What DrumHeads Are Saying About TigerBill and TigerBill's DrumBeat Website...

Click for Another Quote


 

Best Products at the
Lowest Prices
Lowest prices on Tiger Tested drum products

Lowest Prices on Drum Sets, Cymbals and Percussion at Amazon.com

TigerBill's Unique
Drum Lessons
Play Better With Less Effort - Learn TigerBill's Tension Free Drumming Concepts

Advertise With Us
Contact Us
Link to Us
Newsletter
News & Press Room
Order Info
Permissions & Reprints
Privacy Policy
Products
Register for Free
Welcome


Auctions
Books for Fun
Books for Education
Business
Buying Drum Gear
Chops Challenge
Clinics & Events
Concerts & Tours
Contests
Discount Drum Shop 1
Discount Drum Shop 2
Drum TV Show
Drum n Bass
Drum Skills Evaluation
Fame & Fortune
Famous Drummers
Forums
Fun With Drums TV Show
Gear & Accessories
Gladstone Technique
Healthy Drumming
Hip-Hop / Rap
History & Culture
How To Guides
Interviews
Laugh It Up
Lessons for Free
Loops & Samples
Magazines
Member Links
Merchandise
MIDI Files
Moeller Technique
MP3
Newsgroups
Radio
Record Your Own
Reviews
Schools
Sit-in & Play
Software
Sponsors
Store
Tabs
Tension Free Drumming™
Ticket Sales
TigerBill and Friends
TigerBill's Bio
TigerBill's Gear Picks
TigerBill's Clinics & Events
TigerBill's Drum Shop
TigerBill's Lessons
TigerBill's Place
Tips and Tricks
Videos
Vintage Gear
WFD

Tiger Bill Reviews

The Versatile Drummer

Book and CD

By Pete Sweeney

A Complete Course in a Variety of Musical Styles

The Versatile Drummer book and CD by Pete Sweeney from Alfred Publishing

The promo says  that the goal of this book and CD is to help you become an in-demand drummer. Let's check it and see if it measures up!.

Contents
The book contains ten main chapters as follows:

Reading Exercises - Includes basic music notation terminology, note values, and exercises to help the beginner become familiar with rhythmic patterns from quarter notes through triplets and sixteenth notes.

Stick Control Studies - This chapter contains exercises using various sticking patterns, similar to George Stone's book Stick Control, and touches on some accented studies and rudiments.

Eighth-Note Rock Beats - This one opens up with some basic rock beats and gets into closed and open hi-hats patterns and syncopated rock.

Sixteenth-Note Rock and Funk Beats - Opening with single-handed sixteenth note patterns on the hi-hat, this chapter quickly moves into two-handed hi-hat patterns, funk beats with ghost notes, and closes with paradiddle funk beats.

Triplet-Based Grooves - This chapter concentrates on the popular Blues shuffles, and Rock shuffles including half-time grooves.

Afro-Cuban Grooves - The Clave and its variations, Cascara, Mambo, Songo, Guaguanco, Cha-Cha-Cha, Merengue, Mozambique, Rumba, and various African based grooves are covered in this chapter along with variations of each of the basic patterns.

Contemporary Drum Styles - This chapter contains Reggae, New Orleans, Train, Soca, Reggaeton, Hip-Hop, Jungle/Drum 'n' Bass, classic Bo Diddley, and 7/8 Drum Beats.

Brazilian Rhythms - Concentrates on Bossa Nova, Samba, Baiao, and Batucada rhythms.

Jazz - This chapter opens with the basic ride cymbal  jazz "time" pattern and moves into snare and bass drum variations, triplet coordination, and examples of phrasing over the bar line. Concludes with brief examples of jazz patterns in 3/4 and 5/4 time.

Groove Embellishments - The final three page chapter contains suggestions on how the use of sixteenth-note and thirty-second notes can add some excitement to a groove!

Versatile Drummer: The Bottom Line
Subtitled "A Complete Course in a Variety of Musical Styles," I would more accurately describe this 95-page book with included audio CD as a "Practical Course in a Variety of Musical Styles." Let's face it, a book the size of an encyclopedia could hardly be considered complete!

That said, I feel the book and CD is of great value especially to beginning drummers. More advanced drummers, looking to expand their musical horizons, will also find the included musical styles and their variations useful. And the audio CD will be of great help to drummers who want to verify their interpretations of the written patterns.

A retail price of only $19.95 represents a great value for both this book and CD combo from Alfred Publishing and the National Guitar Workshop.

Also available at a discount from:

 

Until next time: Stay loose.

Tiger Bill Meligari

 

 

Become a Free Member of the largest, most Comprehensive Drum Site on the Web

Learn TigerBill's Innovative Tension Free Drumming and take your chops to the next level

Get TigerBill's Free Info-Packed Newsletter, Monthly Chances to Win Valuable Drum Stuff

& Much More...

Click Here to Register as a Free Site Member

Copyright © 1998-2013 by TigerMix.com, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.

Unauthorized reproduction without permission is prohibited except as noted.

< Back to Top >

Free Site Membership!
Click Here for FREE Site Registration and become a member of the largest drum and percussion family on the Web!

* S I D E B A R *

Links Related
to this Article

Related Links on Site

.
Buy Drummer's Guide to Fills Book/CD by Pete Sweeney at the Lowest Price Online
.
Buy The Versatile Drummer Book/CD by Pete Sweeney at the Lowest Price Online
 
 
.
Drum Books for Further Study
.
Drum DVDs for Further Study
 
.
TigerBill's Tension Free Drumming Methods & Gear

Related Links on Web

.
Alfred Publishing
.
Guitar Workshop
 
.
Pete Sweeney