congaplace.com

Just a thought. I've got a friend who studies drumset in a music school and one of things they have to do to pass the exams is play along so called "minus one" disc. It's a CD with music where one instrument is muted out from the ensemble (in his case the drumset), hence the name "minus one". There are such discs for drums, vocals, keyboards and other instruments, in all sorts of styles.

I read that Poncho Sanchez's "Conga cookbook" has playalong tracks of precisely this type where congas are in one stereo channel, so you can mute them out with a simple twist of balance knob. So I got the book. True, you can't have it as your first conga method (because it is impossible to study hand technique from a picture in a book), and it does not have nearly as many styles as Thomas Cruz conga method (which is what I'm still working on), but the playalong is very nice and feels better than playing along a normal CD where you can hear the congas. But there are only four pieces (cha-cha, mambo, 6/8 latin jazz, and merengue), each a little more than two minutes long.
Surely it's not a rocket science, and Poncho can't have been the only one to think of that. So is there anything else like that out there?

Thanks,
K

What I quite like is the book/cd package:

Muy Caliente

A specialty is that it is NOT precisely "music minus one", but the different tracks (bass, piano)
can be muted to some extent. This publication follows the ensemble idea rather than tutoring
conga playback.

A review is here:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m ... i_61791739

And here info from the publisher´s website
with a sample track to download:
http://www.shermusic.com/muy_caliente.htm

Hope this helps.
All the best
Mike

This also done in Bobby Sanabria's 3 volume set - which I have on video (anyone remember video?) - not sure if he re-released on DVD

Muy Caliente above was created for the "rhythm" section...for the aspiring conga/bongo and timbale player it is meant as a "play along" which means u play exactly what the conga/bongo and timbale player is doing,along with "following the charts, as u count thru the bars...I use it as a "practice tool" ..I crank it up on my stereo system and play as hard as I can, and i now have all 24 traks memorized, including solos, breaks, etc...that is the goal ...Johnny Conga

Forgive me for being a bit dim but its not clear if can actually play without the congas with the Muy Caliente CD. If you can then It would be a great tool. If you only play along with another conga player - what would be the difference between playing along with this and any other CD?

Burke,
you are right! (and not dim at all) - it´s really something I was also a bit disappointed of :
You cannot mute the conga track!
But otherwise it helps grooving, especially when you do not only play congas ,
but also also other percussion along with the CD.

When it comes to soloing in Afrocuban popular musical settings many have learned from this excellent educational series originally released in 1978. As a matter of fact, many still do. Also an excellent tool to work on the "forgotten art of time keeping". Available this days on CD and featuring the talents of Eddie Montalvo, Charlie Santiago, Gilberto Colon, Jr., and Sal Cuevas.

Saludos,

Jorge Ginorio

I have a 5:39 seconds play along track by Richie Garcia, but cannot recall where I got it from. If anyone has the ability to host for sharing, let me know and I will email a copy.

Tomasito Cruz Volume 3 DVD on Chapter 8 has "La conciencia tranquila" with just bass and piano Tumbao.