No comments about 10" PRO Headless Tambourine for Latin Percussion Double Row.

1 comments about Ludwig LE-2365 Maracas.

1. These maracas are truly well designed musical instruments, not just noise makers. I would recommend this pair to the Latin percussionist as well as the orchestral percussionist. The articulation and smooth sound produced for orchestral style playing is absolutely beautiful and continuous, and can be controlled very easily for soft rolls, crescendos, and even decrescendos. They are also just small enough that they can be held with one hand, freeing the other one up for other auxilliary percussive duties.

No comments about Egg Shakers, Wooden Pair Red.

No comments about Country Classics.

No comments about Rhythm Pals Set of 4 Instruments.

No comments about Lee Oskar Major Diatonic Harmonica, LOW F.

No comments about Hohner 560 Special 20 Harmonica, Key of C, with Bonus Book & CD.

3 comments about Latin Percussion Giovanni Compact Conga, 11 Inches.

1. Why, you may ask, should you buy this little body-less conga, when you can get a "real" conga for about the same price? Well, for one thing, this *is* a real instrument, made by a great company (Latin Percussion) that's going to outlast one of the cheap Asian imported Congas that you'll soon be dissatisfied with. Another is that this is a drum you'll want to keep, for practice and travel, even if you do have a set of custom $600 congas, tumbas, quintos and so forth.
   
   I bought mine as a learning instrument. I've played drums off and on for decades, but never hand drums, and a friend recommended the Compact Conga as a much better choice than the cheap imports I was looking at. He was right. This is a beautiful, solidly made unit that's easy to play and delivers a surprising amount of tone, considering that there's no body. True, you won't get the real deep bass notes of a full-sized conga, but you'll get all the exrpessiveness of a full sized drum. (LP has a video of Giovanni himself playing it on their web site that will demonstrate this for you).
   
   The three raised feet on the bottom of the drum allow it to be played on a table top, but you'll really want a solid snare stand to put it on- something with mass, that can take serious slapping. I suppose you could build a wooden stand if you're handy- just make sure it can take heavy playing without moving about. (Personally, I've been kind of tempted to place it over the end of a Sonotube to hear how it would sound).
   
   For beginners, like myself, this is a great way to learn without investing a lot of money in expensive drums. For experienced players, I think this would be a great practice or travel drum. If you have your own home recording studio, I suspect this would be a great way to add some good conga sounds to your recordings without a huge investment. A fine product, with typical LP quality, and a great value.



2. I play with a piano trio at a club every week and I use the Compact Conga nightly. I place it right on the snare drum to play on suttle latin tunes. It's a nice change of pace for the band and for the audience.



3. There's a lot more to this than a rim and a head. If you take a look underneath, there is additional structure that has been carefully designed and built to produce a 100% (and I do mean 100%) true conga sound. No bass note, but the slap, muffled and even in-between tones are all there. This can played as an instrument in its own right or used as a practice instrument. It's really quite amazing.

No comments about Hohner Blues Harp MS Major Diatonic Harmonica, Key of G.

1 comments about Kala Mahogany Soprano Ukulele w/binding.

1. I was looking for a ukulele to accompany me to my hawaiian-themed rehearsal dinner, and this fit the bill and then some. I wanted something for a beginner, but also something that would sound significantly better than a toy ukulele you might win at a near-impossible carnival game, like "wacky wire" or "whack-a-mole." After surviving the rehearsal dinner, the Uke now sits happily in my office, ready to be strummed as I'm waiting for something to render.