Date: 9/9/2009
Time: 6:00 AM

To my fellow Youtubers, students, and new comers,

Here on my Youtube you'll find lesson videos that you're able to see my teaching style that is different from many others on here. There are too many Youtubers who try to demonstrate how to play rhythms but in no way make it easy for beginners to learn. That's why I tried to make it simple and fun for you to learn by playing very slow. Don't worry about going fast because that will come later. For the beginners sometimes I count and other times I don't count time while breaking down a rhythm because many don't know how to count along with playing. Learn tones, then rhythm, then timing, then Clave (really all of these are interchangeable, but the tones should come first). Then you'll see the difference in your playing as you develop into a better player.

Why am I sharing all of this with you? For the beginners I've created the uploaded videos for you to understand the basic approach to learning how to develop the most important thing to play the congas; this happens to be tones. If you've never played before and have the feeling you want to start; then you've come to the right place. After you work on the tones then you can move onto the basic rhythms or first rhythms for beginners like the Bolero.

I must stress, it's all about the tones. Once you master them (e.g., open, closed, bass, muff, and slap tones) when it comes time to learn rhythms, it will be so much easier.

What level do you play at? I would like to say that my YouTube site is not just for beginners but for intermediate and advanced players too. So everyone enjoy!

The Cuba videos... For many years I dreamed about traveling to Cuba, and in the summer of 2000 I was able to see that dream come true. Today I'm sharing most of my memories, experience, and lessons that I brought back from that wonderful experience.

A word about comments: I decided to turn the comments back on for all of my videos. I had the comments turned off because I couldn't keep up with the spam or negative comments that some vicious Youtubers would leave; let it be known that negative comments in any nature that I feel are rude or derogatory will be deleted promptly.

In regards to comments of good nature, I want to personally thank all of you who've commented my videos with nothing more than positive feedback; you're the ones that inspire me to share more.

About my channel, I want to say thanks to all of you for the success of my YouTube channel by subscribing to it and for those who haven't yet; you should because you won't be disappointed.

Check it out! Got a MYSPACE or FACEBOOK account? Feel free to add me to either one.

My myspace link is below and here's my Facebook account:

facebook.com/contimba

-Rudy Quesada