Why bother with books?

martinbr

Member
I am writing this thread with a little frustration of the constant practicing out of drum books for the past 40 years, and after all that time, how much of the stuff that I practice do I really use on the bandstand. Think about it. At least for the music that I am usually playing is just standard jazz tunes in lounge type bands.

Out of most of the rudiments that I practice, I usually just resort back to either paradiddles, double paradiddles, five stroke, six, and seven stroke rolls. Some ruffs added in and that's about my whole vocabulary. And with some embarrassment, I still can't pull some of them off when playing. Maybe I just don't practice enough, but I usually at least to put a hour a day in. I know that's not a lot, but I have been playing a long time.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, that for every new piece that I practice, I usually don't use it on the bandstand. So why bother? I have already been thru Chapin, Lawrence Stone (stick control), Ted Reeds Syncopation. They have all been beneficial to some extent, but any of the books that are solo exercises, I have never used on the bandstand.

I am thinking the only book that I have to practice out of on a daily basis is Wilcoxon's (All American Drummer), and the Ted Reed book, and Stick Control. You really don't need anything else. I think I just need to sit down and play some more to CD's and just trying to work out my own organized solos over a jazz form. I think I would probably get more benefits this way. At least this is what I am going to try.
martinbr
 
I am thinking the only book that I have to practice out of on a daily basis is Wilcoxon's (All American Drummer), and the Ted Reed book, and Stick Control. You really don't need anything else. I think I just need to sit down and play some more to CD's and just trying to work out my own organized solos over a jazz form. I think I would probably get more benefits this way. At least this is what I am going to try.
martinbr

I would agree and so would most drum teachers, I think. Without some guidance those books, BECAUSE THEY ARE BOOKS, are pretty useless, though.

Some extra snare studies and reading texts won't hurt though.

The next thing is really listening and transcribing, slowly getting inspired and growing your own voice. Same goes for any instrument, really.

So what do other books offer. In many ways they offer exactly that. Guidance. For someone like me,from a small town in a small country, the about 500 other drumbooks I have have opened a lot of doors. So has the internet.
 
The world is full of books, drum instructional videos, and now the internet is full of everyone trying to promote themselves in the form of free "drum lessons" online.

I have always been a skeptic, I mostly learn by ear or by watching, but I did hit a wall that I was only able to overcome by opening certain books (being self taught). That's not to say that much brighter guys can't come along and figure it all out without opening a book.

I assume you learned the "proper" way with teachers and theory your whole life, I am coming from the lazy, undisciplined right brained-musician side of the argument and I agree with you - if you have your head buried in a book the whole time you're learning drums you're not really expressing yourself, just exercising, or quoting someone else or something.
 
As much as I dislike practicing out of books, the monotonous stuff was and is hugely crucial to developing the ability to sight-read fluently and also be disciplined, without distraction. Basically, the more you do it, the easier and more productive it will become.

When I was young, I went through the syncopation and stick control, jazz cookbook, etc etc. but never really "nailed" anything in them, just hung in to make through it with an instructor.

Now that I go back to these books (and I do more now than ever), I feel far more comfortable and can easily practice out them, without delay or hestitation, and also without that "why am I doing this" feeling in the back of my mind.

But the motivation and drive has to be there...if you are just doing it to pacify feelings of guilt of neglecting advancement in your own playing, it's probably not worth it.
 
Why do karate masters still practice the basics? Because there's always a need to know those things.

Also there's a difference between "book learning" and "street learning". A drummer could play the Bossa Nova beat technically correct and to .000001" "tolerances". But when that player gets on a stage with a band they only get to play for a short time because no one wants to play with that person who straps on the blinders of "uber correctness".

Ever drank lab quality water that is 100% pure, no impurities or minerals? It tastes like crap!

Books are there to give you starting points, new ideas to incorporate into your playing. Say I get Garibaldi's "The Funky Beat" and learn the groove from "Soul Vaccination". Do I play that song regularly? No, but I can take the groove from that tune (which is essentially Swiss Army Triplets) and use it in other things I do.

