Get down with rock, R&B, jazz, blues, funk, and Latin rhythms! Groove to the beat in no time with this ultimate rockin' guide! Whether you're dreaming of starting a band, striking the snares, or simply playing a hand drum, this interactive book-and-CD package makes it easy to pick up the basics. Complete with new information on contemporary rock styles and beats as well as rhythms from around the world, this guide is all you need to become a talented, versatile drummer. Discover how to Bang out basic rhythms --with or without sticks Understand fundamental drumming techniques Explore other percussion instruments Find the perfect drum set Purchase, tune, and maintain your drums All this on the CD-ROM MP3 files of each rhythm and beat that you can play along with Rhythms for hand drums -- from the bongos and congas to the surdo, tar, and udu Solos to amaze the other members in the band Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

Table of Contents:
Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Conventions Used in This Book 2 What You’re Not to Read 2 Foolish Assumptions 3 How This Book Is Organized 3 Part I: Setting a Solid Foundation 3 Part II: Digging into the Drumset 4 Part III: Dressing up Your Drumset Skills 4 Part IV: Pounding Out the Beat: Traditional Drums and Percussion 4 Part V: Choosing, Tuning, and Caring for Your Drums 4 Part VI: The Part of Tens 5 Appendix 5 Icons Used in This Book 5 Where to Go from Here 5 Part I: Setting a Solid Foundation 7 Chapter 1: Drum Basics 9 Picking a Drum Apart from Head to Shell 10 Exploring How Drums Create Sound 10 Deconstructing the Drumset 12 Appreciating the Old-timers: Traditional Drums 14 Swingin’ Sticks and Slapping the Skins 15 Chapter 2: I’ve Got Rhythm 17 Developing a Sound Vocabulary 18 Adding Some Drumming Definitions 23 Becoming One with the Pulse (and I’m Not Talking Heartbeat) 25 Feeling the Meter 26 Embracing Odd Meter 27 Chapter 3: Tapping into Drumming Techniques 29 Talkin’ Technique: What You Need to Know 29 Perfecting your posture 30 Preventing injuries 30 Hitting the drum: It’s (not) all in the wrist 34 Speaking Softly and Carrying Big Sticks 35 Holding the sticks 35 Understanding drumstick strokes 38 Painting a Variety of Textures with Brushes 41 Getting to know brush styles 41 Getting a grip on brushing techniques 42 Forging a Foundation with Rudiments 44 The single-stroke roll 46 The double-stroke roll 46 The paradiddle 46 The flam 47 The ruff 47 Getting the Most Out of Your Practice Sessions 48 Starting slowly 48 Counting out the rhythm 48 Thinking it through first 48 Toughing out practice 49 Knowing when to stop 49 Chapter 4: Getting a Handle on Hand Drumming Techniques 51 Taking Matters (and Tones) into Your Own Hands 51 Opting for Open Tones 52 Basic open tone stroke 52 Thumb stroke 53 The open slap tone 54 Bass tone 54 The rim stroke 55 Mastering Muted Tones 56 Basic muted tone 56 The closed slap stroke 57 The palm stroke 58 The heel-tip stroke 58 Venturing into Some Alternative Strokes 59 Brushing stroke 59 Drone tone 59 The snap 60 Trills 61 One-handed rolls 61 Keeping Your Options Open 62 Part II: Digging into the Drumset 63 Chapter 5: Settling In Behind the Drumset 65 Setting Up Your Drumset 65 Sitting on the throne 66 Positioning the pedals 67 Securing the snare drum 67 Placing the tom-toms 68 Adjusting the ride cymbal 69 Angling the crash cymbals 69 Raising the hi-hats 70 Putting Your Foot Down 71 Beating the bass drum 71 Playing the hi-hats 73 Working Out: Exercises to Improve Your Hand- and Footwork 74 Chapter 6: Rolling into Rock Drumming 79 Harnessing the Backbeat 80 Mastering the Basic