why

[joaozinho]

Why do you play congas?What forces influenced you to choose this instrument.Why not drums,or piano,or violin?
How does everithing begin?

[burke]

Santana [I was a teen in the 70's]

Not why I play now though

[Dangler]

Music has always been my passion and I have played upright/electric bass and guitars for many years. After a trip to Cuba a couple of years ago I was badly bitten by the bongo bug,followed by Djembe,followed by cajon, followed by drum kit,followed by congas.I look around my place and shake my head sometimes at the instruments strewn everywhere but noodling around on whichever instrument whenever I want is what I truly enjoy.
The Conga is my current go-to instrument after I recently bought a vintage SOS off of Craigslist.I find the strokes very challenging and realise that mucho practice will be neccesary to get the proper tones at will.This forum has been a wealth of info. for me and I think its got to have the friendliest vibe of any forum I've participated in,muchos gracias to all.

[Mike]

Call of the drums...
Having had interest in music in general, I grew up playing the the piano and later the trombone, both classical and other styles, but from my very early childhood on rhythm has been my passion which meant itchy fingers banging on tea boxes and the like, which displeased my parents pretty much. So I went on my own to learn the drum set as a 9-year-old at a jazz drummer, but he made me play on the snare drum for 2 years, which I found very boring and which meant loneliness and so I took more interest in community-based music, from playing timpani in the Junior Band at school to all kinds of brass ensembles. But something was missing there...
It was only in my early twenties that the rhythm flame was rekindled when I started my studies as a music teacher, a Latin Percussion ensemble I played in was the thing itself, because we learned to play and also to teach how to play, it was give and take organized by a Latin Jazz pro, so that is were and why I picked up the congas - a long-term relationship ever since, including bongó, timbales & a bit of mallets as well.
So I guess I had a late start compared to many others due to a lack of a Latin environment and also parental encouragement, but nevertheless I feel very happy today that I did what I did.
Rhythm accompanies you for your whole life, it finds you, forms you and if you find it, fills and fulfils you IMO.

[windhorse]

I never played in band at school, so didn't have a formal music background, or the culture for Latin percussion.
However, as a young 8-9 year old, I would watch my favorite Sat. morning cartoons which would always be followed by the Banana Splits and the Monkeys. My cultural icons as a kid were the drummers in these Sat. morning shows!
I would beat on trashcan lids and sing the bana split song.. "Tra la la" So, my mom had me do a few drum lessons early in my teens. I saw that I had to practice and work to get the feel and get halfway decent, but was surrounded by other kids who could already play the heck out of complete trap sets,, so I was intimidated by these prodigies and discouraged myself from trying..
What a dope! So I quit early, and eventually moved on to the next best thing the bass.. In my high school rock "jam" band, I played bass for while until a "real" bass player showed up and usurped my throne. Again, I didn't want to work at it, so passively set the bass down.
When, I left my home town for college, I quit music altogether and it would be a really long time before I'd ever pick up another instrument.
It wasn't until my cousin gave me a tape of a band called Outback that had a didjeridu player named Graham Wiggins who played the instrument like a drum, that I was bitten again by the music bug. I picked up a didjeridu and began using our method here of sharing the internet to find others who played the instrument and began traveling across the US to the West Coast up the coast from LA to Portland playing with every prominent didjeridu player. This started in about 1991 and lasted until about 2001 - when I made a CD of everything I could do at the time.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/animal-dreams/id281398153
When I was looking around in Boulder for drummers to play didj with, I ran across this really nice guy named Eric who played mid-eastern dumbek. He knew the rhythms I was interested in playing on the didjeridu - odd ones, like 5, 7, 9, and 13.. For some reason my body and style of circular breathing come out naturally in odd meter.
Anyway, he would eventually begin taking lessons in Haitian drumming. So, he was looking for buddies to practice and study this music with. I glommed on with him on this new study, which after two years moved into Cuban.
So, for about 10 years I've been playing conga, met some of you on the list, traveled to the Arcata/Humboldt workshops, learned from some great players and teachers in Colorado and the West Coast, and continue to immerse myself as much as possible in the folklore and rhythm of Afro-Cuba.
Dave
http://mrcrowder.us

[joaozinho]

Beautiful!!

[alabubba]

My first exposure to conga drums in music was through the rock music of the late 60s - Santana, CCR, Allman Bros, Jackson Browne for example. The music with the congas always made my heart beat in a different way from other music of the era, it so captivated me. I would have started playing back then, but was already busy as a guitarist so just kept it in the back of my mind as something that I would get around to someday.

Flash forward to a couple of years ago, and I finally realized (duuh) that even under the best of circumstances, my life was more than half-spent. It was time to get around to some of those lifetime desires that I had been putting off, or I would never get around to them. I made a list and racked and stacked them things according to how strong my desire still was, and congas came in at the number one position, so I got started and haven't looked back.

I can honestly say that my journey with the congas, although short compared to many here, is the absolute most fantastic adventure that I have ever embarked upon. I'm not going to lament my late start, although I could; I will however celebrate with every ounce of spirit in me that I am finally doing something which I should have done a long time ago, because for me too, as Mike said, it is the "Call of the drums..."

[pavloconga]

Why do you play congas?What forces influenced you to choose this instrument.Why not drums,or piano,or violin?
How does everithing begin?

First thing, I was fascinated by drums in general as a kid, even around 3 or 4 years old. I was really attracted to the drums at a primal level without knowing why. So I banged on a lot of pots etc and ended up having lessons on drum kit around 11 years of age.

- I can still remember as a 3 or 4 year old listening to 50's 60's latin or latin influenced music that my parents used to play, I was always drawn to the sound of the congas on the records even though I had no idea that the sound that I kept tuning in to (the tones of a tumbao on conga) was actually played on congas.

- Having dreams about playing congas before I'd ever even touched a conga or knew anything about the instrument: Dreams such as flying through the sky above the clouds playing 2 white congas and it feeling so real, other dreams about playing with Santana on a stage in the middle of the ocean and somehow knowing how to play (in my dreams at least... but I still had to study like everyone else ), and other dreams about playing drums in Africa.

- Hearing a master player play the congas and just knowing at a deep gut level that was what I really wanted to learn to do.

- Just a feeling I have, and it's the only instrument that really resonates with me.
Strings and wind instruments don't do it for me.
If I had to play another instrument it would be the bass guitar.

[nobleway]

I love salsa dancing! But a couple of years ago I went through a down cycle when I was a bit bored with my own dancing and I started paying more attention to the music. I thought to myself it would be good to play an instrument associated with salsa. I mostly considered the trombone and congas. A quick check showed I could get a decent conga for less than a decent trombone. I wasn't 100% about what my long term motivation would be so I picked up one conga from Chuck Levins Music Center in Wheaton, MD from a salesman that I had seen playing traps in a local timba band. I knew enough from talking to a couple congueros and reading online that starting with one drum was just fine. I messed around with that one drum for about a year and took a few lessons. I liked it and found it challenging. I also learned that an acquaintance I knew from salsa dancing also was into learning and playing the conga and so we began to connect every few weeks to practice and to share. Even though I've bought another drum and a friend has given me another I frequently go out with one drum when I feel like playing at one of the local salsa clubs with the dj. It's good fun when I'm taking a break from dancing and other conga players enjoy playing it too! I've played at least a dozen times at my church and have gotten positive feedback that I was adding to the sound. So the fun of it, the challenge of it, the social connection from it, and the appreciation from others have kept me happily going.