Drums For Dummies

Contents

• Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Conventions Used in This Book 2 What You're Not to Read 3 Foolish Assumptions 3 How This Book is Organized 3
• Part 1 : Setting a Solid Foundation 4
• Part 2 : Digging into the Drumset 4
• Part 3 : Dressing up Your Drumset Skills 4
• Part 4 : Pounding Out the Beat: Traditional Drums and Percussion 4
• Part 5 : Choosing, Tuning, and Caring for Your Drums 5
• Part 6 : the part of Tens 5
• Appendix 5 Icons Used in This Book 5 Beyond the Book 6 Where to Go from Here 6
• Part 1 : Setting a Solid Foundation 7
• Chapter 1 : Drum Basics 9 Picking a Drum Apart from Head to Shell 10 Exploring How Drums Create Sound 11 Deconstructing the Drumset 12 Appreciating the Old-timers: Traditional Drums 15 Swingin' Sticks and Slapping the Skins 16
• Chapter 2 : I've Got Rhythm 19 Developing a Sound Vocabulary 20 Adding Some Drumming Definitions 25 Becoming One with the Pulse (and I'm Not Talking Heartbeat) 27 Feeling the Meter 28 Embracing Odd Meter 29
• Chapter 3 : Tapping into Drumming Techniques 31 Talkin' Technique: What You Need to Know 31 Perfecting your posture 32 Preventing injuries 32 Hitting the drum: It's (not) all in the wrist 36 Speaking Softly and Carrying Big Sticks 37 Holding the sticks 37
• Chapter 4 : Getting a Handle on Hand Drumming Techniques 53 Taking Matters (and Tones) into Your Own Hands 53 Opting for Open Tones 54 Basic open tone stroke 54 Thumb stroke 55 The open slap tone 55 Bass tone 56 The rim stroke 57 Mastering Muted Tones 58
• Part 2 : Digging Into the Drumset 65
• Chapter 5 : Settling In Behind the Drumset 67 Setting Up Your Drumset 67 Sitting on the throne 68 Positioning the pedals 69 Securing the snare drum 69 Placing the tom-toms 70 Adjusting the ride cymbal 71 Angling the crash cymbals 71 Raising the hi-hats 72
• Chapter 6 : Rolling into Rock Drumming 81 Harnessing the Backbeat 82 Mastering the Basic Beats 83 Eighth-note feel 84 Sixteenth-note feel 84 Half-time feel 86 The rock shuffle 90 The half-time shuffle feel 92 Dressing Up the Basic Beats 94 Mixing up the h
• Chapter 7 : Beating the Blues 105 Finding the Pocket and Staying in It 105 Playing Blues 106 Slow tempo 106 Medium tempo 108 Fast tempo 110 Filling in or not 111 Understanding Blues Song Structure 113
• Chapter 8 : Rallying Around R&B and Funk 115 Playing R&B Grooves 115 Keeping time 116 Adding ghost notes 118 Opening and closing the hi-hat 122 Getting Funky: Exploring Funk Drumming 123 Incorporating syncopation 123 Syncopating the snare drum beats 125 I
• Chapter 9 : Swinging into Jazz 129 Getting Into the Swing of It 129 Varying the tempo 132 Tackling different textures 133 Adding to the beat 134 Expanding Your Horizons 136 Riding the cymbal 137 Adding accents 138 Incorporating the snare drum 140 Includin
• Chapter 10 : Looking at Latin and Caribbean Styles 157 Building On Traditions 158 Playing Afro-Cuban Rhythms 159 Bolero 159 Cha-cha 160 Mambo 160 Nanigo 161 Playing Brazilian Rhythms 162 Samba 162 Bossa nova 163 Playing Caribbean Rhythms 164 Reggae 164 Ca
• Chapter 11 : Ratcheting up Your Rock Drumming 171 Building on a Solid Foundation 172 Exploring Some Great Drummers and Their Grooves 173 Peeking into the pop drumming of Kenny Aronoff 173 Checking out punk's Travis Barker 176 Catching up with the jazz inf
• Part 3 : Dressing Up Your Drumset Skills 191
• Chapter 12 : Getting Into the Groove 193 Getting the Feel of the Music 193 Playing Musically 194 Understanding song structure 196 Fitting your playing style to the song 196 Choosing the Perfect Rhythm 197 Getting hints from other musicians 197 Using the m
• part 200 Selecting the snare drum
• part 200 Picking the cymbals 201 Electing embellishments 201
• Chapter 13 : Expressing Yourself with Fills and Licks 203 Enhancing Your Drumming with Licks 204 Increasing Your Impact with Fills 206 Marking the phrase 206 Supporting dynamic variation 206 Playing Some Fills - From One Beat to Four 207 Creating Your Own
• Chapter 14 : Flying Solo 217 Soloing Basics 218 Keeping time 218 Playing musically 218 Thinking melodically 222 Pushing the limits 223
• Part 4 : Pounding Out the Beat: Traditional Drums and Percussion 225
• Chapter 15 : Handling Hand Drums 227 Embracing the Variety in Drums 228 Beating the Bongos 228 Playing position 229 Understanding the rhythms 230 Carrying On with the Congas 231 Playing position 232 Understanding the rhythms 234 Discovering the Djembe 235
• Chapter 16 : Singling Out Stick-Played Drums 253 Bopping to the Bodhran 254 Playing position 254 Understanding the rhythms 254 Detailing the Djun Djuns 256 Playing position 257 Understanding the rhythms 257 Rubbing the Cuica 258 Playing position 259 Under
• Chapter 17 : Shake, Rattle, and Roll: Exploring Other Percussion Instruments 273 Ringing the Agogo Bells 274 Playing position 274 Understanding the rhythms 275 Twisting and Shaking the Afuche/Cabasa 276 Playing position 276 Understanding the rhythms 277 K
• Chapter 18 : Jamming with World Rhythms 291 Demystifying Polyrhythms 292 It Takes a Village: Using More Rhythms for Better Sound 292 The Rhythm Nations: Playing Well with Others 293 Exploring African polyrhythms 293 Checking out Cuban polyrhythms 296 Bang
• Part 5 : Choosing, Tuning, and Caring For Your Drums 303
• Chapter 19 : Decision Time: Selecting a Drum of Your Own 305 Choosing a Drumset 306 The drums 306 Other hardware you have to buy separately 308 The cymbals 309 The sticks 310 Choosing a Traditional Drum 310 Natural or synthetic drumheads 311 Shell type 31
• Chapter 20 : Tuning and Maintaining Your Drums 317 Checking Out Tuning Basics 318 Tuning a drum with lugs 318 Tuning a drum with a rope system 319 Tuning the untunable 320 Choosing and Replacing Heads 320 Knowing when heads need replacing 320 Choosing rep
• Part 6 : the part of Tens 327
• Chapter 21 : Ten Ways to Expand Your Drumming Horizons 329 Checking out Classes 329 Visiting Clinics 330 Attending Workshops 330 Exploring Drum Circles and Jams 330 Perusing Books and Videos 331 Getting Online 331 Reading Magazines 332 Joining a Band 332
• Chapter 22 : Ten Tips for Finding a Drum Instructor 335 Test Driving a Teacher 335 Knowing Where to Look 336 Understanding the Costs Involved 336 Exploring a Teacher's Playing Style 337 Gauging a Teacher's Willingness to Teach to Your Interests 337 Starti
• Appendix How to Use the Website 343
• Index 359