Customer Reviews

The Commandments of Early Rhythm and Blues Drumming (Book & CD)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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I bought this book after I checked out Zoro's other work, The Commandments of R&B Drumming book/play-along CD. While that book is excellent, this one is simply phenomenal. This has exceeded my expectations. It's more than just a drumming book, it's a detailed history of a true art form.

I could write a long-winded review here, but I think I'll just say this: if you consider yourself a serious groove drummer, you need this book. If you thought you knew what groove drumming was, you probably didn't. This is the encyclopedia that teaches where it all came from.

Beautifully produced, this book fills a missing link between early American drumming and the present. Filled with things to practice it clearly illustrates the connection todays great drummers have to the not so distant past.
update:
Its been about a year now since I started using this book in my studio with my beginning and advanced students. This book has done more for my students, all of them, to create strong fundamentals in groove musicianship than any other book in my library. In a world where one can be bamboozled into thinking that time is merely mechanical, this book cultivates a sense of time and groove that is core to rock, jazz or any genre of music. Its easy for a producer or engineer to ask a player to be more "layed back" or "on top of the beat" or "in the pocket." Or just musical, but how do you know what that means if you haven't been born to a musical culture closer to the Mississippi or further South?

Saul Goodman, my timpani teacher at Juilliard once said that "Beethoven gives you timpani playing on a silver platter." I can say after using this book with everyone young and old that Daniel Glass gives you drumming on a silver platter. There is a wealth of knowledge that Mr. Glass has gleaned through years of travelling to meet the people he introduces.
This book is simply a labor of love. I would have loved to have met some of the greats he knew. These drummers many of whom are no longer with us must have seen a chance in Mr. Glass to preserve and impart something precious about music through the role of the drummer.
And then best of all, he delivers the beats, one by one, in context for a feast of the good stuff that musicians love to play.

The material in this book is excellent; I have learned and am continuing to learn a lot from it.

My sole gripe is the formatting - books of this sort are, by their very nature, used while drumming, and need to easily stay open to the page you are currently working on. The binding makes this problematic. Books such as this, that are destined to sit on music stands (or be placed on a stool or such) should be ring-bound, not "perfect bound"!

This book is very well structured with detailled historical data and relative musical information. Highly recommanded for all drummers and percussionist.