Product Description

This guide to popular drum styles offers approximately 400 musical examples in standard drum notation showing grooves and practical variations, and provides overviews of the history and development of almost all popular music styles. Among the many styles and subsidiary styles covered are blues, rock, jazz, Afro-Cuban, Brazilian, klezmer, zydeco, funk, bossa nova, polka, Dixieland, surf, and disco. While this resource and two-CD set can serve as a simple encyclopaedia for those who need to know how to play a particular style, suggestions on varying the beat patterns for those who want to explore further and create their own patterns are also included. In addition, the two CDs contain performances of the musical examples in the book, which is designed with a lay-flat binding for easy use.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #49460 in Books
• Published on: 2004-12-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 181 pages

Review
"Quite an undertaking, researched and written with care." -- Modern Drummer, May 2004.

About the Author
Mick Berry has been playing drums for over 30 years, having studied with such legends as New Orleans drummers James Black and John Vidacovich, and Afro-Cuban drummer Walfredo Reyes, Sr. He has accompanied such renown artists/groups as Henry Butler, Eddie Henderson, Michael Wolff, E.C. Scott, The Spiral Starecase, The New Leviathan Oriental Foxtrot Orchestra, The San Francisco Mime Troupe and The San Francisco Shakespeare Festival. He currently resides in San Francisco where he performs and records with numerous bands playing a wide range of styles: jazz, blues, Latin jazz, R&B, orchestra pit, rock, and country. Jason Gianni has been a session drummer, teacher and performer in the Bay Area for close to a decade. His work can be heard on a wide variety of TV and radio commercials, and most notably, the theme song for the popular children's cartoon, SpongeBob Squarepants. Jason is the featured drummer on the fall 2003 release of the progressive rock band Magellan's new recording entitled Impossible Figures on InsideOut records. As a writer, his work has appeared in Modern Drummer magazine as well as the West coast "Jazz" Steps newsletter.

Customer Reviews

A must-have for students and gigging drummers alike!
Since I started playing the drums I've been waiting for someone to complete the, monumental, task of compiling every known style of set playing in one book. Mick Berry and Jason Gianni have gone far beyond simply transcribing over 160 styles (about 400 including variations):

They have included historical perspectives, background information, recorded examples (with and without click tracks), and put together a listening list with suggested albums and artists for every style.

There is a very helpful chapter on types of fills and appropriate use of them in each style, including references to famous recordings.

There is even a section explaining appropriate tuning and muffling for a drummer playing in a given style.

I really can't stress enough how much detail is contained in this book. I'm a percussion teacher and this is a great reference tool for understanding and explaining different grooves, I keep it handy when gigging too!!

Highest recommendation!

Superbly assembled and dense with interesting, useful information
I've encountered almost every major drumming book available at the moment, but none cover as much ground as this book. The authors have not only transcribed the basic grooves of every distinct genre, they have included specific notable grooves that cross the genres (Purdie Shuffle, Gadd's "50 ways to leave your lover" etc.).

Not a single piece of useful information about each style is left out. You are told the tempo range, the tuning and the feel of each style and if you get stuck, every style is played on the CD for reference. Working though this book you are guaranteed to find challenging grooves and absorb volumes of creative influence. A must have.