Percussion Congas

Choosing your conga: Wood vs fiberglass

Posted on November 22, 2011 by Percussion Conga Staff

Inside a wooden conga

Time to buy a conga set? One of the bigger choice to make is about the shell material… traditional wood or modern fiberglass congas?

Choosing a new conga set is exciting, but also overwhelming with all the options available.

For people new to congas, I recommend to check out two articles from our PercussionConga archive:

The first one is introducing the Conga Anatomy, to be sure you have the right terminology and understanding of all the components of a conga drum
The second one is about how to buy an used conga drum, that is always a good option to take into consideration

Whatever you’ll chose to go for a new or a used set, one of the big decisions to take is about the conga shell material: wood or fiberglass?

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Best beginners conga free Youtube lessons

Posted on October 10, 2011 by Percussion Conga Staff

We always recommend beginners to start playing congas under the supervision of a teacher.
Only an interactive class can correct you and let you develop since the beginning the right percussion technique.
Keep in mind that if you start with a wrong technique, will be harder and harder to fix it later as you play!

Having say that, it really helps the wallet and the learning curve to check what free video lessons the mighty Youtube.com has is its disproportionate video archive.

Well, the good news is that there are plenty of free video lessons available.
The not-so-good news is that recording a nice video lesson is not enough to make someone a percussion teacher – and this is where Percussion Conga is stepping in today, selecting the best free conga Youtube video lessons for you!

Continue reading to see the 3 best video series, to follow in the suggested order!

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Conga practice with a metronome

Posted on September 2, 2011 by Daniel

The best way to increase speed, fluency and timing playing the congas is to practice using a metronome.

If you’re not familiar with the metronome, it’s an instrument that generates regular beats to a predefined speed.
Traditionally mechanic, like the one in the picture here on the right, nowadays they can be replaced with digital metronome available as PC programs or directly online, that allows to set a volume appropriate for practicing on congas.

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Technorati Tags: conga, exercise, metronome, percussion, practice

Posted in Beginners conga, Intermediate Conga, Percussion Conga | Tagged conga, exercise, metronome, percussion, practice | Leave a comment

Johnny Conga & PercussionConga.com – unique lesson opportunity!

Posted on April 1, 2011 by Percussion Conga Staff

Don’t you know Johnny Conga?? Shame on you!

The maestro is now collaborating with Percussionconga.com and in this video is showing off his incredible improvisation skills!!

Johnny offers an unique learning opportunity, a “full inclusive” experience to learn living with him for 1 full week.

Keep on reading, Johnny has a message to all the friends of Percussionconga.com.

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Technorati Tags: beginner, conga, how-to, intermediate, learn, lessons, percussion, school

Posted in Beginners conga, Intermediate Conga, Lessons, Percussion Conga | Tagged beginner, conga, how-to, intermediate, learn, lessons, percussion, school | 5 Comments

How to play congas? Conga drum lessons review

Posted on February 6, 2011 by Percussion Conga Staff

“how to play congas?”
We’d love to have a simple answer to this frequently asked question

Let’s see the possible approaches to learn playing congas.

The options are simply:

- classes with a teacher (either private or for a group)
- multimedia, like DVD, online videos, youtube etc.
- books about conga drums and percussions

Needless to say, private classes are a great option but expensive too.
Group classes are more fun but less effective as people have generally different background and different pace in learning rhythm and technique.
The multimedia options are vary and some are more valid then others, but in any case the lack of someone correcting you puts them in disadvantage compared with classes.
About books… we don’t encourage books for the beginner conguero… they are instead great resources for the advanced player that has already a well developed technique under the belt.

Considering that learning percussions is a never-ending process… for us the best way to properly learn balancing quality and price is a combination of the 3 methods.

Percussion Conga is happy to announce that starting with this article we’ll review for our readers the different products and options out there!

Keep on reading our first review…

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Technorati Tags: conga, dvd, how to play, lesson

Posted in Beginners conga, Lessons, Percussion Conga | Tagged conga, dvd, how to play, lesson | 10 Comments

How to buy a used percussion conga drum

Posted on November 9, 2010 by Percussion Conga Staff

Very used conga (but still sounds good!)

