Product Description

Here's an entire book devoted to the all too often overlooked Latin instrument, the bongo drums. Trevor Salloum guides you on an inspired informative, and educational musical journey; offering many valuable insights of playing this instrument as well as revealing its colorful history. This text features jazz, rock, Danzon, Mozambique, and bomba patterns with fills, exercises, and performance techniques to get you going in these styles. Maintenance, characteristic rhythmic patterns, and important artists in the evolution of bongo technique are also covered in depth. The companion CD features recordings of the rhythm patterns discussed in the book.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #298885 in Books
• Published on: 1997-06-15
• Released on: 1997-06-15
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 64 pages

About the Author
Trevor Salloum has studied with Cuban master drummers Changuito, Enrique Pla, Roberto Vizcaiño, José Eladio Amat, José Miguel Meléndez, Cutumba and Los Muñequitos de Matanzas. He has made several trips to Cuba and studied at the prestigious Escuela Nacional de Arte in Havana in addition to music schools in Santiago and Guantanamo. Trevor has played music professionally in Canada and the United States for over 25 years. He has performed with Pat Labarbera, Armando Peraza, Alex Acuña, Jane Bunnett, Campbell Ryga, Ross Taggart, Brad Turner, Dee Daniels, Tommy Banks and Ian McDougall. He is a best selling author with Mel Bay Publications including Fun with Bongos, The Bongo Book, Bongo Drumming:Beyond the Basics, Afro-Latin Polyrhythms, and Afro-Cuban Rhythms. Trevor has taught percussion for over 20 years in Canada and the United States. Most recently he has been conducting Afro-Cuban percussion clinics as an artist in residence for the Vancouver School Board and for with the Britannia World Music Program in Vancouver, BC.

Customer Reviews

Not For Beginners!
The item description doesn't say that this book is for beginners. But based on the reviews I read it seemed like a good book for beginners. That was a horrific assumption. I don't blame the publisher for this, I blame other reviewers who lead readers to believe this is a good book for beginners.

From the beginning this book uses all kinds of terminology that I've never heard of before (and I have played some keyboard, drums and guitar). Which leads me to wonder who this book is for because, in my opinion, anyone who can understand the terminology probably has no use for such a book.

I do fault the publisher for the terribly exposed, grainy photographs. I also fault the publisher for allowing several interviews with bongo players which, in my opinion, do not belong in a book like this. The whole book just feels cheap as if it was quickly thrown together.

As an absolute beginner what I would have liked to see is a more detailed explanation of technique along with photos (this book has a few photos, but most of them look the same, and the photos do not correlate with the techniques described in the text). I would also have liked to see more description of how to read the notation used in the book. And while I understand musical timing due to my previous experience an absolute beginner will have no clue as to what tempo the notes should be played, this is not described anywhere in the book.

This is a very poorly executed and frustrating book about bongos. It borders on useless for a true beginner. If you are a beginning bongo player do not buy this book it will not help you learn to play the bongos and will give you nothing but frustration.

I have no idea how a book like this ever made it to print.

One of the most entertaining and pleasurable 'how to' books I've ever worked with
I'm a guitar player. Recently someone I respect suggested that if I studied a precussion instrument it would improve my guitar playing. Initially I wanted to study congo drums but realized quickly that they were not only very expensive, but a little intense for the condo in which I live. I settled on bongos both for their portablility and for their less intrusive tone. Now the challenge was how to learn them. I've had a lot of pleasure learning guitar from DVD and video tape so my first thought was to find a DVD that taught bongo drumming. Unfortunately the two offered on Amazon had fairly poor customer comments. I always go by the customer reviews because customers have no axe to grind. I find the truth generally come out in these reviews. Finally I hit on Trevor Salloum's The Bongo Book which had rave reviews. I was so enthusiastic I bought the 'better together' deal and also got Beyond Basics. Let me tell you, it's going to be months if not years before I need that second book. I've never worked with a more comprehensive music book than The Bongo Book. The Martillo and its variations are challenging and also so much fun to play. I go into another world while I'm hammering these tattoos. I just love it. I'm currently on page 15 of 37 musical pages and I already feel like I'm a bongoseros. I've really become obsessed with these things! I've never been attracted to drums before. I'm doing this entirely as an educational adjunct, and it's absolutely changed my image of myself. I'd recommend that anyone learn these little drums before they take up any other instrument. Rhythm is the foundation of all music and once you've got this you can apply it to everything, be it music, dancing, loving or fighting. It's really infectious. There are a couple of suggestions I'd make for future editions: The included CD was among the reasons I initially opted to buy the book but I found this CD not to be very useful or even necessary. I expected it to be a CD I could play along with, but it isn't really. It amounts to a demonstration of how each of the drummed measures is supposed to sound. If you know how to count a musical measure, you really don't need these demonstrations. And if you don't know how to count a measure, these demonstrations are not going to help you to play them. More useful would be a two-page explaination of how to count 4/4 time, 1 and 2 etc, and-a, e-and-a, trip-pel-let etc. I already knew this from studying guitar so had no trouble adapting, but a complete musical beginner would find this kind of explaination useful and essential. This way, the CD could contain play-along rhythms which would be more fun and interesting. I'm buying Jack Costanzo and Armando Peraza CDs to play with and as an example of how the bongos sound in context and this would not be as imperative if the CD contained more of that type of information. Another wonderful thing about this book are the interviews at the end with famous bongoseros, a great opportunity to learn about the significance of this instrument in jazz and popular music as well as the great recordings of bongos that have been made during the 20th Century. I recommend this book without reservations. Learning to count musically is not a great challenge. You can learn the entire concept in under an hour if you don't know how to do it. Salloum's stroke notation is brilliant and easy to memorize and use. For me, I couldn't be happier with a learning tool than I am with The Bongo Book.

The Bongo Bible
I bought this book shortly after I started playing bongos about 6 years ago, and it is still a great source of rhythm patterns and overall inspiration. You can find rhythms in this book that will apply to any style of music. It is true that there is not much on technique. But I suggest to anyone who is frustrated to just keep trying! Read this section over and over, LISTEN closely to the CD, get your hands on those drums and eventually it will click. (If you still need help, get on the usnet group rec.music.makers.percussion.hand-drum or do a Google search in this group. Any question you can think of has been asked and answered already :-)

There is even a section on re-skinning a bongo head. You do-it-yourself'ers and drum tinkerers will LOVE this. It's easy and fun to put on a new head -- especially if you put goatskin on the macho (small bongo head).

If you have some bongos, thinking of buying some, or know an aspiring bongocero, this book is a MUST.