December Books

The Commandments of R&B Drumming Play – Along

By Zoro and Russ Miller

Its been a few years since Zoro and Russ Miller collaborated after the successful award winning book "The Commandments Of R&B Drumming" book series but there is now a follow up with this 65 page book with MP3 CD package.

The book is made of 14 authentic play along tracks in the R&B style covering soul, funk, blues, hip-hop, gospel and Motown. Each track has a two page historical explanation, groove examples then the complete drum transcriptions. The book comes with a well-recorded MP3 CD with all the tracks with and without drums played by an all-star band. The CD is recorded with a pitch and tempo changer so if the track is to fast you can slow it down.

The book has 14 great tracks including classics like Aretha Franklin’s "Old Landmark", The Meters "Hey Pocky A-way" and James Browns "Superbad"

I loved this book, it’s one of my favorites of the year and I have been teaching from it ever since I got it. The pitch and tempo changer is a great teaching tool and the original backing tracks are first class. If I had to find fault in the book it would be that some of the levels of the tracks are not consistent but this is not a major problem.

Great package that I recommended any serious player or teacher has in their library. Well done guys, let’s hope there is more to follow.

Alfred Publications

$19.95

£12.95

Mike Dolbear

Rock Solid – Liberty DeVitto and Sean J Kennedy

This book is described as the ‘systematic approach for learning rock drumming’. The book is packed with a number of grooves and exercises which gives the budding new drummer or the experienced veteran a quick and easy method of building their understanding of playing great rock. The book is accompanied by an MP3 disc, which show examples of the exercise and a number of play along tracks

DeVitto is well known for being the sticksman for Billy Joel and has also performed with Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Chuck Berry, Elton John and Stevie Nicks to name a few. While Kennedy’s CV has given him the pleasure of working with some great players like Will Lee, Bob Mintzer, Richie Cannata, Dr Frederick Fennell and Donald Nally

The book is split into for main sections, topics include: quarter, eight and sixteenth note bass drum patterns with syncopation, triplet patterns, fills and shuffles, odd meter and world grooves, and a play along tracks section.

This is the kind of book that’s hits you like an action movies or a thriller. After you skip the intro pages like most of us do, you are presented with simple and straight forward exercises help you get you were you want to go. Maybe it just has the right amount of words and pictures. The book is very well put to together and helps the user to see where they are, and where they want or could go next. The play along tracks are challenging give the drummer the opportunity to explore the feel aspects of their playing as well as the groove, much like when playing with a real band.

Overall it’s great book that somehow keeps you flicking through the pages trying work the next groove or pattern l. I hope that the Devitto/Kennedy partnership produce some more great teaching tools.

Carl Fisher Publications

$19.95

£12.95

Adrian Graham

Green Day – 21st Century Breakdown

This book by does what it says on the tin, the complete Green Day album transcribed in 131 pages. The first 8 pages have all the words from the album and art work taken from the CD booklet.

It’s great to see proper drum transcriptions without vocal and chords written and this one of many new Alfred books that just writes drum transcriptions.

This, I am sure, will be a very popular book if you are a Tre Cool fan or interested in this style of music. It covers the complete album with all 19 tracks in very clear and accurate transcriptions.

Alfred Publications

$21.95

£14.95

Spotlights Complete – Sonke Herrmannsen

Here we have the entire contents of the four original Spotlight Volumes, plus 6 bonus solos by Sonke Herrmannsen.

There are: -

17 easy solos.

13 medium solos

3 advanced solos

5 Double bass solos

6 bonus solos

This book is full of exciting grooves and creative solo patterns with pieces that work through many musical styles. There is an abundance of material to go through with 44 pieces in total, all very clearly notated with lots of dynamics and changes.

Overall I found this book very useful. As a teaching tool it is great reading practice and caters for everyone. Ok, aside from the advanced section of the book, the most advanced of the advanced players won’t find this book too challenging but everyone else stands to gain a lot from it! It comes with a CD, which unfortunately is only a recording of the solos themselves and not backing music, but obviously helps you to decipher any of the parts by ear if the notation ever starts to beat you.

Every piece has an introduction from Mr. Herrmannsen that includes a few tips on how to play the piece as well as some encouraging advice. My only slight frustration with this book is that it only has a few advanced solos advertised and I fear this may put some of the more advanced players off. There are many different styles throughout the book including reggae, pop, rock, New Orleans, half time shuffle, samba, funk etc and no matter who you are you are going to find some harder than others! I would say that at least the last 12 require some real study to get really perfect due to the diversity of styles as well as the complexity of the pieces.

All the pieces are written for a 5 piece drum kit except for one which requires a cowbell (but you can always just use the rim of a tom) and they are obviously very well thought out. They really come together as pieces of music, not just solitary drum tracks and are great for concert and competition environments. Teachers and professionals alike will find this book very useful. Definitely an asset to your drumming collection!

Hudson Euro

$41.95

£21.95

Chris Persiva