Have Fun Playing Hand Drums for Bongo, Conga and Djembe Drums: A Fun, Musical, Hands-On Book and CD for Beginning Hand Drummers of All Ages, Book & CD (The Ultimate Beginner Series) [Paperback]

Ben James (Author)

Book Description

Series: The Ultimate Beginner Series | Publication Date: April 1999

This book and audio package is for all beginners (children to fun-loving adults) who want to learn how to play the bongos, congas and djembe drums in a fun and musical way. Subjects covered include hearing the beat, listening to drum sounds, playing with groups, creating new rhythms, and The Drum Walk (to help build complete body coordination). Also covered are simple African and Caribbean rhythms to help take you to the next level of hand drumming. The CD contains audio versions of all lessons and inspiring play-along drumming music. Fully illustrated and highly user-friendly, this method is perfect for both classroom use and at-home drumming.

Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: Alfred Publishing Co., Inc. (April 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0769280587
• ISBN-13: 978-0769280585
• Product Dimensions: 12.1 x 9 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #205,034 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book and CD for learning and playing along with, January 24, 2003

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Have Fun Playing Hand Drums for Bongo, Conga and Djembe Drums: A Fun, Musical, Hands-On Book and CD for Beginning Hand Drummers of All Ages, Book & CD (The Ultimate Beginner Series) (Paperback)

The book is well illustrated and the accompanying CD is excellent for learning and playing along with - the exercises are played several times so you can get the feel of the sound and practice with the CD. The exercises and patterns are carefully graduated. There are also a number of play-along tracks to get more experience. I would also recommend this book for players of other instruments to get a good grounding in rhythm sense. This book followed by Richie Gajate-Garcia's "Play Bongos & Hand Percussion Now" is the best course for learning bongos I know of. Gajate-Garcia's book will take you to more complex rhythms and patterns useful for nearly every setting.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Serves its purpose well!, August 4, 2000

By 

anetgee (Salem, OR USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Have Fun Playing Hand Drums for Bongo, Conga and Djembe Drums: A Fun, Musical, Hands-On Book and CD for Beginning Hand Drummers of All Ages, Book & CD (The Ultimate Beginner Series) (Paperback)

As a teacher of hand drumming to kids, I found this book to be a wonderful guide/reference for breaking down playing and rhythm concepts for kids. You could teach the book as-is sequentially as a course, or pull from different parts as you choose.

40 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not for experienced musicians., February 15, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Have Fun Playing Hand Drums for Bongo, Conga and Djembe Drums: A Fun, Musical, Hands-On Book and CD for Beginning Hand Drummers of All Ages, Book & CD (The Ultimate Beginner Series) (Paperback)

This is probably a good book for children and/or complete musical novices, but those with even minimal musical experience might better look elsewhere.