How to buy an used percussion conga drum?

How to choose an used percussion conga set?

Where to buy used tumbadoras?

Let’s face it: buying a new conga set is not an easy decision also because of the cost of our beloved percussion drum!

For both beginners and experienced conga players, the option to buy an used set should be at least taken into consideration.

For a beginner, a good used conga is generally better than a cheap new one. And why not save some money on the drum and use it for a DVD, a book or even better some percussion lessons?

For the advanced and experienced conguero, saving some money, have the possibility to change conga set more or even owning different sets for different occasions can be appealing.

In this article you’ll find some tips that hopefully can help you buying a good used conga, knowing where to look at to asses the condition of the drum and avoid bad surprises!

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Posted in Beginners conga, Intermediate Conga, Percussion Conga | Tagged buy, conga, drum, how-to, latin percussion, lp, mainl, pearl, percussion, used | 2 Comments

Soundproofing: how to play conga drums in your apartment

Posted on March 4, 2010 by Percussion Conga Staff

Your Neighbor

If you like me are leaving in an apartment you know what I’m talking about.
Start playing a nice tumbao and what is a fantastic sound for you will be a terrible noise for your neighbors.

In this article the Percussion Conga Staff will clarify some concepts about soundproofing and will give practical advises to let you keep on (or start!) playing… and your neighbor keep on greeting you on the stairs

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. Continue reading →

Technorati Tags: conga, drums, lp compact, percussion, practice, sound, soundproofing

Posted in Advanced conga, Beginners conga, Intermediate Conga, Percussion Conga | Tagged conga, drums, lp compact, percussion, practice, sound, soundproofing | 4 Comments

How to learn Conga Solo Improvisation – video lessons

Posted on January 25, 2010 by Percussion Conga Staff

Entering in the percussion conga World means learning a lot about techniques, timings, rhythms… but when this seems to be comfortable, the real challenge begins… soloing, or improvisation, the art of creativity that meets preparation.

I found these 5 (five!) video lessons by Heinrich Klingmann (http://heinrichklingmann.com/) very useful to start playing with combinations that allow to prepare a set of “bullets” ready to be shoot during your improvisations. It’s a whole 45 minutes video lesson, starting with simple “around the beat”repetition and growing up, everything clearly explained and shown in action! So, get focused and happy practicing!!

Continue reading to see Heinrich’s videos.

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Posted in Advanced conga, Intermediate Conga | Tagged advanced, conga, drum, intermediate, learn, lesson, percussion, solo, soloing, video | 3 Comments

Where to get conga lesson in Cuba?

Posted on January 22, 2010 by Percussion Conga Staff

Where to get conga lesson in Cuba?
Where to learn conga drum in Cuba?

One of our readers contacted the Percussion Conga Staff with a good question:

I’m looking for information regarding taking drumming lessons in Cuba.
Could you please recommend a facility or person in Cuba that would offer a week or two experience?

Here are our advices… just continue reading!

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Technorati Tags: advanced, beginner, conga, cuba, drum, intermediate, learn, lesson, percussion, tumbadora, workshop

Posted in Advanced conga, Beginners conga, Intermediate Conga, Percussion Conga | Tagged advanced, beginner, conga, cuba, drum, intermediate, learn, lesson, percussion, tumbadora, workshop | 2 Comments

LP Compact Conga Giovanni Hidalgo video review

Posted on January 12, 2010 by Percussion Conga Staff

This is a video introduction for the percussion conga LP Compact Conga “Giovanni Hidalgo”.

These congas are quite unique as they don’t have a shell, so they are easy to transport and… compact, as the name says! LP Compact Congas are available in 11” Quinto (LP825) and 11 3/4” Conga (LP826), with replaceable plastic skin fully tunable with 9 (quinto) or 12 (conga) bolts that hold the skin on a very solid, metal rim.

A nice stand for compact congas and bongos is available from LP, but I personally found more reasonable to save some money for conga lessons and get myself standard, 40 bucks snare stands like this very solid one: