Mike Newland
Junior Member
>I have recently bought "Advanced Funk Studies" by Rick Latham, the 25th anniversary DVD. It is very inspirational and It has a lot on rudimental application. I suggest getting the book for it too, to use as reference. It is for all skill levels.
Beginner to advanced.
I got the expanded DVD and the book recently.
I think they are excellent for the precise purpose they were written for. They are not about basic rock or jazz. Nor are they straightforward groove primers like Tommy Igoe's excellent Groove Essentials concentrating on a ready made result you can use with further ado. The purpose is facility in playing often complex patterns using mixed single and double strokes plus bass drum. Which is what funk is about! The patterns really do enlarge your vocabulary. But that style of playing does not technically suit basic rock in my view so if that's what you want to play look elsewhere. Also it's not much about the triplet feel of jazz which is another planet. For that sort of pattern look to Jim Chapin and others.
The fact that the book and video have sold for so long I think emphasises their value. You can dip and learn a little hand and foot pattern now and then so it's not too hard work! They tend to stick with you I find so you absorb them subliminally. Watching him do it really adds to the subliminal so for the best you need the book and DVD. Not cheap it's true but worth it for the serious player with a long-term plan to master the damn things called drum kits which look a lot easier to play than they are. Which exercise from which page is given on the screen so you can watch book in hand working through examples from every section.
I particularly enjoyed Rick Latham's description as to how the tutorials came about. He regularly transcribed things leading players like Garibaldi, Purdie and Gadd were doing and used them in classes he taught at a time when the linear funk style was becoming popular. The class expected something new each time. It took off into a book.
I also enjoyed Ed Shaughnessy's remark about how few people at clinics say they practised simply playing groove. He said it's rare for someone to ring a drummer and say "I'd like you on the gig because I've heard you do great solos. I know your time's a little shaky but I'm really looking forward to the solo".
Hilarious!