A newbie with a couple of questions

[Tristian]

Thank you. I learned my soloing technique from over 10 gigs of music. My rhythms have lots of influence from Mongo, but one thing I am missing is Mongo's signature half open half muted slap. I think I've improved on it now though, so when Mr. Riler digs the congas out of the percussion room, I will post a recording for you guys. Oh, I have another question for you. I used to play the Cp's on their double stand, but I now have found myself playing them on the floor for two reasons. One, the stand really sucks and is falling apart, and two, I like the sound better. Is playing as a seated player the traditional way of playing? And also, how do you hold the drum, so you can lift it to play bass tones without having to stop and fix the conga's position?
And one more thing. I thought that since one or two of you mentioned playing the keys, I would like to give you a recording from last year. I was using my Zoom H1 recorder with some stereo mics from Sound Professionals sitting on top of the piano. This is our high school's jazz band.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/8449597/02%20- ... Cms%29.mp3

[Tristian]

Thank you. I can't wait until my second semester, where I have the music study class. This is when I will have more free time to practice the congas. I have also purchased a Cuban guiro from Lp, and a bongo bell from Jcr, so I have something that is high quality not only for me, but something easy and simple for my friends and I to jam.

[Tristian]

Hey folks! No Matadors for me. This weekend, I was in Portland, so stopped by Rhythm Traders. I got to play lots of models of congas, including some Tycoons, which the conga guy told me were fiberglass? I didn't know that Tycoon had made such a thing. I also found Dailto Percussion, which is a smaller brand. A full set of Galaxies was available for me to play, and I was pretty impressed in their sound, but I knew that they were way out of my price range. The one I fell in love with after playing it only for less than a minute was a Rhythm Traders model. It was the Mambo series. It was used, and in mint condition for only $130, so I am now the proud owner of a Mambo series 10" requinto. It screams. My slaps have almost no overtone to them, and crack like fireworks, and my open tones, even though not 100% consistent are full and rich. I have also found the bass tones to be deep and loud too. I'll post recordings for you soon, and try to get pics posted. I probably won't be the one to operate the camera though. haha

[Seneferu]

Hey Tristan. My name is Seneferu. I am a newbie to congaplace.com myself. I have been plaaying congas off and on for some time now. My opinion and advice would be to save up your dollars and get a really good handmade drum. With great care they will last forever. I had a problem with drums made out of the Thai/Siam oak. When LP took the Valje trademark, they slapped it onto their Siam oak drums. I bought a quinto from them. It kept cracking. Rick Buscemi of Fat Congas told me this is called checking and it happens alot to the Asian woods I guess due to the differences in climate. Fat Congas (my favorite) are no longer being made right now, but I heard the Gon Bops California Series are pretty good. Hope that helps.

musically yours,
Seneferu

[RitmoBoricua]

Rick Buscemi of Fat Congas told me this is called checking and it happens alot to the Asian woods I guess due to the differences in climate.

Checking, cracking happens a lot to all wood in general.

[Tristian]

Thanks for the advice. I would have to agree with you on it. Today I went to Portland, and bought another Jcr bell from Rhythm Traders, and then at Trade up music, bought a conga bag. While there, they had a Mariano series quinto, which I fell in love with. My conga's sound couldn't hold a candle to it. Also at Rhythm Traders, I bought one of those round plates that you put your conga drum on, so it can resonate freely on carpet. Well even though that Gon Bops was on carpet, it resonated just fine, and was twice as loud as my conga. I for the first time saw what some of you mean when comparing Thai made congas to the handmade ones. haha I guess I'll have to score more piano gigs to save up, sell the Rhythm Traders, and then get a Gon Bops. A few days ago, I went to the Great Wolf lodge with the Chehalis middle school's steel drums band. Their teacher knows me well, and invited me to play the conga with them. So, I did. It was very fun. Here is our opener. I used my Olympus Ls7 recorder with my Sound Professionals Spbmc3 stereo mics on each side of the music stand. The music stand was placed a few feet from the band. The only editting I did was maximize the volume of the recording, and fade in and out at the beginning and end.
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/8449597/Play%20That%20Ting.mp3