All About Drums: A Fun and Simple Guide to Playing Drums [Paperback]

Rick Mattingly (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2006 | Series: All about (Book 4)

Have you struggled through tedious lessons and boring instruction books in your desire to learn to play the drumset? If you wish there was a fun and engaging way to motivate you in your drumset playing quest, then this is it: All About Drums is for you. Whether it's learning to read music, playing by ear, creating your own beats, or all of the above, this enjoyable guide will help you to finally start playing the beats and fills to your favorite songs in many different styles. Plus, learn interesting tid-bits on drumset makes & models, care and maintenance, additional percussion instruments, and other fun stuff about the drumset. This fun-filled, easy-to-use guide includes: * An introduction to the drumset * Step-by-step music reading instruction * How to create your own beats, fills, & solos * Background on various styles of music, including dozens of favorite songs * Performing tips * CD includes over 90 tracks for demo and play-along. Over 40 favorite songs, including: Come Together * Detroit Rock City * Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover * Hurts So Good * Message in a Bottle * Oh, Pretty Woman * Pour Some Sugar on Me * Shattered * Smells like Teen Spirit * Swingtown * Walk This Way * The Zephyr Song * and more.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Hal Leonard (November 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1423408187
• ISBN-13: 978-1423408185
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,048,884 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Rick Mattingly is a writer, editor, teacher, and drummer/percussionist. He is publications editor for the Percussive Arts Society, drum/percussion editor for Hal Leonard Corporation, and a former editor for Modern Drummer magazine. His articles on music and musicians have appeared in Modern Drummer, Percussive Notes, Musician, Down Beat, Jazziz, and The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. He is the author of the instructional books Creative Timekeeping, the Hal Leonard Snare Drum Method, and All About Drums, all published by Hal Leonard; The Drummer's Time, published by Modern Drummer, co-author of The Drumset Musician and Fast Track Drums (Hal Leonard), and editor of The Drum and Percussion Cookbook (Meredith) and numerous instructional books by such authors as Joe Morello, Peter Erskine, Gary Chester, Airto, Nancy Zeltsman and others. He teaches percussion and journalism at St. Xavier High School in Louisville, Kentucky.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great!, January 1, 2009

By 

Erik Moldovan - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: All About Drums: A Fun and Simple Guide to Playing Drums (Paperback)

I bought the Idiot's Guide: Playing Drums before this. And it was good, but long winded, somewhat formal and not very engaging, in my opinion. But this book blows it out of the water! It covers in 20 pages what the Idiot's Guide did in about 50 (albeit on larger pages; the paper is bigger to fit scores). But even more important is the tone of the author. It feels like I'm having a conversation with him as he teaches me, not like I'm reading an instructional book.

The big problem with self-teaching is motivation and sticking to it. And I haven't had that problem with this book. I read it on the train ride home everyday and can't wait to try out what I learned when I see my drums.

All in all, a good book, especially for those people with some musical experience.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for newbies, April 25, 2011

By 

chester (concord, ca United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: All About Drums: A Fun and Simple Guide to Playing Drums (Paperback)

I'm a professional guitarist, with over 40 years on the neck. I've always dabbled in drums, and this year bought a small set and finally decided to get serious. I work in a music store, so I have access to every book around, as well as knowing and playing with some great drummers, who have been really helpful.

This book was recommended by a fellow teacher, and it has been a great intro into equipment, maintenance, important drummers, all the basic beats in rock, jazz, blues, funk, etc, as well as some great song transcriptions of Aerosmith, Deep Purple, etc. The section on rudiments and fills are a bit thin, but there's plenty of books available for that. I found the info on equipment and maintenance to be very helpful, and not found in too many other books. There's even a section on gig etiquette!

If you're an advanced player, there's probably nothing new here. But if you're new to drums, and looking for a good overview of every facet, you can't go wrong here. Fun to read as well.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book, December 14, 2010

By 

Jordan Bailey (WINSTON SALEM, NORTH CAROLINA, US) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: All About Drums: A Fun and Simple Guide to Playing Drums (Paperback)

This is a great book for anyone. I play trombone, guitar and bass so I have a musical background and know how to read notation which allowed me to skip one of the first chapters, but my girlfriend who has no musical knowledge read it and understood in less than 5 minuets. All of the information is presented in a great order and there is tons of info about not only playing drums but also how to join a band, what to expect at a gig, diffrent types of cymbals and countless others. It got me playing profeciently in less than six months with lots of practice. I reccomend this for anyone intrested in playing.