congaplace.com

Finally worked out how to get footage from my camera to youtube Me and technology are not good friends ...

Some warm ups before rehearsal with my group cachimbo . Slightly distorted , will move it further away next time

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO57vUzTBM0

Heres part 2 of the same session . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OcVRfoQa_A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Flz68wOI-kc

Short clip of a workshop / clinic we did at a local music store . There was a performance plus a q and a re congas and latin percussion and there applications on the kit etc .

Just excelent!! great groove and beautiful tecnike,thanks for sharing!!

Hi Niall..Not to take anything away from your playing which is great...but I have to ask ..what did they learn by watching you show off your skills?..Especially without an explanation of what and how you do what you do.???..It's one thing to sit and just 'improvise" and it's another to explain about how and why...and that is the problem with what they call a 'clinic'...I have sat and watched many of them over the years and they are all the same, just someone showing off their individual skills without 'educating' those that are there...and if the 'clinic' is just for one to show his skills I dont see how anyone can learn from it without instruction of some kind...just MHO...JC

Niall Gregory,I learn that I have to practice a lot to have your groove and sound,thanks so much!!!

Hey JC ! Cmon dude you know me better than that , the clip is taken from the beginning of the workshop where we went through lots of different grooves and ideas for soloing etc . We played for about 30 mins then broke down everything we played , all the grooves , different claves etc etc . We gave the microphone to people in the audience to ask lots of questions . Demonstrated Tumbao , Clave , cascara , bongo bell 12/8 and 4/4 etc etc . Most of the audience where drumset players so i was glad of the opportunity to play for them and explain some stuff about Latin Percussion as most had never seen congas playing that way before . I am all about the education man , and i agree that going to see someone shredding on the instrument for 30 mins is not a clinic / workshop its just a chop fest ... I have all of it on video which i will get around to sharing at some stage .Thanks for watching ....

Well done Niall, You got good hands!!

I APPLAUD YOU! AND THANK YOU FOR THE BREAKDOWN...KEEP UP THE GOOD WORKS!...

Some people simply never change.
[Edited due to PC reasons]

Niall, I can understand what is underlying your sentiments, but I don't think it is appropriate to call someone names on this forum, especially someone who has withdrawn from the forum and is no longer posting. After all, this thread is about your clips from gigs, practices etc so why not focus on that? I doubt many people have seen his comments about you or your work on other websites. If you want to interact with him in those other fora, feel free, but other than giving you the satisfaction of expressing your feelings, I don't see how anyone else benefits from your comment above.
And Mike, I am trying to figure out how your comment leads to peace and drumming...

jorge wrote:Niall, I can understand what is underlying your sentiments, but I don't think it is appropriate to call someone names on this forum, especially someone who has withdrawn from the forum and is no longer posting. After all, this thread is about your clips from gigs, practices etc so why not focus on that? I doubt many people have seen his comments about you or your work on other websites. If you want to interact with him in those other fora, feel free, but other than giving you the satisfaction of expressing your feelings, I don't see how anyone else benefits from your comment above.
And Mike, I am trying to figure out how your comment leads to peace and drumming...

Thanks Jorge . You are right .

OK, Jorge, you tamed us here, alright.
Sometimes even I fly into a fury too fast.

Niall, you get some nice sounds out of your congas, and I enjoyed the trading off with the trap drummer in the clinic video. Keep on playing, listening, studying, and spreading the word.

By the way, one method to avoid distortion on audio recordings is to do a quick test recording. Just put the recorder where you are going to use it, turn it on, play as loud as you are going to play for 2 seconds, and listen to the recording. If it is distorted, turn the volume down a small amount and try again. Repeat until you get good sound even for the loudest peaks. If your recorder has an input sound level meter and you have a friend who can set the volume while you play, just ask him or her to set the record level so the peaks don't go above -6 dB when you play loud (-12 dB if you tend to really play louder when you get going). Digital recorders sound horrible when your sound level goes even a little bit above their clipping limit. On your first clip, turning down the gain just a little bit would have made the sound a lot more clear.