Beats 80 Eighth-note feel 81 Sixteenth-note feel 83 Half-time feel 86 The rock shuffle 88 The half-time shuffle feel 90 Dressing Up the Basic Beats 92 Mixing up the hi-hat 92 Moving the backbeat 94 Adding syncopations 97 Incorporating fills 98 Chapter 7: Beating the Blues 103 Finding the Pocket and Staying in It 103 Playing Blues 104 Slow tempo 105 Medium tempo 106 Fast tempo 108 Filling in or not 109 Understanding Blues Song Structure 111 Chapter 8: Rallying Around R&B and Funk 113 Playing R&B Grooves 113 Keeping time 114 Adding ghost notes 116 Opening and closing the hi-hat 120 Getting Funky: Exploring Funk Drumming 121 Incorporating syncopation 121 Syncopating the snare drum beats 123 Including ghost notes 124 Opening and closing the hi-hat 125 Chapter 9: Swinging into Jazz 127 Getting Into the Swing of It 127 Varying the tempo 130 Tackling different textures 131 Adding to the beat 132 Table of Contents xiii Expanding Your Horizons 133 Riding the cymbal 135 Adding accents 136 Incorporating the snare drum 138 Including the bass drum 140 Mixing up your accents 142 Telling Your Story: Soloing 147 Making two-bar phrases 147 Creating four-bar phrases 147 Blending Styles: Jazz-Fusion 150 Playing Fusion Rhythms 150 Knowing that more (not less) is more 151 Forgetting swing (at least for now) 151 Dealing with odd meter 152 Chapter 10: Looking at Latin and Caribbean Styles 155 Building On Traditions 155 Playing Afro-Cuban Rhythms 156 Bolero 156 Cha-cha 157 Mambo 158 Nanigo 159 Playing Brazilian Rhythms 159 Samba 160 Bossa nova 161 Playing Caribbean Rhythms 162 Reggae 162 Calypso 166 Filling It Out 168 Chapter 11: Ratcheting up Your Rock Drumming 169 Building on a Solid Foundation 170 Exploring Some Great Drummers and Their Grooves 171 Peeking into the pop drumming of Kenny Aronoff 171 Checking out punk’s Travis Barker 174 Catching up with the jazz influence of Carter Beauford 176 Discovering rock legend John Bonham 179 Looking at Dave Grohl’s alternative drumming 181 Jamming with a drummer’s drummer: Jeff Porcaro 183 Examining Spüg’s heavy rock style 186 Finding Your Own Inspiration 188 Part III: Dressing up Your Drumset Skills 189 Chapter 12: Getting Into the Groove 191 Getting the Feel of the Music 191 Playing Musically 192 Understanding song structure 193 Fitting your playing style to the song 194 Choosing the Perfect Rhythm 195 Getting hints from other musicians 195 Using the music as a guide 196 Adding Your Personality 197 Choosing the bass drum part 198 Selecting the snare drum part 198 Picking the cymbals 198 Electing embellishments 198 Chapter 13: Expressing Yourself with Fills and Licks 201 Enhancing Your Drumming with Licks 202 Increasing Your Impact with Fills 203 Marking the phrase 204 Supporting dynamic variation 204 Playing Some Fills — From One Beat to Four 205 Creating Your Own Fills 210 Fitting the musical situation 211 Syncopating 211 Rolling 212 Chapter 14: Flying Solo 215 Soloing Basics 215 Keeping time 216 Playing musically 217 Thinking melodically 220 Pushing the limits 221 Part IV: Pounding Out the Beat: Traditional Drums and Percussion 223 Chapter 15: Handling Hand Drums 225 Embracing the Variety in Drums 225 Beating the Bongos 226 Playing position 227 Understanding the rhythms 228 Carrying On with the Congas 229 Playing position 230 Understanding the rhythms 231 Discovering the Djembe 232 Playing position 233 Understanding the rhythms 234 Uncovering the Udu 235 Playing position 236 Understanding the rhythms 237 Deciphering the Doumbek 238 Playing position 239 Understanding the rhythms 240 Touting the Tar 241 Playing position 242 Understanding the rhythms 243 Tapping the Power of the Tambourine/Riq 243 Playing position 244 Understanding the rhythms 246 Partying with the Pandeiro 247 Playing position 247 Understanding the rhythms 248 Chapter 16: Singling Out Stick-Played Drums 251 Bopping to the Bodhran 251 Playing position 252 Understanding the rhythms 253 Detailing the Djun Djuns 254 Playing position 255 Understanding the rhythms 255 Rubbing the Cuica 256 Playing position 257 Understanding the rhythms 258 Striking the Surdo 259 Playing position 260 Understanding the rhythms 260 Rapping the Repanique 262 Playing position 262 Understanding the rhythms 263 Tapping the Tamborim 264 Playing position 264 Understanding the rhythms 265 Tinkering with the Timbales 266 Playing position 266 Understanding the rhythms 267 Chapter 17: Shake, Rattle, and Roll: Exploring Other Percussion Instruments 269 Ringing the Agogo Bells 269 Playing position 270 Understanding the rhythms 271 Twisting and Shaking the Afuche/Cabasa 271 Playing position 272 Understanding the rhythms 273 Keying in to the Clavé 273 Playing position 274 Understanding the rhythms 275 Clanging the Cowbell 276 Playing position 277 Understanding the rhythms 277 Scraping the Guiro 278 Playing position 279 Understanding the rhythms 279 Movin’ to the Maracas 280 Playing position 281 Understanding the rhythms 282 Experimenting with Shakers 282 Playing position 283 Understanding the rhythms 283 Tapping the Triangle 284 Playing position 285 Understanding the rhythms 285 Chapter 18: Jamming with World Rhythms 287 Demystifying Polyrhythms 287 It Takes a Village: Using More Rhythms for Better Sound 288 The Rhythm Nations: Playing Well with Others 289 Exploring African polyrhythms 289 Checking out Cuban polyrhythms 291 Banging out Brazilian polyrhythms 294 Part V: Choosing, Tuning, and Caring for Your Drums 297 Chapter 19: Decision Time: Selecting a Drum of Your Own 299 Choosing a Drumset 300 The drums 300 Other hardware you have to buy separately 302 The cymbals 303 The sticks 304 Choosing a Traditional Drum 304 Natural or synthetic drumheads 305 Shell type 306 Hardware style 308 Branching Out: The Extras 308 Keeping time with the metronome 308 Carrying it all in cases 309 Knowing Where to Find Drums 310 Chapter 20: Tuning and Maintaining Your Drums 311 Checking Out Tuning Basics 311 Tuning a drum with lugs 312 Tuning a drum with a rope system 313 Tuning the untunable 313 Choosing and Replacing Heads 314 Knowing when heads need replacing 314 Choosing replacement heads 315 Replacing your heads 316 Caring for Your Drums 316 Handling hardware 317 Cleaning cymbals 318 Storing and transporting safely 319 Part VI: The Part of Tens 321 Chapter 21: Ten Ways to Expand Your Drumming Horizons 323 Checking out Classes 323 Visiting Clinics 324 Attending Workshops 324 Exploring Drum Circles and Jams 324 Perusing Books and Videos 325 Getting Online 325 Reading Magazines 325 Joining a Band 326 Forming Your Own Band 327 Playing Open Stage 327 Chapter 22: Ten Tips for Finding a Drum Instructor 329 Test Driving a Teacher 329 Knowing Where to Look 330 Understanding the Costs Involved 330 Exploring a Teacher’s Playing Style 330 Gauging a Teacher’s Willingness to Teach to Your Interests 331 Starting Where You Are 332 Getting a Sense of History 332 Honoring Yourself 333 Understanding Expectations 334 Knowing When to Move On 334 Appendix: How to Use the CD 335 Relating the Text to the CD 335 System Requirements 336 Audio CD players 336 Computer CD-ROM drives 336 Using the CD with Microsoft Windows 336 Using the CD with Mac OS 337 What You’ll Find on the CD 337 CD audio tracks 337 Digital music 344 Troubleshooting 344 Index 345