Beyond Black Friday

paperback book - eBook - audio - FREE AUDIO - paperback book - eBook - audio

What do you give a timbero who has everything? Beyond Salsa for Beginners: An Introduction to Latin Music for Dancers and Listeners is for the diehard music fan who doesn't necessarily want to learn an instrument. It's a full history of Cuban music from the very beginning, including changüí, rumba, comparsa, son, danzón, son montuno, charanga, mambo, Arsenio, Arcaño, Aragón, the descargas, Cachao, Beny, Celia, Tito, Machito, Rubén Blades, mozambique, pilón, songo, Irakere, Afro-Cuban folkloric music, and my most thorough timba history to date. There's an extensive glossary and a special guide to Cuban Spanish for English speakers complete with tips on pronunciation, accent marks, and slang. I have to admit that I went through a period where I thought the world began and ended with timba, but as I started trying to understand where timba came from I found an endless well of priceless music from every decade of the era of recorded music. The book tells you how to find it, understand it, warm up to it, and see how and why it's so critical to timba. It's almost impossible to find a timba song that doesn't have multiple references to these earlier genres in the lyrics, melodies and arrangements. There's also an analysis of the growth of salsa and the way Cuban and Nuyorican music have influenced each other over the years. The book also has a full set of very basic clapping and singing exercises to learn the most basic rhythms that even non-musicians should know: clave, dancing "on 2" and "on 3" the most basic rhythm of each bell and drum and so on. There's also a history of how each bell and percussion instrument evolved over the decades and a huge section explaining how to listen to trickier Afro-Cuban folkloric rhythms.

The second book, Beyond Salsa Percussion, Vol. 1 is for beginning drummers and timbaleros. The idea is that before you take your first lesson you should learn how to sing and clap all the basic rhythms - first one at a time, and then in combinations of 2 and 3. This way, you can spend your lessons working on technique, posture and tone production without being distracted by coordination.

IMPORTANT NOTES: These two books share several sections. BS Percusion V.1 has a lot more rhythms, but doesn't have any of the history and discography stuff that in BS for Beginners. Each one is ideal for its target audience, but if you buy both, you'll be annoyed to have purchased some duplicate material. So if you want them both, send me an email so you can get a big discount to account for the duplicate material.

AUDIO: This is also a bit confusing so please read carefully. There are 107 free tracks that you can download here. These tracks are covered by both books, so you'll need the free tracks no matter which book you buy. By the time you get through the free tracks, you'll know how well the method works for you and you can download the rest for the usual fee at LPM.

SPECIAL OFFER: If you buy both eBooks, the audio for both is free, so buy the books on LPM, then email me to receive the free audio. So in summary, for people who want both books: if you want both paperback books, email me for a discount, and if you want both eBooks, buy them on LPM and then email me for the audio. (kevin - at - timba.com). [Kevin Moore]

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Wednesday, 21 November 2012, 09:12 PM

photo by Peter Maiden

Update: 10:00 tickets now back on sale. Original Post: Click on the photo for Peter Maiden's photo gallery from the Havana d'Primera Santa Cruz show. Note that Yoshi's SF has stopped selling advance tickets for the 10:00 show. I'm not sure if they're holding any back for night-of-show. There are still a small number of 8:00 show advance tickets.

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Wednesday, 21 November 2012, 05:03 AM

photo by Peter Maiden

Wow - HdP packed Don Quixote's International Music Hall in Felton. It turns out to be a great venue - reasonably priced, great sound, great dance floor, great food. Patrick Hickey was on hand with his amazing video rig so you'll have some clips to look forward to, and Peter Maiden (above) and Tom Ehrlich were both clicking away with reckless abandon. The band was on fire - new tunes - two longs sets. Bay Area sonero extraordinaire Fito Reinoso sat in and brought the house down. Hopefully we'll be getting more Cuban shows at Quixote's in the near future.

Next tour stop: Saturday night at Yoshi's San Francisco - only one night this time - my advice is to buy advance tickets - I wouldn't be surprised to see people turned away at the door. The rest of the tour is here.

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Tuesday, 20 November 2012, 03:57 AM

Alexander Abreu & Havana D' Primera tore it up in LA - check out Kay Torres' report here. They play Don Quixote's off of Highway 17 in Santa Cruz - only $20 for the whole night and then Yoshi's SF on Saturday. Here's the rest of the tour. Bill's report is here.

Havana D' Primera US Tour 2012 - Cuban Music News - noticias de musica cubana