Not to mention the visual input you get from the book which will allow you to have another source of knowledge of the art of drumming; the art of visualization. Reading music is essential to becoming a well rounded player.
 
I don't disagree with that, except you can get by with even less than that in actual playing. But, yeah, you can do virtually everything you need with Syncopation, and usually that's the best way to learn things. Still I do use a lot of other books, and write a ton of my own material. Some books have written information that's helpful, and there are genre books that are important. Seeing similar things written in different formats, or organized differently is good-- you can often do different things them based on small format/organization changes. And there are gaps in Syncopation-- there's nothing in 3, or 6/8, or any other meter than 4; no quarter note triplets; it would be nice to have some more 16th note rhythms (though you can still make the functional equivalent by playing in cut time).

The questions of how you assimilate stuff from the practice room into your actual playing in a musical way, and of the value of developing general facility you may never use in your playing-- how much you want to focus on that-- aren't easy for most people.
 
Everybody learns differently and working as a teacher with young kids, especially with todays attentions span, one book tailored to a certain environment is often preferred.

Now, I have never found anything ideal for every situation. Just moving to a different town changes things considerably. I basically give my students, in addition to some sort of beginners book on reading, a folder where I organize things in different chapters. This is THE REAL BOOK customized to each student. This could at some point end up as a method book representing my way of working in a certain type of situation and many books were probably written exactly for this reason.

As far as I know, Ted Reed was just tired of sitting and writing out exercises every night, so he wrote sycopation to have those pages he ended up using all day anyway readily available in a printed book.
 
I think books were a great transport medium for knowledge in the pre-digital age. While the knowledge they contain is still very valid, I think their delivery method is obsolete.

When I decided to take up drumming last year, I resolved to see what it was like to learn an instrument while taking advantage of all the modern amenities that kids have at their disposal these days. I must admit, I don't own a single drum related book. I do have an iPad and I do have a collection of things to practice that have come from my instructor(s) and online, but no physical paper books.

When I take notes, I tend to take a picture so that I can toss it on the iPad.
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It's easier for me to do this than it is to use a stylus (possibly because I'm an old fart). What I ultimately end up with is my own book. The first couple pages of stick control. A few pages of Rudimental Ritual. A few pages of Realistic Rock. Etc.
 
I can't see the point of drum books either... I've always had a lot of trouble reading music (not from lack of trying) and as a result a drum book mind as well be gibberish to me. My mind struggles to make the connection with quarters, halves, eighths and what they sound like in actual time. I'm much better off "feeling" what I have to play and figuring things out as I need to rather than boring myself with books.

Books have no emotion, I'd rather learn by expressing myself. When I hit a wall and I can't play something that I can imagine I bust out my metronome and get to work. While it might be something that I could have learned from a book I'd rather go through the effort of self teaching.
 
I can't see the point of drum books either... I've always had a lot of trouble reading music (not from lack of trying) and as a result a drum book mind as well be gibberish to me. My mind struggles to make the connection with quarters, halves, eighths and what they sound like in actual time. I'm much better off "feeling" what I have to play and figuring things out as I need to rather than boring myself with books.

Would you find it useful if, in the transition from Book->eBook, the stanzas became playable so that you could touch it on the iPad and it would play back? Would you find it useful if exercises had contextual hyperlinks so that you could see a pattern in-use by a real drummer playing a real song? For example, RLRR LRRL would link to a excerpt from a Steve Gadd video?
 
It takes a lot of balls to ask this question. Valid question. While I like the books, I feel you learn the most playing with others.

Books are a great brain exercise tool.

Martin I wonder if you never worked the books, I wonder if you would still be as good as you are now.
 
Would you find it useful if, in the transition from Book->eBook, the stanzas became playable so that you could touch it on the iPad and it would play back? Would you find it useful if exercises had contextual hyperlinks so that you could see a pattern in-use by a real drummer playing a real song? For example, RLRR LRRL would link to a excerpt from a Steve Gadd video?

