Bongo Lessons in Los Angeles. Amazing Teachers.

Bongo lessons

My experience as a performer and teacher spans over 25 years of every musical style. I believe in creating an environment that is focused on playing music well and where the student can have fun while gaining confidence. It is important to develop functional musicians with good technique, time, and listening skills. We will cover all styles of conga/bongo music from Latin, Afro-Cuban, and rock/pop, including jazz, and other percussion as desired.

Passionate Experience

Experienced and engaging teacher with over 10 years teaching drum and percussion students of all ages and experience levels. Each lesson is designed to fit the goals of each student while building foundational technical and musical skills to serve any genre or style. Instrumental areas and specialties include: drum set, hand percussion, djembe, congas, mallet percussion, and orchestral percussion. Not only will you learn instrumental technique, you will be learning various styles and playing to your favorite songs in no time.

Give anyone a drum and they will instantly know what to do. Drums are meant to be hit, and for those who love to hit things and make loud noises. Bongo drum lessons are an easy way to introduce students to the world of drumming, rhythm and music.

The goal is listening for cues, hearing patterns and feeling rhythm and beat. Ideally, each student has their own drum. Begin with a simple repeat and answer pattern. You hit the drum two times, they repeat. Gradually add to the complexity of the patterns, so they must listen intently. Add some simple rhythms, such as 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1, with a strong emphasis on the 1.

I am a well-rounded drum teacher, meaning I have learned and studied genres ranging from blues, jazz, rock and indie rock. I will give you tons of music to listen to and interpret and teach you how to learn tunes by ear. You will understand the forms of jazz tunes such as aaba Aba and abc. You will learn how to play the tunes you listen to and take the concepts of drum beats and drum rudiments used within them o make them your own and use them in your original playing. I also teach how to read standard drum notation, and can teach you how time signatures work and the values of notes if you don’t already know.