Turn It Up & Lay It Down:

Double Pedal Metal

By Steve Kilgallon

Companion book and original play-along CD from the Spencer Strand Series

If you're not familiar with Spencer Strand's series of play-along CDs, Turn It Up & Lay It Down, you owe it to yourself to check them out. I use them with my students in a variety of ways and have found them to extremely valuable in helping to improve their improvisational chops, sight reading, and groove skills.

If you are familiar with my review of the first companion book, based on the first volume in the CD series, Turn It Up & Lay It Down - Volume One, you'll know that the book and included CD were meant to compliment the actual first volume in the CD series. That is not the case with Double Pedal Metal. The CD included with this book is the same CD that you can buy separately as Volume 5 in the Turn It Up & Lay It Down series, which is bad news if you already own the CD. The good news for those who haven't purchased it yet, is that you can now buy both the book and CD together at a discount price.

Let's check it out.

The Authors
Spencer Strand, creator of the original CD series of Turn It Up & Lay It Down play-alongs including the Double Pedal Metal CD that comes with this book, is a drummer /inventor with numerous products to his credit. Check him out at www.drumfun.com.

Steve Kilgallon, author of this book Double Pedal Metal, is a full time drummer gigging with bands in the Mid-Atlantic area. You can check him out at www.myspace.com/stevekilgallon.

Overall Layout
Each chapter in the book is based on a song from the included CD Double Pedal Metal and is layed out as follows:

Basic Groove - A groove that fits the particular track.

Groove Builders - Exercises to help you develop the chops you'll need to play the track.

Road Map - Charts that are better than your average skelton drum charts you can use to follow along with the track.

EZ Grooves - Exercises to get you used to incorporating double bass patterns in your grooves.

Fill Factory - Exercises that can be used as various length fills.

Groove Variations - More complicated grooves that incorporate double bass.

Tricking It Out - Additional groove variations and concepts to challenge you and get you thinking about musicality.

Double Pedal Metal Book & CD: The Bottom Line
I've had great results using Spencer Strand's Turn It Up & Lay It Down play-along CD series with my students and this new book & CD combination will certainly increase the usefulness of the Double Pedal Metal CD. The book provides lots of exercsies and drills designed to help you improve your double bass drum skills while improving your performance of each track on the Double Pedal Metal CD. I especially recommend this combo to double bass drumming beginners.

If you already own the Double Pedal Metal CD, the downside is that you'll be getting another copy along with the book. If you don't own the CD yet, I suggest that you purchase this book & CD combo. You'll find it much more useful than the CD alone.

This book and CD, from Hudson Music, is a good value at its suggested retail price of $24.95 but is also available at a discount online: Turn It Up and Lay It Down: Double Pedal Metal (Book & CD)