Bobby Sanabria's "Getting Started on Congas 1 & 2" is one of the better conga instructional videos available. He uses a bilingual approach, but both English and Spanish speakers should find the instructions easy to follow. He translates from English to Spanish while demonstrating each lesson which can be a bit cumbersome but worth the effort.
This tape is the second in a series of three by Sanabria: "Conga Basics", "Getting Started...1 & 2", and "Getting Started...2 & 3". His method of teaching is patient enough for beginners and informative enough for the more serious player. Each video builds on the previous one so, for best results, the entire set is recommended. However, if you are at least acquainted with conga drums, this is a good place to start. The tapes take you through a history of conga drumming, body and hand positions for obtaining the basic tones, and some basic tumbaos and cierres (rhythms and breaks) as well as how to play with the clave, which is common to virtually all types of latin music. His style is relaxed and encouraging. The tapes end with Sanabria and his band playing a song. Then the song is repeated for "play-along" practice. All in All, one of the best teaching tapes for conga that I've seen. (Worth 4.5 stars) |
