Musicianship/Drumming Books - Actual Books

What kind of music are you into?
 
That looks good- I liked Inner Game of Music. Peter Erskine has several other books that are excellent, including Drum Concepts and Techniques, Time Awareness. Other books with a lot of text include Bob Moses' Drum Wisdom, John Riley's books, and Charli Persip's How Not To Play The Drums (which also has one of my photos on the cover). Non-method books oriented towards performers include Free Play by Stephen Nachmanovitch and Effortless Mastery by Kenny Werner.

Non-music books that are valuable to performers include:
Zen in the Art of Archery by Eugen Herrigel
The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron
Exterminator! by William S. Burroughs (actually you can read the story I had in mind online.)
 
All of it. Anything and everything, without adhering to a particular genre.

Advanced Funk Studies by Rick Latham is a great classic funk book. A must have for a funk drummer

I just got Steve Fidk's Jazz Drum Set Independence, recommended to me by jeff here. It focuses a lot on 4 limb coordination. At first glance it looks like a pretty black and white book, but there's endless things you can do with it. Great jazz book.

I also just got Gavin Harrison's first book (he has 3), rhythmic illusions. Very challenging, but it's got great stuff. Focuses on advanced progressive techniques, like rhythm displacement and modulation. Challenging stuff, but very helpful. A must get for a prog drummer.
 
Advanced Funk Studies by Rick Latham is a great classic funk book. A must have for a funk drummer

I just got Steve Fidk's Jazz Drum Set Independence, recommended to me by jeff here. It focuses a lot on 4 limb coordination. At first glance it looks like a pretty black and white book, but there's endless things you can do with it. Great jazz book.

I also just got Gavin Harrison's first book (he has 3), rhythmic illusions. Very challenging, but it's got great stuff. Focuses on advanced progressive techniques, like rhythm displacement and modulation. Challenging stuff, but very helpful. A must get for a prog drummer.

Cool recommendations. Thanks for those.

To clarify for everybody else though, I'm actually talking about books - as in more or less something to read away from the drum set, preferably philosophy-driven.
 
Here are a couple books not specifically for drummers but it is about musicianship.

Believe it or not, the new Keith Richards book is a great insight into the dedication and focus of a "true" musician. [for me the most interesting parts where the creation of the music/records]

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=keith+richards&x=0&y=0

Another great book about the deeper things of music is ... by Victor Wooten. He is a master bass player but this book will inspire you to ---- "just play"

http://www.amazon.com/Music-Lesson-...0931/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1299195695&sr=8-1

hope this helps.
 
I went back and reread that Burroughs story for the first time in several years- it's more relevant than you'd think:

DE is a way of doing. It is a way of doing everything you do. DE simply means doing whatever you do in the easiest most relaxed way you can manage which is also the quickest and most efficient way, as you will find as you advance in DE.

You can start right now tidying up your flat, moving furniture or books, washing dishes, making tea, sorting papers. Consider the weight of objects: exactly how much force is needed to get the object from here to there? Consider its shape and texture and function. Where exactly does it belong? Use just the amount of force necessary to get the object from here to there. Don't fumble, jerk, grab an object. Drop cool possessive fingers onto it like a gentle old cop making a soft arrest. Guide the dustpan lightly to the floor as if you were landing a plane. When you touch an object weigh it with your fingers, feel your fingers on the object, the skin, blood, muscles, tendons of your hand and arm. Consider these extensions of yourself as precision instruments to perform every movement smoothly and well.

Handle objects with consideration and they will show you all their little tricks. Don't tug or pull at a zipper. Guide the little metal teeth smoothly along feeling the sinuous ripples of cloth and flexible metal. Replacing the cap on a tube of toothpaste... (and this should always be done at once. Few things are worse than and uncapped tube, maladroitly squeezed, twisting up out of the bathroom glass drooling paste, unless it be a tube with the cap barbarously forced on all askew against the threads). Replacing the cap let the very tips of your fingers protrude beyond the cap contacting the end of the tube guiding the cap into place. Using your fingertips as a landing gear will enable you to drop any light object silently and surely into its place. Remember every object has its place. If you don't find that place and put that thing there it will jump out at you and trip you or rap you painfully across the knuckles. It will nudge you and clutch at you and get in your way. Often such objects belong in the wastebasket, but often it's just that they are out of place. Learn to place an object firmly and quietly in its place and do not let your fingers move that object as they leave it there. When you put down a cup separate your fingers cleanly from the cup. Do not let them catch in the handle, and if they do repeat the movement until fingers separate clean. If you don't catch that nervous finger that won't let go of that handle you may twitch hot tea across the Duchess. Never let a poorly executed sequence pass. If you throw a match at a wastebasket and miss, get right up and put that match in the wastebasket. If you have time repeat the cast that failed. There is a always a reason for missing an easy toss. Repeat the toss and you will find it. If you rap your knuckles against a window jamb or door, if you brush your leg against a desk or a bed, if you catch your feet in the curled-up corner of a rug, or strike a toe against a desk or chair go back and repeat the sequence. You will be surprised to find how far off course you were to hit that window jamb, that door, that chair. (...)

But don't try for speed at first. Try for relaxed smoothness taking as much time as you need to perform an action. If you drop an object, break and object, spill anything, knock painfully against anything, galvanically clutch an object, pay particular attention to the retake. (...)

When speed is crucial to the operation you must find your speed the fastest you can perform the operation without error. Don't try for speed at first it will come (...)

Now some one will say... But if I have to think about every move I make ...You only have to think and break down movement into a series of still pictures to be studied and corrected because you have not found the easy way. Once you find the easy way you don't have to think about it. It will almost do itself. (...)

Everyday tasks become painful and boring because you think of them as WORK something solid and heavy to be fumbled and stumbled over. Overcome this block and you will find that DE can be applied to anything you do even to the final discipline of doing nothing. The easier you do it the less you have to do. He who has learned to do nothing with his whole mind and body will have everything done for him. (...)

The beginner can think of DE as a game. You are running an obstacle course the obstacles set up by your opponent. As soon as you attempt to put DE into practice you will find that you have an opponent very clever and resourceful with detailed knowledge of your weaknesses, and above all expert in diverting your attention for the moment necessary to drop a plate on the kitchen floor. (...)

These skills belong to you. Make them yours. You know where the wastebasket is. You can land objects in that wastebasket over your shoulder. You know how to touch and move and pick up things. Regaining these physical skills is of course simply a prelude to regaining other skills and knowledge that you have and cannot make available for your use.
 
Cool recommendations. Thanks for those.

To clarify for everybody else though, I'm actually talking about books - as in more or less something to read away from the drum set, preferably philosophy-driven.
Ah silly me.

My apologies, I misunderstood.
 
best book ive ever owned......Mastering The Table Of Time by David Stanoch.....this is the best ...and I have a stack of books as tall as me...(Im not very tall ...but thats a lot of books)

fantastic logical approach .......endless musical ideas.....it makes everything you ever heard your favorite drummer do seem accessible...(almost everything :) ).......

its sort of like....Tony Williams, Elvin Jones, John Bonham, and Steve Gad rolled up into a book giving you all their secrets....

and the bonus is the online video accompaniment .....giving you examples.....

do not play for another minute without owning this book.....

I would never steer you wrong.....

I know I sound like David has a gun to my head.....but I assure you he doesnt and the book is actually that good.....

I teach from it everyday and my students immediately smile when the realize they to can play some of the things their favorite drummers play.....

his approach is....dont play faster....play subdivisions in time....

take a look ....its worth it
 
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