the most advanced drumming DVD you know of please

martineverett

Junior Member
Hi
I was watching Thomas Lang talk about how some drummers make some crazy rudiments up that are nearly impossible to play. Also this week I have been looking at advanced jazz grooves that are playing a polyrhythm over a 4/4 bar to make your beat sound like it's in a different tempo/time sig to the rest of the band and so on.

SO my question is.
Whats the most advanced drum/drummer DVD you have seen and or own and could you let me know what it is and what it is about. I'm thinking DVD's like the the Thomas Land ones and not ones of only performances but with talking and explanations etc.
In a nut shell a drum DVD that makes your head feel like it's going to explode.

Many thanks for your time.
Martin
 
The only drum DVD I own is Jojo Mayer's Secret Weapons.
It's about general stick control and technique, and goes into the science behind it a fair bit. It teaches you about free strokes, moeller, push-pull, valving technique and other techniques and hand exercises.
Perhaps it may not be what you're looking for - it's not about polyrhythms, independence or complex passages, but it studying the DVD and thus improving your hand technique will obviously allow you to play faster, more complicated parts with ease. It has great explanations, and a lot of great performances by Jojo which should inspire you to develop your own abilities even further.
This is of course assuming you haven't heard of the DVD - if you have and I'm patronising you, my apologies.
 
Hi thanks for the reply
I have seen some of that DVD and it is awesome yeah I will look into it again so thanks for the advice.
Yeah I was only giving a few examples and want to know what other people think is the most advanced in their opinion and so on.

So it can be about any type of and any genre of drumming and so on.

Many thanks
 
I own a few educational DVD's, and they all taught me something which helped my drumming, but my favourite so far is Benny Greb's The Langage of Drumming, a unique approach to learn playing the drums, it's very well presented, with clear explanations, superb demonstrations of all topics discussed in the DVD, with a few musical bonuses and a nice touch of humour too, a must have in any drummer's collection as Benny's tutorial covers a huge spectrum of our instrument.
 
Virgil Donati is your new hero but he hasn't got a modern instructional DVD, just performance ones.

Live in Stockholm
Live in Oporto

You can also check out his Planet X albums.

+1 Benny Greb, gotta own that one also.
 
While Virgil Donati has no instructional DVD he does have a book & CD out there - Double Bass Freedom. That one has (not only, but lots of) mind-boggling exercises.

I agree with the DVDs mentioned - all great stuff - and want to add Todd Sucherman's DVDs "Methods & Mechanics" I & II. Todd is a terrific drummer and there's so much good stuff on his DVDs (actually both are 2-DVD sets), from subtleties/"basics" to killer licks. There's also the transcription book to his 1st DVD, I expect the 2nd DVD transcription will follow soon.

Thomas Lang's stuff is quite challenging (layering various patterns is what Donati is also doing in his book) but I think while those exercises are great to develop chops/independence just a small fraction is really suited for real world application.

If you're going for sheer speed - check out Derek Roddy and George Kollias. Actually those DVDs have more to offer than speed alone. Derek presents great exercises to get the weaker/left foot closer up to the right one and how to get better balance on the throne - which is very important for double bass drumming but generally any drummer will benefit from better balance at the kit. And those blast beat patterns are great to sync the hands to the feet.
 
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