congaplace.com

Well I didnt play bongos at all in this video just conga drums...no the Disco outfits I used to have were stolen out of my apartment in the Bronx by some junkies along with a set of congas and even my freakin underwear..and Yes I have a ton of road stories from the Disco days..I remember a lot of sex and disco...haahahaaha...

JC, maybe CongaRobics didn't go as you wanted to go, but with the book... You should start typin' man!
One Eager Reader here!

PimpS

I have actually started to tell my stories and put it on paper(Adobe)....CongaRobics hadnt been invented yet back in the Disco days..no need for it then!...hahahaha...

OK, I'm either I'm losing it, your losing it, or we're looking at different videos Johnny because you sure seem to pick up the bongos at around 3.19 when she says we're gonna do something a little different now !

Barrie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joBdU31KIus

I started a Latin Funk band with a friend back in 1980 called Azabache.

Mostly original music but we included some covers that we liked at the time and did a sweet version of Paul Ortiz's Tender Love.

I basically used traditional rhythms. What I found was that if I broke up the patterns or played just parts of them, placing emphasis on different beats within the pattern, I could use rumbas... guaguanco or iyesa and such to fall into the Funk grooves. I would also create hybrids of them - Guaguanco, Columbia, Yambu', with Iyesa, Bomba, Plena.

Take them and experiment. I'm sure you'll be able to find some sweet grooves to lay in there. The important thing is to look for the empty pockets in the grooves and put something in there. Lay back or lean forward. Be less busy but "Funk Hard".

For me it was easy to break up the patterns since I was playing all the percussion - Pailas, Pailitas, Tumbas and Bongo. So I would break up my groove playing part of a pattern for the conga in one measure, maybe wait a measure or half a measure and do a paila fill, back to conga and finish with a bongo fill... never etched in stone.

When I found a groove that worked with the song, I would lock it in. Doing it this way was actually less work for you and really lots of fun.

Hope this helps...

Anibal

YOUR RIGHT!....I forgot that I did go to bongos..I had to watch it again...hahahaha..so ur ok!....JC

Phew !

This has been a great thread to keep up with. Saw one of my favorite bands on Monday - Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings. They had a conga player and trap drummer who grooved together perfectly, IMO. I am studying Spiro's book (The Conga Drummer's Guidebook) and eating up all he has to offer in the text. He talks briefly about hand-hand playing and that is what I saw the conga player on Monday night doing, almost exclusively. So - my main question about funk/soul/r&b playing is when do you know whether or not to heel-toe versus hand to hand? I'm know their aren't any hard and fast rules, but does anyone have advice on becoming a better hand to hand type of player when most of what I've studied had been based on heel-toe an traditional techniques?
Thanks,
studio7conga

Well the thing about "non traditional" playing is just that...so you will play with more of what I call "open hand" style versus your T position(hand position) for tumbao utilizing your left hand 'marcha'...in funk styles it's about groove and beats/patterns that 'fit' the style of the music..you can see my Disco videos with Gloria Gaynor and see and hear the patterns I apply and my hand to hand 'open hand' style...this playing came about by not knowing in the beginning, and 'making it up as we went along...I learned early in my playing to 'play along' with the drummers patterns...between the snare and the base drum..for instance if the drummer goes on the base drum boom boom(1+) Bap/snare(2) boom boom boom boom Bap on congas its the same thing but on one drum tone tone slap tone tone tone tone slap
1 + 2 + a 3 + 4
R L R R L R L R IN 4/4 TIME this is on one drum. Soooooooooo when your playing with a drummer listen to his patterns and try to assimilate some of what he is playing to the conga drums...IMHO....

Just check this one out and you´ll see that JC is right: The conguero fills the "holes" or rather gaps in the groove of the
drumset: http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=US&hl=iw&v=lt6XLo6Y1kU
i dig that band very much, nice & funky stuff - BTW the piece is by noone less than Manu Dibango.
Compare his original: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0JD73ceSjc

Just my dos centavos

Great feedback from JC and Mike. Love the vids. Feel like I gotta work on that hand to hand (open hand) speed.
Best,
studio7conga

Nice Mike, I actually prefer the Mano original, the congas sound just a little more looser and funkier, both great cuts tho.

Barrie

If you'r trying to learn what to play on congas for funk,it's absolutely crucial to understand the parts being played by Bass and Drums,and to converse with those parts. Check out Pancho Morales with King Curtis on Aretha Live at the Fillmore w; Bernard Purdie on Drums Jerry Jemmot on Bass,Billy Preston on Organ. Eddie Bongo Brown played congas in the Funk Bros. on many many Motown tracks,classic line up with Been y Benjamin ( or Pistol Allen,or Uriel Jones) on drums ,James Jamerson on Bass. Cyril Neville played Congas/percussion in The Meters ( Zigaboo Modeliste on drums George Porter Bass) and still does in the Neville Bros.Willie Green Drums,Porter on bass again. There are some James Brown cuts w/Johnny Griggs on Congas,with Jabo Starks and CLyde Stubblefield on drums,Fred Thomas on Bass.