Yes, I need to hear the pattern played which is why I watch drum videos to learn somethings on the kit. It would honestly be great if it was rock band/synthesia style with the notes rolling towards me. That way I could judge the timing and not have to move my eyes while playing (this causes stoppages as I'll lose my place on the page).
 
Good ears and musical memory are certainly tools that sometimes aren't as prioriticed as they chould be these days. Many musicians are suffering from the traditional electric guitar player syndrome of playing 10 times faster than you can actually hear. But even in todays music scene, sight reading is often a necessary skill.

Any situation requiring complicated stuff with minimal rehearsal time, which is the music world I've lived in most of my life, requires some sort of notation. It can be just bars and numbers, but a little more can be helpful.

Reading texts, worked on slowly and with counting and even with just clapping a vocalization instead of our instruments can be extremely useful for rhythmic feel and understanding. Even people mwho consider themselves readers struggle with this. It's amazing the benefit they would have from a class dealing with this.
 
It takes a lot of balls to ask this question. Valid question. While I like the books, I feel you learn the most playing with others.

Books are a great brain exercise tool.

Martin I wonder if you never worked the books, I wonder if you would still be as good as you are now.

Well, that's the dilemma. I still can't pull off some of the things that I work on in a daily basis smoothly in a musical context. I guess I should just concentrate on some of the simpler exercise or musical phrases until I get them down pat and to be able to pull them off in any matter before moving on.
martinbr
 
Well, that's the dilemma. I still can't pull off some of the things that I work on in a daily basis smoothly in a musical context. I guess I should just concentrate on some of the simpler exercise or musical phrases until I get them down pat and to be able to pull them off in any matter before moving on.
martinbr

You may be better off practicing longer phrases, rather than small one two bar etc. This helped me a lot and I try to practice with this in mind. Rudiments like the five-stroke roll are great but they're just words in the sentence.. I really try to play with a bigger picture than that
 
Well, that's the dilemma. I still can't pull off some of the things that I work on in a daily basis smoothly in a musical context. I guess I should just concentrate on some of the simpler exercise or musical phrases until I get them down pat and to be able to pull them off in any matter before moving on.
martinbr

I can't relate to trying to play a musical exercise in a book at a gig. It's certainly valid, but geez, that means I would have to think onstage. I can't think of anything more different...while still using drums.... than rehearsing and gigging. For me, rehearsing is brain work, while gigging is feel work.

Everyone is different.
 
I can't relate to trying to play a musical exercise in a book at a gig. It's certainly valid, but geez, that means I would have to think onstage. I can't think of anything more different...while still using drums.... than rehearsing and gigging. For me, rehearsing is brain work, while gigging is feel work.

Everyone is different.
Right on...and what if your gigs are mainly, say, improvisation? There is no time to rehearse so, there you go.
 
It takes a lot of balls to ask this question. Valid question. While I like the books, I feel you learn the most playing with others.

Books are a great brain exercise tool.

Martin I wonder if you never worked the books, I wonder if you would still be as good as you are now.

No, I don't think so. I have gained a lot of independence from Chapin's book and doing some of the exercises of the first couple of pages in Stick Control keeping time on my ride and bouncing the notes. This gave me great independence I wouldn't be able to do today. And Wilcoxon's book. You have to know rudiments if you want to be able to be a proficient drummer to convey the language over the drums. It's just putting all the pieces together. :)
 
You may be better off practicing longer phrases, rather than small one two bar etc. This helped me a lot and I try to practice with this in mind. Rudiments like the five-stroke roll are great but they're just words in the sentence.. I really try to play with a bigger picture than that

Thanks, I am glad you brought that up.....
 
I like both teaching and learning from books. They key is to work on things that really help on the bandstand - sounds obvious but there are lots and lots of books and exercises out there that can easily bog a drummer down and not help on a gig in any way.

It’s important not to get too left brain in the practice room - that’s not going to help on a gig - that side of the brain has checked out, by the time the drummer steps on stage.
 
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