Drum Tips - Great Drum Books

Here are a few great books that will help keep your on drum technique moving in the right direction:

• Stick Control
  by George B. Stone
  A great book full of sticking patterns to teach independence between the hands. First published in 1935, this is one of THE great books on drum technique. Most of the great drummers will tell you they have read through it at some point in developing monster chops. Many still use it as a base of warm-up exercises. It is also great for reading through it between the feet for double bass drum technique and when you really want to get fancy, try reading through it playing the parts between one hand and one foot.

• Progressive Steps to Syncopation for the Modern Drummer
  by Ted Reed
  Voted second on Modern Drummer's list of 25 Greatest Drum Books in 1993, Progressive Steps to Syncopation for the Modern Drummer is one of the most versatile and practical works ever written for drums. Created exclusively to address syncopation, it has earned its place as a standard tool for teaching beginning drummers syncopation and strengthening reading skills. This book includes many accented eighths, dotted eighths and sixteenths, eighth-note triplets and sixteenth notes for extended solos. In addition, teachers can develop many of their own examples from it.
• Gary Chaffee has developed a wonderful series books on independence between all the limbs. A pattern is played by one, two, or three limbs, and then he provides pages of "melodic" material to be read over the top of the pattern by the remaining limbs. Takes time to develop but it leads to some seriously groovy playing!

Drum Tips - Secrets to being a Musical Drummer

LISTEN! - That's it.

It's really just that simple.
Listen to everything! Listen to all kinds of music and listen to what everyone in the ensemble is playing. Listen to classical and jazz and pop and rock music. Listen to the melody and the rhythm and the harmonic structures. Listen to the spaces between the notes. The space between the notes is as important as the notes, sometimes, even MORE important than the notes.

Listen to how the instruments in different styles integrate with each other. Is the bass coming in slightly before or slightly after the drummer? Are the bass and drums locked together? Is the kick drum locked note for note with the bass part or just hitting the accents for the bass part? How does the guitar part fit with what the bass and drums are playing? How are the drum fills complimenting the melody and rhythm of the song?

How does the percussion section of the symphony differ from the percussion part of a jazz band or a rock band? Can you play a symphonic sounding drum part in a rock song?

Now Listen to what everybody in your own band is doing. Are you playing with them or just playing a bunch of your favorite licks? Are you being a drummer or just keeping time like a metronome?

Practicing various exercises to build your technique is great for developing TECHNIQUE, but technique alone is NOT musicality! Technique is simply the means to expressing the music.

Knowing the alphabet is not enough to be a great writer, to become a great writer one must read and write. Read everything and then start writing once you have something to say and keep writing. It is the same with music. Your musical technique/chops are like knowing the alphabet. Listening to the music that has been made before is like reading. And writing music is like writing words. You really should have something to say before you start talking.

Listening to a wide variety of music, really listening to all the intricate details of the various kinds of music, will help you develop something interesting to say.

Practice "listening" every day!