Learn to Solo on Bongos: A Step-By-Step Guide for Beginners (download)

Learning to play the bongos has never been easier than with this new video, which is designed for the first-time hand drummer. It teaches fun, funky grooves--including The Habanera, Calypso, Bombo, Tumbao, and The Backbeat Groove—that fit with all kinds of music. I take a non-traditional approach, using techniques that are easy to learn and easy on your hands, so you can start playing along with your favorite music or jamming with your friends as soon as possible.

The instruction is clear and step-by-step, with no boring exercises.  From the start of the video, the rhythm almost never stops, because I add my explanations and tips in voice over. 

I also include tips on tuning and how to hold the bongos, as well as explanations of basic rhythmic concepts. For those of you who like to work with charts, there's a PDF file you can print out with charts of all the patterns. And there’s a special section on the video explaining how to read the charts.

Finally, to show you how the grooves can work in a real playing situation, most of the lessons include samples from a jam session I had with my friend Scott Sansby up on the roof of his apartment. I had a blast playing with him up there, and with this video you can have a blast learning to play the bongos. 

You can also get this video as part of the package deal for the complete Bongo Grooves for Beginners series--Volumes 1, 2, and 3--that gets you three videos for the price of two and saves you $5. Just click on the image of all three videos at the bottom of this page. 

As a bonus, you'll get some free music when you order this video, including the album Jaguar at Half Moon Lake and the four piano songs I wrote for The Joy of Six. 

If you prefer to get the video as a DVD, just click on "Physical DVDs" in the main menu of Videos and Books. 

"Fantastic grooves presented in an easy, intelligent and delightful way!" Klaus Rosterg, Germany

"Your Bongo Grooves series is a masterpiece--the best instructional videos I've ever purchased." Joe DeCristoforo, Pipe Creek, Texas

Subtitled "Patterns for Rock, Pop, Funk and Folk,"  Volume 2 teaches 21 new patterns that will work with all kinds of music. Each pattern is taught step-by-step and shown in slow motion for a minute or more, so you’ll never feel lost or confused.  And each pattern is shown from a player's-eye view, so you won't have to flip the image in your head to play along.  The video also includes a PDF file with simple charts of all the patterns. 

As an added feature, each lesson starts and ends with me playing with a guitarist--including Indie-award-winner Dean Magraw—so you can see how the grooves you’ll be learning work in real musical situations. So whether you want to jam with your friends or just play along with your favorite music, the bongo grooves in Volume 2 will show you how.

This video is also available as a DVD. Just click on "Physical DVDs" in the main menu of Videos and Books. 

In this video, I show you how to play funky West African djembe grooves on bongos.  As in the other two videos in this series, each pattern is taught step-by-step, using a player’s eye view and a side view, at normal speed and in slow motion.  The grooves fit with all kinds of music, as you’ll see when I play them with my brother Rich Dworsky, the piano player on public radio’s A Prairie Home Companion.  And you’ll be able to play along, because I only play exactly what I've shown you how to play in the lessons.

To show you how the grooves work in a more traditional context, I'm joined by master drummer Fode Seydou Bangoura on djembe.  When I play with Fode--one of the greatest djembe players in the world--you'll be able to play along too because--again--I only play what I've shown you how to play in the lessons.

The video is 56 minutes long and includes a PDF file with simple charts of all the patterns. 

This video is also available as a DVD. Just click on "Physical DVDs" in the main menu of Videos and Books. 

In this package deal, you can get the complete Bongo Grooves for Beginners series--Volumes 1, 2, and 3--as a download and save $5 over the cost of getting each video individually. Volume 1 gets you started, Volume 2 teaches drumset grooves adapted to the bongos, and Volume 3 teaches African rhythms adapted to the bongos.  All the patterns work with popular music, including rock, pop, funk, and folk. 

The total running time of the three volumes together is 2 hours and 30 minutes, and a PDF is included with charts of all the patterns. If you want more information about each video in the series, click on the individual volumes below. 

As a bonus, you'll get some free music when you order this video series, including the album Jaguar at Half Moon Lake and the four piano songs I wrote for The Joy of Six. 

If you want more general information about how the downloading process works, click on "Downloads" on the main menu bar above. If you prefer to get the videos as DVDs, click on "Physical DVDs" in the menu of Videos and Books.

"Fantastic grooves presented in an easy, intelligent and delightful way!" Klaus Rosterg, Germany

"Your Bongo Grooves series is a masterpiece--the best instructional videos I've ever purchased." Joe DeCristoforo, Pipe Creek, Texas

Years ago, when I asked my drum teacher if he could help me learn to solo, he said: "Just feel it, man!"  Well, that didn't work for me, so I've spent years breaking down the process.  That's why I'm able to show you how to solo in a systematic, step-by-step way.    

This video is structured into 8 lessons, each focused on a set of licks that are combined into patterns and played with music. You'll learn the power of pairs, checkered voicing, the offbeat path, how to create the illusion of speed with a rippled 6, how to stick the landing, a bit about technique, and more.  And the music never stops, so you can always play along.  

Each pattern is shown in either a side view or a player's-eye view.  And each lesson ends with a short segment where I play something from that lesson up to speed in a magical rooftop jam with my friend Scott Sansby on drums.

The video comes with a PDF file that includes charts of all the patterns, and for easy reference the number of each pattern appears onscreen while I'm demonstrating it. The PDF file also gives you the pitches I tuned my bongos to in every lesson.

You can think of the licks and patterns in this video as being like words and phrases in your rhythmic vocabulary.  The goal is for you to learn to put them together in your own way, so that when you solo on bongos--whether it's in a band or a jam or just playing along with your favorite music--you can say what you want to say. 

Running time: 50 minutes