by korman » Sun Jan 10, 2010 11:05 am
Yoyito, Johny Conga has some videos on youtube that you might find useful. Also on youtube you can look up Rudy Quesada, he's got quite a few videos geared specifically at beginners.
I also started out without a teacher almost two years ago (but because congas are not my main instrument, I am still somewhere just a little bit past the very beginner stage). What I used was Tomas Cruz conga method vol 1. The DVD examples can be a bit boring, but eventually when I had a chance to take a few lessons, the teacher did not say anything bad about the quality of my tones and my hand movements, so I can confirm Tomas Cruz method works (If you work on it, of course:).
At that time M.Spiro's DVD was not out yet, but I think for a beginner this may be even better. From what I've seen in the samples, he does much more explaining, so might be closer substitute for a teacher.