The Books That Revolutionized My Drumming

[@64BJH]

Syncopation by Ted Reed - hundreds of ways to use that book, from basic reading exercises to developing fills and grooves. Love it for my own playing and teaching others.

[@yesdrums6627]

Hi, what book do you recommend for a beginner drummer? Thanks

[@DaveMajor]

Honestly focus on beats and creating beats that work musically. 99% of a song is groove so work on that. Get a good balanced sound (not too loud on the hi hats) and then play in time. I have a course on my website called Groove Construction Vol. 1 which is all about getting you playing musical grooves

[@rikitiksound]

I had exactly the same story with greb and new bread.

[@doncarol]

Thank you Dave for making me hip to the Alan Dawson book, "The Drummer's Complete Vocabulary," which helps with playing melodically and matching it up with the New Breed!

[@DaveMajor]

My pleasure!

[@bimercool3172]

Thanks Dave! Can please make a video with a couple of grooves mixing Benny Greb's and the New breed books . . .

[@DaveMajor]

So.....think about it differently. The benefit of this way of working on grooves is not to learn lots of specific grooves but to be able to play ANY groove ever! I have a course called Groove Mastery on my website that really breaks this down but the general premise is that if you can master playing the 16 different 16th note rhythms in existence, in a certain structure (such as an 8th note rock groove) - this is LOD - then learn to combine those rhythms in a seemingly random order - NB - you can then play anything! You've trained your body and your mind to access these rhythms instantly and so you can speak on the drums.

[@ryan0000e]

I LOVE drum books! And combining books such as New Breed and Language of drumming is so great. Check out Blake Fleming’s Book of Rhythm. It’s got every permutation possible and it’s great to apply some of Dawson’s approaches to.

[@DaveMajor]

I'll check it out!

[@dustinsanderschlagzeugcoach]

I would add Jost Nickels Fill Book to the list. But your choices definitely resonate with me!

[@DaveMajor]

Good choice!

[@JulianFernandez]

So cool. Did you complete the Rudimental Ritual by memory?

[@DaveMajor]

No though I learned each rudiment separately. I was working on the lifetime warmup by Tommy Igoe at the time and so 2 rudimental workouts seemed excessive

[@drummercouk]

Cool. Great tips. Yes that GH book you chucked, I chucked too 😂

[@DaveMajor]

It's a doozy!!

[@rondeangelis7384]

I’m glad wecare on the same page. Wish i didnt buy all the books i have that all show the same thing. Thosecare also my go to books alongvwith morello master studies. Thankx Dave👍👌

[@DaveMajor]

Master Studies is great. One of those books you can dive into for a bit and come back to later

[@IBY2K]

Wait so as one who is working on new breed currently, what's the system with the benny greb book? (Oh and you're right new breed has been a pain in the ass so far 😂)

[@DaveMajor]

TLDR - Whatever you are trying to do with NB first learn to be able to play the rhythms of LOD against the NB system. How you do this is important though so I make sure I (and ALL my students) can play 1 bar of each rhythm smoothly into each other @ 60bpm while being able to count the 5 main structures I set. If you can do that NB becomes easier! I have a course called Groove Mastery which is all about this system on my website. www.davemajormusic.com/memberships

[@markscountlessbarks]

Chaffee's books kick your ass like no other books!

[@DaveMajor]

They do!