If you want to know how to play congas, you’re in luck. The conga has one of the richest learning ecosystems of any hand drum, with deep roots in Afro-Cuban folkloric tradition, a strong presence in popular Latin music, and an increasingly global community of teachers bringing that tradition into online instruction. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to go deeper into learning this wonderful drum, the nine resources below represent the best of what’s currently available: five online memberships, three books, and a practice app, all of which I’ve used personally.
A note on how to use the subscription services: I find the most value in subscribing for one to two months at a time, drawing on specific content when it’s relevant to what I’m working on. Each platform has something the others don’t. The books and app are one-time purchases that complement the subscriptions well.
How to play congas: quick comparison
| Resource | Type | Price | Best for |
| 1. Michael Pluznick | Membership | $20/month | Quick-start conga tutorials, plus bongos, shekere, and djembe |
| 2. Kalani Das | Patreon | $10–$35/month | Teachers and facilitators who want breadth across instruments |
| 3. Conga Chops | Membership | $30/month (7-day free trial) | Deep conga technique, clave, and play-along tracks, from beginner to advanced |
| 4. Carolyn Brandy, Tumbadora Academy | Membership | $30/month | Cuban rhythms with cultural context |
| 5. Michael DeMiranda | Patreon | $5 and up | Afro-Cuban and Brazilian rhythms, with budget play-alongs |
| 6. Shadowing the Lion (Bill Matthews) | Book | $30 | Traditional rhythms from Cuba, Haiti, Ghana, and the Congo |
| 7. Afro-Cuban Percussion Workbook | Book | See Amazon | Percussion groups, classrooms, and advanced soloing |
| 8. Afro-Cuban Rhythms: Gig Savers (Trevor Salloum) | Book | See Amazon | Folkloric rhythms with YouTube companion lessons |
| 9. PercussionTutor | App (iOS) | $14.99 | A wide-angle view of hand percussion traditions |
Before you start: the basic conga sounds
Most lessons on how to play congas begin with a few basic strokes: the open tone, a ringing note played with the fingers near the rim; the slap, a sharp, popping note; the bass tone, a deep note played with the palm in the center of the head; and the muffled (or closed) tone. You’ll also hear the drums named by size: the quinto is the smallest and highest, the conga (or segundo) sits in the middle, and the tumba is the largest and lowest. Whichever resource you choose, expect to spend your first lessons on these sounds before moving on to rhythms.
Conga lessons online: memberships and courses
1. Michael Pluznick: Online Courses
$20/month | Best for: beginners who want quick-start conga tutorials and a broader percussion education
Michael Pluznick’s credentials are hard to match: thirty-plus years of teaching, Afro-Cuban study in Havana with the legendary Pello El Afrokán, training with West African masters, performances with Olatunji, and recordings with Mickey Hart. His online courses cover congas, bongos, shekere, and djembe, making this one of the very few memberships where you can study multiple percussion traditions side by side at every skill level. Of particular note are the gig ready and quick start conga tutorials on his site. His social media is also worth following for regular technique tips and performance content. If you’d like to add djembe, see my guide to djembe drumming for beginners.
2. Kalani Das on Patreon
$10–$35/month | Best for: teachers and facilitators who want practical support across instruments
Kalani Das is a professional percussionist, educator, and music therapist with an unusually wide teaching range: congas, bongos, djembe, cajón, traditional rhythms, ukulele, tuned percussion, and drum circle facilitation guidance. For teachers and facilitators who want practical support across multiple instruments and traditions, this breadth is genuinely hard to find in one place. His conga instruction covers a range of traditional rhythms and some valuable technique instruction.
3. Conga Chops
$30/month (7-day free trial) | Best for: beginners through advanced players who want deep conga technique and play-along tracks
Founded in 2018 by Paulo Stagnaro, a two-time Grammy Award winner, member of Ricky Martin’s band since 2014, and performer with Sting, Paul Simon, and James Taylor, Conga Chops has grown into the leading online community for Latin percussionists. The platform also features Marcos López, a Puerto Rican native currently on tour with Marc Anthony, and Grammy Award-winning engineer and percussionist Marcos Torres. Together they offer over 90 hours of 4K video lessons, masterclasses with legends including Marc Quiñones and Bobby Allende, and a practice loop library recorded by Grammy-winning musicians.
The platform is well-structured for beginners learning how to play congas and strong for intermediate to advanced players. Even the freebie you receive for signing up to the email newsletter delivers real value, with a great daily practice routine. This site goes the deepest on conga technique and on breaking down ways to outline the clave in Latin music. A wide range of rhythms from across Afro-Latin genres are covered at the intermediate level, and you can’t go past the high-quality play-along tracks with some great session musicians.
