Survival Guide for the Modern Drummer: A Crash Course in All Musical Styles for Drumset

All great ideas are simple. Here’s a great idea: Tell working drummers exactly what they need to know, and then teach it to them. Simple. If you work through this book, you can confidently go out and gig/record and be assured that you are prepared for whatever comes your way. The book won't make you a true expert in rock, country, blues, pop, swing, metal, etc., but, it will make you proficient enough to go out and actually work. The fatal flaw of many drumming books is that they contain endless variations on a theme. For example, in Advanced Techniques for the Modern Drummer, there are numerous exercises that help your coordination and independence, but are not applicable in the "real world." Survival Guide for the Modern Drummer only gives you exercises that you can actually use. The book also gives you a clear “blueprint” for the things every working drummer needs to know. The most common fills, ghost notes, funk beats, the half time shuffle, the country train beat, basic swing four bar breaks, heavy metal double bass patterns, blues beats – it’s all here in a concise, user friendly format. The two pages on ghost notes alone are worth the price of the book. This book comes with audio examples and play along tracks for each exercise. With the downloadable software, you can also slow down and speed up the exercises for practice. But, that is just the beginning. There are also numerous YouTube videos with instruction and performance. Also, the book includes charts of the play along tracks using the Nashville Numbering System described in Jim Riley's first book. There is also a Facebook page for the book, where other students trade ideas, videos and tips. Sometimes the author responds too! I recently attended a three-day drum clinic with Jim Riley. He connects well with his students. He is a gifted instructor with a degree in music education. Foremost, he is a working drummer. The exercises and tracks in this book are very similar to real songs. We would play and exercise, and he would say, “Who recognizes that one?” The examples in the book teach the set list that every working drummer needs to know. Only a top country drummer could write this book. Like country music itself, this book is for the workingman. In this case, a working drummer.

I'm having a lot of fun with this book. If you're looking for a drumless tracks for play along, this has plenty in all styles of music. The book itself gives you some basic grooves and fills for each style of music. As far as developing skill and technique, if you're an intermediate or advanced player you are probably already familiar with most of this, but I learned a few interesting groove and fill concepts. The best part was the opportunity to play long with all types of music. Any musician should do this regardless of what type of band you are in or what type of music you like. You can learn so much by playing other types of music that you can then apply to your own playing. And you should make playing along with music part of your daily practice routine. I'm really enjoying this. A ton of value for the price. You get the grooves and fill ideas for each style of music, 124 play along tracks, plus recordings of all of the grooves and fills in the book so you can hear how they sound. There's no charts for the songs, and really only a sentence or two to describe each song, so it's up to you to create the part using the groove and fill concepts in each chapter. So you can get a lot out of this. Even thought there's only 124 songs (which is still A LOT!), I've been spending about a week on each song really listening to the song to write my drum track, and then playing and refining it until I feel it fits well then move along to the next song. Another fun thing to do is experiment with different grooves and fills, different orchestrations on the drum set. You can try out whatever you want in the safety of your practice space. It's a great way to discover new grooves, fills, sounds, etc. Definitely worth the small investment. Have fun with it.

I was interested in this book because I had attended a Modern Drummer Fest Master Class with Jim and was blown away by his abilities for playing and enthusiasm to teach. I had also seen some of the demo vids that Jim put out on the drumless tracks and thought the music was authentic to the style and wanted to play along to see how well I could play them too. In particular, I now play a lot of country music, because of where I live, and always felt that I had some QC problems with some of my Country Chops. Checking out the suggested patterns and recording myself playing to the tracks really was a totally downer but it gave me a reference point on how I needed to adjust my groove to fit the music better. The variety of styles covered in the book is comprehensive so you won't be bored anytime soon. This is a true bargain at 17 bucks for all the tracks you get and the ink used to print all those pages. I have some other Bible books, which are solid, but I have found this one is the most useful in improving my playing. Giddy on up and click the Add To Cart Button!

This is a very good all around drum book. Jim covered a lot of ground by demonstrating many different styles of drumming. A working drummer should be able to play all styles including dance, pop, rock, swing, jazz, slow blues, shuffles, ballads, & latin. I've used this book with my students. My one criticism is the use of an "x" instead of a typical oval shaped note to represent a snare hit and the use of the oval for a ghost note. It's confusing. I think it should be the other at around. I get asked all of the time what the "x" is for. People are so used to seeing an oval shaped note for a snare hit in the second space of the staff. He should've used the oval for snare hit and "x" for ghost note. SMH... Jim also included drumless tracks to practice with. You get a lot of good stuff here for the price. Definitely recommended for any drummer or teacher!

