Conga Drumming: A Beginner's Guide to Playing With Time Paperback – March 1, 1996

Would you like to have fun?? Get yourself some congas, a wagon to pull them from the car, join a drum circle, That will really be all you need to do, spend, or know. It's ok if your shy, self conscious, or never touched a drum before you show up, in fact usually someone will usually offer to lend you a maraca, tambourine, or a drum to use if you brought nothing. You don't need to be able to speak to strangers, the drums are loud and constant. You don't need to know how to play, Everytime the group mind ends one rhythym, several people will start new patterns until eventually most will start playing the same, (this all happens by instinct or something, no one says a word about it, it just happens) a few will be playing something else or another, but it doesn't disturb the dominant beat at all. And no one will be able to tell how you sound at all, really, so play your heart out, that is really the way most people in the drum circle learned as well, try to figure out the best and do what you can, you will really surprise yourself because it's like you are part of a "hive mind". You can get great deals on drums in pawn shops. Then if you really want to learn faster, use YouTube, and this great famous book and it's cd, and just playing whatever your heart and soul puts out, and you will know why people love hand drumming so much. Google the physical and mental health benefits, universality and very ancient history of hand drumming, you will be stunned and amazed, but after your first or second time, you will know the fantastic claims are all true and then some. All these strangers meet up, most often never saying a word, and get on the same rhythyms, and somehow everyone just agrees without a word that one is done, stop for a few moments, several people start a new one others begin joining back in, until one beat dominates again, and that repeats until the circle starts breaking up. People passing by will get in the middle and start dancing, some start showing up to dance regularly. It's a joyous, very special event, that are showing up and organizing groups and sessions everywhere, just like cultures had been doing since the dawn of time. It is very good for the mind and emotions, very joyous, and it costs nothing once you have a drum (and you can even participate without that) and whatever it takes to get there. No one is in "charge" if you want to drum a different beat, no one cares, people come and leave, no one cares, if you can only get there for an hour in the middle, that's really ok, no one cares, no one makes any judgements on anyone else, everyone is too into the music.Read this interesting and innovative book, get yourself to a nearby drum circle, you just show up, there is no registration or sign up, just ask around where to look for cancellations or change of venue in case of bad weather or emergency.

I found this book invaluable for learning the basics of conga drumming without a teacher. I used it for several months before hitting my first conga class, and was really glad I had worked with the book. I was able to pick up right away with the rest of the class on several of the rhythms. However, I will warn anyone using the book that this drumming world is steeped with "variations". That is, you'll frequently find that your teacher is using a slightly different variation than the one taught in the book. This is fine, however, since it's usually easy to alter what you're doing slightly.One of the more impressive aspects of the methods in this book is the holistic approach, for example, teaching how to feel the clave underneath the rhythms you're playing. The book also does about as good a job as any book can at teaching the hand technique, although I highly recommend complementing this with good videos of accomplished conga players. Youtube, for example, is a great resource. Here again, though, you will find different philosophies of technique, and again your teacher may have his own emphasis.

There is so much to learn from this book. So many rhythems and methods to quickly advance any beginner or intermediate learner.

The book arrived quickly, but the CD was missing, very disappointed. It looks like the book covers a lot of material. But I really wanted to be able to hear the rhythms, besides just seeing them on the page.

One of my many “bucket list” things I wanted to do is learn how to play the drums with and without drums sticks. I saw this 160 page soft cover book (Conga drumming: A beginner’s guide to playing with time by Alan Dworsky and Betsy Sansby, which also includes a CD to better understand the 175 rhythms taught in the book) on Amazon for a bargain price and I purchased it. Even though I have had a few lessons using my drum sticks I thought it would also be fun to learn something about playing the Conga drums.This book is organized into eight parts with 43 lessons. The first part explains how to hit the drum using rhythms in four. The second part deals with Bembe rhythms in six. The third part focuses on the clave. The fourth part explains heel-toe patterns. Advanced rhythms are covered in the fifth part. The sixth part teaches advanced rhythms in six. Playing two drums are explained in part seven. The last part has interweaving four and six. There are also sources for further study and an index of rhythms.In learning any skill nothing takes the place of taking lessons from an instructor; however, I found this book very helpful when I combined it with some basic hands-on lessons. There are not many books out on Conga drumming and if you are seeking a good basic volume on this topic you should check out this book.Rating: 4 Stars. Joseph J. Truncale (Author: Zen Poetry Moments: Haiku and Senryu for special occasions).

The book(conga drumming did not come with the CD) In front of the book it says, (CD inside) I just open the package but no CD. I would like the CD .Do I return the book or wait for a reply.please text me back

I agree with all the other reviewers... this is a great book for beginners and advanced (as well as folks somewhere in the middle, like me).One thing I didn't expect to like, since I can read regular music notation, was their concocted music notation. To my surprise, I like theirs better. It's very intuitive, and after a while, you can pretty much sight-read the rhythms. If I hear/see a conga pattern I like in the future, I'll probably write it down using their notation.

This book is extremely readable and it teaches you terrific grooves right from the get-go. I'm a pianist who has decided to learn some percussion and I am having a blast learning to play the conga. Even my non-musician girlfriend has learned some of this stuff!