4. Carolyn Brandy: Tumbadora Academy
$30/month | Best for: players who want technique together with the cultural story of Cuban rhythms
Carolyn Brandy has been playing congas since 1968 and has spent more than five decades as a pioneer in opening doors for women in Afro-Cuban percussion. She has led six study tours to Cuba, trained directly with Mario Jauregui (director of percussion at the Conjunto Folclórico Nacional de Cuba), and holds a degree in Music Education from Holy Names University in Oakland. Her Tumbadora Academy combines technical instruction with cultural context. For players who want both the technique and the broader story of the tradition, this is an excellent choice. The site features some rare videos of Cuban masters in action, and if you want a deep dive into Cuban rhythms, it’s a great place to go.
5. Michael DeMiranda on Patreon
$5 and up | Best for: Afro-Cuban and Brazilian rhythms on a budget
DeMiranda’s Patreon focuses on Afro-Cuban and Brazilian content, with high-quality videos, play-along tracks, and access levels ranging from video-only through to private lessons. He teaches many traditional rhythms from Cuba and Brazil. I have followed his YouTube channel for many years, and he offers easily digestible instruction that is culturally authentic. I highly recommend subscribing to him on YouTube and digging into the treasure trove of free information on offer. For $5 a month you gain access to his percussion play-along tracks so you can practice what you learn on YouTube. The other tiers offer things such as messages crediting you as a supporter, private online lessons, and more.
Conga books and rhythm collections
6. Shadowing the Lion by Bill Matthews
$30 | Best for: building a repertoire of traditional rhythms, with teacher and school discounts
Shadowing the Lion is one of the most comprehensive single-volume collections of traditional rhythms available anywhere. Spanning Cuba, Haiti, Ghana, the Congo, and beyond, it brings together content from Matthews’ previous books, including The New Conga Joy and Drum Talk, into 220 spiral-bound pages: 76 rhythm ensembles, 78 rhythm dialogues, 40 hand-crafted 8-bar solos, and an extensive bell and clave section.
Companion CDs are available separately, though they are not quite as good as Matthews’ excellent album Conga Joy, which is available on streaming services. Volume 2 of Conga Joy demonstrates many of the ensemble rhythms from this book in ensemble format, while the Shadowing the Lion CDs demonstrate each drum’s part separately, so it’s great hearing them all together in context. Matthews offers teacher and school discounts if you order directly through the Conga Joy website.
7. Afro-Cuban Percussion Workbook by José Eladio Amat and Curtis Lanoue
See Amazon | Best for: percussion groups, classrooms, and advanced players working on soloing
The Afro-Cuban Percussion Workbook is a structured, technical workbook that functions almost as an encyclopedia of Cuban rhythms and styles for congas, timbales, and full percussion sections. Full rhythm charts for folkloric rhythms using large instrumentations make it particularly useful for percussion groups and classroom settings looking to build a serious world music repertoire. Advanced players will find the notation for soloing especially worthwhile.
8. Afro-Cuban Rhythms: Gig Savers Complete Edition by Trevor Salloum
See Amazon | Best for: learners who want folkloric rhythms with live YouTube instruction alongside the notation
Gig Savers covers an impressive range of traditional folkloric rhythms: Yambú, Guaguancó (Havana and Matanzas styles), Rumba Columbia, Conga from three regional traditions, Bembe, Makuta, Yuka, Palo, Arabá, Abakuá, Gagá, Vodú, and Iyesa. Salloum’s YouTube channel provides live instruction on many of the rhythms in the book, a useful companion to the written notation, particularly for rhythms that benefit from hearing them in context.
A practice app for congas
9. PercussionTutor
iOS | $14.99 | Best for: educators and players who want a wide-angle view of hand percussion traditions
PercussionTutor is one of the most geographically diverse hand percussion apps available. It covers rhythms from Cuba, Colombia, Puerto Rico, Peru, West Africa, and more, functioning as both a rhythm library and a play-along tool. It’s particularly useful for educators who want to give students a wide-angle view of hand percussion traditions alongside conga-specific study. A free eBook with video links and notation is also available at percussiontutor.com/downloads. A really useful resource.
Where to start learning how to play congas
When it comes to how to play congas, you don’t need all nine resources at once. Here is how I would choose:
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- Want a structured online course with play-along tracks? Start with Conga Chops and use the 7-day free trial.
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- Want quick-start tutorials and other percussion too? Try Michael Pluznick’s courses.
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- Want to start free? Dig into Michael DeMiranda’s YouTube channel, then add his $5 Patreon for the play-along tracks.
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- Want the cultural story behind Cuban rhythms? Choose Carolyn Brandy’s Tumbadora Academy.
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- Prefer a book? Shadowing the Lion for a broad repertoire, the Workbook for groups and classrooms, or Gig Savers if you want YouTube companion lessons.
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- Teach or facilitate? Kalani Das’s Patreon and the PercussionTutor app offer the widest range.
However you approach how to play congas, these resources provide conga-specific instruction along with conga-adjacent study, covering a lot of music from the African diaspora and offering a lifetime of practice and discovery. If you’re also drawn to the community side of hand drumming, see my post on drum circles and social emotional learning.