L'ho trovato molto utile da utilizzare per ripasso e consolidamento di studi già fatti. Utilissimo anche per rinforzo del timing e quando vengono i dubbi "qui che faccio? Quale ritmo è più adatto?"

Ich bin total begeistert. Ein tolles Arbeitsbuch. Jim Riley gibt zu jeder Musikrichtung eine Einleitung und erklärt, wie Lieder in diesem Stil stukturiert sind. Zu jedem Lied gibt es dann die Informationen, wie es aufgebaut ist (z.B. Einleitung, Strophe, Refrain, Strophe, Refrain, Bridge, Solo, Refrain, Ende), und Tips, wie man die Sektionen spielt und sie unterschiededlich klingen lässt (High-Hat vs. Ride, Snare vs. Rim Click etc.), und wie man Übergänge durch Fills gestaltet. Leider ist nicht angegeben, vieviele Takte die jeweiligen Sektionen haben. Man muss sich also erst mal mit dem Lied beschäftigen und einhören, bevor man losspielen kann. Das alleine ist schon eine sehr gute Übung, sich mit der Musik zu beschäftigen und 'musikalisch' zu spielen statt einfach nur 'rumzutrommeln'. Die Play-Alongs sind alle sehr hochwertig und stimmig. Man merkt, dass hier Experten für die jeweilige Stilrichtung gespielt haben, und nicht die selbe Studionband alle Lieder hintereinander runtergedudelt hat. Man ist sofort im richtigen Feeling, und es mach echt Spaß am Schlagzeug mitzugrooven. Mein größter Kritikpunkt ist die Notation des Rim-Shots. Riley benutzt ein X als Notenkopf. Das finde ich sehr unintuitiv. Es sieht "leichter" aus als ein normaler Snareschlag, und ich kenne es aus diesem Grund auch als "Sidestick/Rim-Click". Dabei soll der Rim-Shot ja genau das Gegenteil sein und einen kräftigen Akzent setzen. Da ich persönlich kein "Heavy Hitter" bin und Rim-Shots sehr sparsam einsetze musste ich mich erst ziemlich umgewöhnen die ganzen X-Noten quasi zu ignorieren und einen normalen, starken Backbeat zu spielen. Abgesehen von dieser Kleinigkeit ist es ein rundum gelungenes Buch. Wenn man überlegt, dass für Play-Along-Stücke ohne Schlagzeugspur teilweise 6 Euro pro Lied verlangt werden, wenn man sie einzeln kauft, ist diese Buch mit weit über 100 Play-Alongs ein absoluter Preis-Leistungs-Kracher. In den englischsprachigen Rezessionen hat jemand geschrieben "Es gibt keinen Grund, dieses Buch nicht zu haben." Dem kann ich mir nur anschließen.

Un libro q te acerca al lenguage del swing..muy interesante y recomendable.. Indispensable en la biblioteca de los baterias desde estudiantes a profesores

As faixas de playalong foram desabilitadas, deixando-me sem acesso a uma parte importante do conteúdo.

J'ai acheté plusieurs bouquins de musique, batterie, guitare, basse. Celui-ci est un de mes meilleurs achats si ce n'est le meilleur. Jim Riley propose des tas de plans dans tous les styles (pop, rock, jazz, funk, metal, disco, latin...) , histoire de pouvoir jammer dans tous les styles à la demande, des plus simples au plus complexes. Chaque plan est disponible en audio pour checker l'idée et qu'on le joue conformément à ce qui est proposé par l'auteur. Il propose aussi quelques analyses (en anglais) de styles et des idées qu'il propose. Déjà en soit, rien que pour ça, le bouquin est bien. Le gros gros plus, ce sont les 124 backing tracks enregistrés avec de vrais musiciens. On est loin des musiques redondantes, au son synthétique, qu'on peut parfois trouver sur le net. Les morceaux durent un bon bout de temps, de quoi bien vérifier qu'on sait jouer les plans proposés, mais plus aussi, comme si on jouait en groupe. Les morceaux commencent par un "one, two..." histoire de bien prendre conscience du tempo, puis intro, couplet, ... bref, on y retrouve la structure typique d'un vrai morceau dans le style joué. Vous pouvez acheter les yeux fermés! Attention, le cd n'est pas fourni avec le livre. En lieu et place, un code de téléchargement en ligne.