Good source material is vital both for teaching and learning to play drums. As well as the commercially available material for sale on my shop page here are three downloadable pdfs that you may find useful.
Learn To Play Drums
Home produced source material of a whole range of grooves plus genres downloaded from the (now defunct) Guildhall Exam site.
'Going Up' by Jonathan Chappell
This was written for a concert at one of my schools. It was played by one pupil on kit with three others playing the rhythm patterns on djembe and cahon. The dance faculty organised some jazz dancing to it which gave it a visual element. It is around the standard of the old Guildhall Grade III.
Listen to 'Going Up' as a drum kit solo.
You are welcome to use this piece but please credit me as composer if you play it at a concert or other event.
'One To Go' by Jonathan Chappell
This was written for another concert at
another of my schools. The new director of music was very keen on developing
orchestral percussion so we produced a piece played on Bass Drum and Cymbals and
Snare drum along with timps and some rototoms, tambourine and tenor drum. The
"drum kit" bit is a good visual as the cymbal player held her cymbals together
and the snare drummer played them a la hi hat!
Listen to 'One To Go' as a percussion ensemble solo.
You are welcome to use this piece but please credit me as composer if you play it at a concert or other event.
Modern Techniques for the Progressive Drummer by Max Abrams
This fine book by Max Abrams and Published by the Premier Drum Company was a standard teaching book when I was a very young drummer. Long out of print I have scanned my old copy and gained permission from Premier (who still hold the copyright) to distribute it free of charge to my pupils.
Boxed Set of Max Abrams 78 Records
Titled "Drum Tonics"
Mr N Grange of Norfolk sent me these as they
had been found in a loft and he didn't want to just throw them away. They
originally had an accompanying book now lost but it is an amazing historical
document to hear Max Abrams instructing and playing rolls and flams, drags and
ruffs.
The discs were played on a Goldring Lenco CL75
with Shure M75EJ cartridge with a sapphire 78 stylus. Output from the quad
pre-amp goes to an Edirol UA-1EX usb-audio interface thence to a PC running 'Audacity'.
The tracks were passed through a Low Pass filter at 2000hz and had click and pop
removal. They sound better through a sound system than through laptop speakers!
(I am assuming that as they are a historical
document, copyright issues will not arise. Should Parlaphone's curent copyright
holder wish to press their case I shall remove these files.)
Boxed Set of Max Abrams 78 Records
Titled "Drum Tonics"
New Drum Solos by Bill Douglass edited by Roy Harte
Another long out of print work originally published by the Swing House Inc in California. It is a goldmine of soloing recipes and ideas. It even includes an advert for Autocrat Drums of Kentish Town London England!
Music Manuscript Paper
No need to buy! Just download music manuscript paper and print what you need as you need it.
