Being a drummer in NYC

[bengon]

It looks like I'm moving to NYC (Brooklyn) in the near future, and I'm wondering how people manage to practice while in the city. I'm talking about congas, bata, and bongo. Up till now I've lived in Phoenix and have always had houses, so I've never had a problem.

What do you guys do? I can't imagine that all the congueros go out and rent studios to go practice in, but I'm wondering if that will be the case.

Thanks!

[MedinaNYC]

If you going to be in BK, there is a jam every Sunday in Prospect Park. But being that its getting cold , chck the local craigslist. There are plenty of free places to go indoors as well, schools, churches, etc.. . You will find many people that have studios that offer drum circles or lessons, but not sure if that is what you are looking for. Welcome to N.Y.

[JohnnyConga]

Well i never had a hard time practicing when i lived in the projects..of course i picked the time of day when people were at work, and didnt play at night....I also used to put T shirts over my conga heads to muffle the sound so I could practice as well...Now we would jam in the winter time (if we had a friend who was a "super" of a building) and we would go down to the boiler room and jam there during the winter..There are plenty of indoor jams once you get to meet the local cats..Good luck in the city.....Johnny Conga

[bengon]

I was mainly wondering where you go for daily practice. It seems like you guys head down to the basement of your building or the boiler room. Thanks for the advice!

[JohnnyConga]

Look for local Community Centers or the YMCA and get a room for yourself...believe me we even played behind the old Yankee Stadium in the park there in the winter, with gloves on and a pint of Blackberry Brandy and we were good to go...what cold?....we played under bridges, in parks late at night by ourselves...anywhere we could be alone and play...or even in a neighborhood park...but in the city the sound of drumming can carry a very long way..I could stand on the corner of 59th and 5th ave and Central Park and hear drumming up on the west side at around 108th st...and walk right thru the park to find them right where I heard them at...and that is really anywhere in the city...Brooklyn has basements...the Bronx not too many...so there ya go...good drum hunting!...

[pcastag]

Man, New York, that's classic JC, must have been great to grow up during those times when salsa was DURA.
PC

[Anonimo]

POST REMOVED BY THE AUTHOR

[pcastag]

that's awesome, the music created in NYC during that time is some of the best latin music created EVER! No offense to PR or la cuna CUBA, it just all seemed to come together in NY back in the day.
PC

[OLSONGO]

Cuco and JC talk about the cliques in the music circles of NY. Tough nut to crack.

Peace
Olsongo

[jorge]

What some NYC musicians do is rent studio space for practicing by the hour. That can get expensive, so most of us can't afford it. I remember a thread on this forum a couple years ago on playing in apartments, with all the ideas mentioned. Do a search of the forum. Do what JC said, find some out of the way spaces near your home that you can go and practice. I work in Bellevue Hospital and there is a sax player who practices there sometimes. I hear him through the elevator shaft, but I never knew where he was for years until I finally met him last month. You may not want to pick a hospital for your practice space.

I live in a house in NJ now, partly because I couldn't practice in my NYC apartment off work hours. A second (third) best solution I used to do is put towels or any sound absorbing material inside the drums. It gives you a little better feel of the skin than putting a t shirt or towel over the top of the skin. You can put the minimum stuff inside the drum to satisfy your neighbors. If they complain add another towel. Talk to them about it, ask them if they mind your playing, what times are best, what times to avoid playing, etc. Mainly to show them you care about them, helps a lot to keep them from calling the cops or complaining to the landlord. Use open back headphones rather than a loud stereo to practice along with music. Get and use a metronome. Find out where the rumbas are and go to them. If you gig a lot, that counts as SOME of your practicing time, but you will still need to practice new stuff and get it down before you play it out in public.

If you buy a condo or coop, you can partially soundproof a room, but it takes serious acoustics knowledge, big money and lots of time. There are good books on acoustics of small spaces, two practical books by Rod Gervais and the other by F. Alton Everest give you some ideas and basic principles of in-room acoustics and reducing sound leak to outside areas. You basically need to put several additional layers of sheetrock inside ALL the walls and ceiling of a small room (after having an engineer check integrity and strength of the joists and ceiling structure to support the added weight), build a suspended floor or drum platform filled with hundreds or thousands of pounds of sand, and COMPLETELY seal every crack and tiny hole in the room so it is airtight. You may have to build a room-within-a-room like music studios to isolate the vibrating walls from the studs and neighbors' walls. This is a big deal, usually expensive and not completely effective. Egg crates, foam, blankets on walls, bales of fiberglass insulation in the room, etc are completely useless for soundproofing ie acoustically isolating your room from outside areas and neighbors. In-room acoustics is completely different from soundproofing and requires different construction methods. Yes, I am trying to discourage you from the "soundproofing" route. Find another way.

[juancho]

It looks like I'm moving to NYC (Brooklyn) in the near future, and I'm wondering how people manage to practice while in the city. I'm talking about congas, bata, and bongo. Up till now I've lived in Phoenix and have always had houses, so I've never had a problem.

What do you guys do? I can't imagine that all the congueros go out and rent studios to go practice in, but I'm wondering if that will be the case.

Thanks!

Hey Bengon,
You're welcome to stop by my house on weekends here on the other side of the bridge in Edison NJ. I tend to do a little practice every day for about half hour but on weekends I really go off !!! I do all this in my basement which the sound really kicks up a few notches and it's all good.
juancho

[JohnnyConga]

The experience of growing up in NYC during the 60 and 70's for me was my learning ground for music...at one time there were 65 clubs in the Bronx alone and Hotels like Grand Plaza Hotel on the Grand Concourse, and 'after hour' clubs as well..i could do on a friday night 3 gigs...10 to 11 in one club 12 to 2 in another and from 4 to 6 am in the after hours and break daylight...which i did many times...and come home with more money in one night than what i made on my day gig...and I also worked at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan-Psych Dept...but couldnt find a place to jam hahaha...
short list of clubs I can remember
HippoCampo
The Cheetah
Hunts Point Palace
Colgate Gardens
Boommakaoo
Ochentas
3 & 1
The Corso
Broadway Casino
The Caborojeno
Psycho Room-Casino 14
Pig Pen
Roseland
St.George Hotel
Commodore Hotel
Alegre Social Club
La Campana Club
La Maganette
La Mancha
Act 2
Las Villas
PlayPen
Chez Jose
Chez Sensual
Tapestry
Riddlers
Peoples
Intimate Lounge
Starlight Lounge
La Terraza
Pozo's after hour
Mi Mundo-after hour
La Ruela-after hour
The Flamingo Bar
Club Cubano
Blue Danube
3 10-1/2
The Gallery
The Green Door
El Tropicoro

i know i have left some out.....
...................

[Anonimo]

POST REMOVED BY THE AUTHOR

[jorge]

Yeah, JC I can't find a place to play there either. That's why i have to request a weekend pass from Bellevue to get out and play. Actually NYU Medical Center Employee Health now has a drum circle for employees for a half hour every other Thursday, inside the hospital ("no drumming experience necessary"). I haven't dared to go there in the last 2 years they have had it...

That is a pretty good list, I could not think of one club you missed from that era, the Vacilon came a little later. You named a bunch I had never been to, and some I never even heard of. Great list.

[BRONXNATIVE]

Oye Johnny you left 1 club out in the boogie down, LA EPOCA--222nd st. n Baychester ave.-ALAFIA-