unique to congas, that argument. So, it kinda goes with the territory. Years ago, I used to subscribe to The Modern Drummer magazine. It gets old fast. Congas are wooden barrels with skins stretched over the tops. It doesn't get much more technical than that. I just like knowing that there are a small group of people here that have been captivated by the instrument, and still carry on the tradition. I'm good with this forum as is. Our instrument is folkloric in nature, and traditional in application. It's an old school instrument, not a new one. The forum isn't to blame. The limitations of our instrument might be closer to the truth. You don't talk congas, you play congas.

[Mike]

Well said, and wise words.

[440ranch]

Hmmm, I think you do talk Congas, no disrespect intended... You play them of course, but you do talk Congas, as much as you talk vintage guitars, or high end violins.

History, culture, construction, materials, players, style, heads, rhythms. In fact, you talk Conga so much, that you split the hair. One skin vs another, steer vs cow vs mule vs synthetic vs thickness vs bleached vs unbleached. Number of lugs, thickness of lugs. Quarter sawn vs not, steam bent vs sawn, caribe mahogany vs Asian... And on and on.

That's one of the cool things about it

That's the thing with passions, you can ALWAYS talk about it, it's a big part of it. All passions are that way... Cars, golf, football.... stamps.

Everything runs in cycles. Up and down, nothing stays the same, people come and go, and every so often it's like magic strikes, and the right people at the right time come together for the right reason and Blam... Special.

Have you ever worked in a place where all the right people where there at the same time? Then, after time, people split and go another way, and it's never the same again, and mostly, never repeated again.

It's just a dynamic of life, the natural order of things... Has to be that way.

Enjoy it while you can.

[Mike]

Everything runs in cycles. Up and down, nothing stays the same, people come and go, and every so often it's like magic strikes, and the right people at the right time come together for the right reason and Blam... Special.

Have you ever worked in a place where all the right people where there at the same time? Then, after time, people split and go another way, and it's never the same again, and mostly, never repeated again.

It's just a dynamic of life, the natural order of things... Has to be that way.

Enjoy it while you can.

OK, even if the last part of your post sounded a bit new-agey, if not fatalistic to me, I do see your point.
I do not really know if you were addressing me personally though.
At least there is no hair-splitting from my side, but yes, a passion for discussion, also about material and sound.
Heck, yes, and I have found joy in chatting with other congueros around the globe on this forum.
Just my point of view.

[440ranch]

OK, even if the last part of your post sounded a bit new-agey, if not fatalistic to me, I do see your point.
I do not really know if you were addressing me personally though.
At least there is no hair-splitting from my side, but yes, a passion for discussion, also about material and sound.
Heck, yes, and I have found joy in chatting with other congueros around the globe on this forum.
Just my point of view.

No brother, I was referring to 11 am's comment that " you don't talk Congas, you play them"

And when I said split hairs, I don't mean that as a negative, I mean that when you get passionate about a thing, you want to dissect it, take it apart, investigate all the little things about it...

That a good thing.

[Mike]

I see. Thanks for claryfing this.

[JohnnyConga]

11am I dont know if you know but that age old drum called a Conga/Tumbadora has over 50 U.S. patents on it now...so it has come a long way from them tack head 'heat em up!" drums of yesteryear..and some things you say I concur with . BUT the drum HAS advanced beyond anyone's expectations(including mine) Im 65, playing for 50 years and seen it all and how it has grown..even when I was totally against the 'rudimentary' way of playing , which challenged my 'traditional ways'..well I jumped on the NEW band wagon and learned New School rudimentary drumming....of course it's NOT all there is to playing, but a NEW extension of hand skills and mindsets...and it's all good...the fact that my hands can do now what they couldn't do even 15 years ago, is really cool and exciting for me...the learning never ends....

[11am]

Johnny, I agree totally that the learning never ends. My point is that the talking sometimes does. There is a ton of threads here that are great reads. They already been talked. The thread asked " What happened?" I think nothing negative happened here at all. it just naturally gets quiet sometimes. Also, I would point out, that tons of people interested in congas,( maybe as much as 75%) read this forum's threads who never officially join the community, so it's hard to judge it's impact. I think it boils down to people soak up all this good knowledge here, and then get to jones'n for a new conga fix. That dope ain't always readily available. lol So, I appreciate the tribe as is. it's all good, even when it's quiet. The Archives can always be read again.

[davidpenalosa]

I still come by and read posts on a regular basis. I haven't seen anything that has enticed me to comment in quite some time.

I think what happened, was Facebook. The Yahoo Latinjazz forum, where I have previously spent a lot of time, is now even less active than Congaboard. It makes sense that the older niche-within-a-niche, specialized online forums, have given way to the network of more than a billion people Facebook provides.

I've been having a lot of fun with my Unlocking Clave Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Unlockin ... 731?v=wall

I enjoy interacting with Congaboard folks on FB, and I invite those of you who haven't yet, to join. I'll still be coming over here to Congaboard on a regular basis though.
Lurkingly yours,
David

[buckoh]

There's so much good dialogue here. I'd hate to see it go away. Things change but I check in as often as I can. There's been way more good info than bad it's always good to see beginners get involved. Keep on keepin' on!

[windhorse]

snippage -I agree totally that the learning never ends. My point is that the talking sometimes does.

I'll still come by occasionally. Probably last time was a month ago, maybe more. You know how the baby babbles once he learns the first steps of making speech. That's most of us - certainly the case for me. I used to be really vocal here. But, as we grow into "the instrument" and learn more, maybe progress in our techniques and become better players, we talk about it less. I think it's natural. Sort of sad and nostalgic maybe,, but you have to let go of old ways and habits to progress. I certainly have progressed! Many contributions right here helped! So many thanks to all of you!
David, I just used the 6/8 quinto lock inside of a long Columbia quinto solo a few nights ago! A huge breakthrough!

In the event of Congaplace's demise, I'd like to be remembered in this way

Windhorse's contribution - bringing the joy of learning to play Afro-Cuban drum and music into a forum where like-minded individuals can relate, and share the inspirational path of progress.

[davidpenalosa]

David, I just used the 6/8 quinto lock inside of a long Columbia quinto solo a few nights ago! A huge breakthrough!

Congratulations Dave! Here's a clip of the 4/4 quinto lock for those who are bummed about the current lack on content on this site:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7HX0gtXYes

[congavalde]

It is rather diappointing that there is little traffic here. In order for this site to survive, it needs to be a resource for learning, and a source of inspiration. I like this setup better than Facebook, even though I am tech savvy. To me, facebook is too public and there is more room for deeper discussion than FB. I will continue to peruse this site and participate as long as it is a viable resource.