Customer Reviews

Advanced Techniques for the Modern Drummer

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I remember picking this up 6 years ago. I'm in college now getting a music major. This book well get you swinging and build your independence real well. But it requires a lot of practice (like practicing each exercise 10 times in a row, to develop your independence, and then do the basic ride pattern on the left, and the snare on the right hand) Even though this book has every single exercise you can possibly think of for swinging, it puts some unnecessary exercises, like playing against 16th notes with the basic swing ride pattern. I do teach this book to my students, but I also teach another book that I think is more effective than this book. Syncopation for the modern drummer by Tim Reed. Even though this book is just playing on the bass and snare, you can just play the regular jazz ride pattern against it. This is probably the only book out there that beats advanced techniques for the modern drummer, for swinging. Either way, you will be swinging like crazy, when you are finished with one of the two books.

Just about every great jazz drummer that I know of has at one time digested some or all of Chapin's Advanced Techniques for the Modern Drummer. It encapsulates the primary independence for learning how to groove in traditional swing style.

Like any great book, a casual parusal will foster little value to your jazz repertoire. You have to study it out, practice, and then practice some more. But Chapin's exercises will put you on the right road to swinging. Check it out!

The problem with jazz drumming is that it sounds easier to play than it actually is. Jim Chapin's approach is broken down in to simple, bite-sized bars that enable the student to understand the beautiful logic of four-way independence. Suggestion: Use the Mel Bay Drummer's Cookbook to coordinate your snare & bass limbs before tackling the second half of Advanced Techniques. Learning to "swing" in sixteenth notes is easy once you can break up your hands & feet. (Perhaps swinging is a right-brained activity, while maintaining four-way independence is a left-brained endeavor.) Inch by inch, anthing's a cinch.

This is a must have for any student or teacher .I use this for practice & teaching.It has withstood the test of time and will be important to a generation of drummers to come.