Tiger Bill Reviews

The Breakbeat Bible

Book/CD

This book/CD from Mike Adamo provides an in-depth study of breakbeat drumming that covers 180 pages. Let's check it out.

The Elements

Mike breaks down the style into thirteen essential elements (I guess he's not superstitious!) . Each chpater contains the album the beat was originally played on along with some bacground history on each drummer whose contributions were used in the development of hip-hop and breakbeat drumming.

More

A synopsis of the remaining chapters:

• Beats with Everything: This section contains examples of all of the thirteen elements mixed and matched.
• Beats with Drops: Patterns with full quarter note rests or more
• Fills: Contains fill ideas that work well with breakbeats.
• Breakbeat transcriptions: Broken up into three categories - Classic Breaks, Deep Cuts, and Contemporary Beats, this chapter contains transcriptions of drum breaks.
• Click Track Loops: In addtion to practicing the beats in the book with a metronome set to quarter notes, this section gives you some click track loops that can program into your drum machine to enhance your practice of examples in the book.
• Dubstep: Includes examples of Dubstep style patterns modifed for use on the acoustic drumset.

MP3 Disc

The included MP3 disc contains selected beats, exercises, and phrases from the book in addition to four play-along instrumental tracks (with and without drums) and The Breakbeat Bible sample library featuring 30 individual samples of different drumset components played at various velocities.

The Breakbeat Bible: The Bottom Line

I recommend this book/CD combo to you, regardless of your preferred drumming style. It will provide you with the knowledge of how breakbeat styles began and developed, and how you can add them to your own personal arsenal.

The Breakbeat Bible book and MP3 CD represent a solid value at the retail price of $19.99. Click Here to Buy The Breakbeat Bible online.