Most Essential Drum Books?

[Odd-Arne Oseberg]

Syncopation
New breed

For linear stuff the Chafee books.

I also like Groove Essentials and Dave Weckl's play-a-long stuff.

I'm not a fan of Stick Control at all. You can only get so far with static exercises. Those that I do I create myself. For the most part I like using a reading text like e.g. "Syncopation" and interpret it in different ways. That way I develop my ears and mind more than just my hands and my focus and level of relaxation gets challenged.

[Niles]

Books that I use:

It's Your Move
Stick Control
Accents & Rebounds
Master Studies
Syncopation / Modern Reading Text
Patterns (Time functioning Patterns) (Sticking Patterns)
Essence of Jazz Drumming
Advanced Concepts
Future Sounds / The Funky Beat
4 Way Coordination

[bstocky]

What's the best double bass book/concept you guys have seen? I've used Joe Franco's book, it's basic double bass, if I use Gavin's substitutions and some of my own ideas I can make it more difficult. I have Virgil's book but haven't really practiced anything in it. Some of the stuff looks crazy. Is Virgil's book the best?

[langmick]

I went through Wilcoxon's AASD last year.

I'm starting at the back and going to the front this year.

There are a TON of great "licky" passages, and there are some very challenging and interestingly phrased solos.

[Josiah]

Considering I've never met anyone who has gone made all the way through New Breed, all that letters and substitution stuff is just adding more complexities for what should be an easy thing. It's like a $15 book you'll most likely never finish.

Same goes with Chaffee's stuff, to actually completely make it through the Pattern series would be one hell of an impressive feat.


Do you read music? Good. Go with that, it's easy, works and there's more material then anyone could ever get through anyway.

What's the best double bass book/concept you guys have seen? I've used Joe Franco's book, it's basic double bass, if I use Gavin's substitutions and some of my own ideas I can make it more difficult. I have Virgil's book but haven't really practiced anything in it. Some of the stuff looks crazy. Is Virgil's book the best?

The Encyclopedia of Double Bass Drumming is the best for practical applications.

Virg's book is cool, but it's pretty far out there stuff in a lot of cases and impractical outside of musical settings designed specifically for the drummer to be playing that kind of material.

The Encyclopedia is brilliantly laid out, and also has a huge section dealing with linear cross rhythms. The 32nd note and 32nd note triplet section will scare even the most proficient double bass dudes.

[chris perra]

I use the Greb Alphabet for practicing double bass.. It coincides with Joe Franco's ideas..

8ths with right foot, e's and a's with left foot..
2 and 4 on snare eighths with hands..

From there you could do single doubles, flams, doubles with one foot

pick four letters you have a bar in 4/4, playing 16th's
pick 8 play twice as fast you have 32nds in 4/4
do the single doubles using 4 letters you get a combo..

It's more work mentally than a well laid out book, but it works..

[Henry II]

"Advanced Techniques for the Modern Drummer" by Jim Chapin
"Modern Reading Text in 4/4" by Louis Bellson and Gil Breines
"Stick Control" by George Lawrence Stone
"Progressive Steps to Syncopation" by Ted Reed
"Chart Reading Workbook for Drummer" by Bobby Gabrieli

[Dave Capuzelo]

Im all about Chaffee. Having studied with him, I think he really covered so much that drummers need and should want to know. He also did the near-impossible; he teaches creativity. I definitely recommend all 5 of his books, and a qualified teacher to guide you through them.

A few people have mentioned Benny Greb's book. I love him as a player, and read & worked through his book, but really if you're familiar with Gary Chaffee's "Fat Back" exercises from his "Technique Patterns" book, then Benny's book is just somewhat of an extension and more specific idea of how to use those exercises.

Thomas Lang's coordination material is really great for your feet; he just covers so many possibilities and combinations with singles and doubles played against singles and doubles. Definitely a long term project, but likely worth the effort.

As far as the New Breed, I know some people who have worked through it (with Gary Chester, in fact) and they ALL swear it was a life changing process. Again, definitely a long term goal.

[Matus]

Im all about Chaffee. Having studied with him, I think he really covered so much that drummers need and should want to know. He also did the near-impossible; he teachers creativity. I definitely recommend all 5 of his books, and a qualified teacher to guide you through them.

A few people have mentioned Benny Greb's book. I love him as a player, and read & worked through his book, but really if you're familiar with Gary Chaffee's "Fat Back" exercises from his "Technique Patterns" book, then Benny's book is just somewhat of an extension and more specific idea of how to use those exercises.

Thomas Lang's coordination material is really great for your feet; he just covers so many possibilities and combinations with singles and doubles played against singles and doubles. Definitely a long term project, but likely worth the effort.

As far as the New Breed, I know some people who have worked through it (with Gary Chester, in fact) and they ALL swear it was a life changing process. Again, definitely a long term goal.

This. What's great about Benny's DVD is that it's entertaining, well thought and easy to watch. Besides that, anyone who studied Chaffee already covered that ground and more widely.
About double bass drumming, a buddy of mine wrote a great book, "Advanced Double Bass Drumming". Covers singles, doubles, polyrythms, etc and, again, very well thought and useful exercises.

[renardvert]

I'm a big fan of drum books. I read them while eating potato chips.

Lately, I've been playing through Mastering The Tables Of Time by David Stanoch. I think it's a terrific book that challenges several aspect of drumming. I've also been working on 4 Way Coordination too. It's a pretty cool book that has a lot of cool ideas. Mastering The Tables is based a bit on that book I think.

For Double Bass, I've played a lot through the Double Bass Drum Encyclopedia. It has a lot of good beats and some challenging coordination exercises. Virgil's book is very good too. It has more advanced concept in it so it'd be good to play through the encyclopedia first.

I also like to go through the first pages of Stick Control while playing stuff with my feet like a samba pattern, clave and tumbao and double bass singles.

Have fun!!!!