Rhythmic Illusions [Paperback]

Gavin Harrison (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1999

Created for drumset players who find themselves in a creative rut, this book and audio package easily breaks down the mystery behind subdivisions, rhythmic modulation, rhythmic scales and beat displacement. The author makes the transition from mathematics to musicality with an easy and systematic approach.

Product Details

• Paperback: 72 pages
• Publisher: Warner Bros Pubns (July 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1576236870
• ISBN-13: 978-1576236871
• Product Dimensions: 11.9 x 9 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #387,698 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars IT'S ALL AN ILLUSION !, June 10, 2000

By 

Örn Leifsson (Reykjavik Iceland.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rhythmic Illusions (Paperback)

WOW! Now here is a Great book, I've often been Puzzled by some of the Rhythms I've heard in either Modern Music or some of the Jazz or Fusion Music I've been listening to and I've not been able to figure them out, But finaly here is a book that Explaines much of it, and it's funny that some of these Illusions are quite simple actualy, that is in theory, But in practise they can be very difficult, at least some of them.

This Book is for the drumset, I don't play the drumset but bought it anyway because these Rhythm concept can be applied to any instrument.

The Book deals with many Rhythm concept like Beat displacement, Modulation, Rhythmic scales and Polyrhythm, ther's a lot of Material here and I must agree with Bill Bruford in his Foreword to the book "I've got Work to Do".

Other good books that deal with some of these things are "Rhythm and Meter Patterns By Gary Chaffee" and "Polyrhythms by Peter Magadini".

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting stuff to develop over a long time, February 23, 2006

By 

Funky chiro (NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rhythmic Illusions (Paperback)

Great book. Very interesting stuff that you've heard Simon Phillips, Vinnie Collaiuta, and the like do forever. this takes the "mystery" out of some elusive concepts and gives you a systematic way to develop the tools. It's kind of like the Chaffee material in that it is very well laid out, systematized, and organized to go through all (or most) of the permutations. Especially great if you're disciplined enough to go through it a little bit at a time b/c it's not easy stuff. It can give you a bit of a headache. Once the concepts, feel of the displacements and modulations, and application of the material within a musical context are together, you're going to impress a lot of people.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great drum book, April 27, 2000

By 

Tim L. (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rhythmic Illusions (Paperback)

This book showed me so much about what can be done on the drums. It explains things that one might never think of or might have ideas about but never be able to put them on paper. Also comes with a brilliant CD that will make your head spin!

Take a look at some of Gavin's solo stuff on youtube. He does a few lectures about metric modulation and displacement. You'll get a feel for how innovative his approach is and how challenging some of the concepts really are.

This really, really changed the way I play drums and how I approach writing.