If you want to have more fun on the drums, improve your skills faster, and play along to real music, then you need to build a solid foundation. The Best Beginner Drum Book gives you a clear path for getting started on the drums and skipping the frustrating obstacles that most new drummers face: setting up your kit, holding the drumsticks, learning notation, creating catchy beats and fills, learning musical styles, and playing your favorite songs.

Become a different drummer Drumming is natural to all of us—after all, it mimics the regular beat of our hearts. But some of us want to go further and really lay down a big beat. And no wonder—whether you want to become the powerful backbone of a band or just learn how to play a hand drum for pleasure, drumming is a lot of fun. Oh, and it's scientifically proven to make you smarter. Bonus: healthier! Drums For Dummies gets you going on the road to becoming the drummer you want to be. Get started with the basics—what drums to buy, exercises that build your skills, and playing simple rhythms. Then move into more complex topics, explore drumming styles from around the world, and add other percussion instruments to your repertoire. Written in an easy-to-follow step-by-step style by respected instructor Jeff Strong, you'll go from banging out basic rhythms—with or without sticks—to acquiring versatility with different styles and types of drum. The book also provides online audio files to drum along with, as well as suggestions for solo approaches to wow your bandmates. Understand fundamental techniques Hone your technique with exercises Explore other percussion instruments Care for your drums The all-time drumming great Neal Peart of the band Rush once said that when he saw a good drummer, all he wanted to do was practice. Drums For Dummies is your best way to do just that—and start hitting your perfect groove. P.S. If you think this book seems familiar, you're probably right. The Dummies team updated the cover and design to give the book a fresh feel, but the content is the same as the previous release of Drums For Dummies (9780471794110). The book you see here shouldn't be considered a new or updated product. But if you're in the mood to learn something new, check out some of our other books. We're always writing about new topics!

From Grammy-winning musical icon and legendary bassist Victor L. Wooten comes an inspiring parable of music, life, and the difference between playing all the right notes…and feeling them. The Music Lesson is the story of a struggling young musician who wanted music to be his life, and who wanted his life to be great. Then, from nowhere it seemed, a teacher arrived. Part musical genius, part philosopher, part eccentric wise man, the teacher would guide the young musician on a spiritual journey, and teach him that the gifts we get from music mirror those from life, and every movement, phrase, and chord has its own meaning...All you have to do is find the song inside. “The best book on music (and its connection to the mystic laws of life) that I've ever read. I learned so much on every level.”—Multiple Grammy Award–winning saxophonist Michael Brecker

Introduction. How this book is organized ; Instruments covered ; Working with percussionists ; Location specifics ; The value of not reading this book.

Starting Out Right: Beginning Band Pedagogy is the only complete resource for organizing, planning, and teaching beginning woodwind, brass, and percussion students. The book covers every aspect of teaching beginning band students from the first sounds on the instruments through the first full-band performances. It is the only comprehensive reference that offers step-by-step guidelines for teaching each beginning band instrument, as well as organizing and running a successful beginning band program. Based on the public school teaching experience of the author, the book is designed for use in undergraduate methods and pedagogy classes as well as for clinics and workshops at the undergraduate and graduate levels. This book is also designed to be a reference for the many novice teachers who lead beginning bands or those teachers whose expertise is not in the band realm. While the focus of the book is on teaching beginning band, much of the book can be of use to band instructors at any grade level. The book is divided into several parts, which cover the sound-to-sign-to-theory approach to teaching musical literacy; child development as it relates to teaching music; recruiting and retaining students; developing fundamental sounds and skills on each woodwind, brass, and percussion instrument; teaching students to read tonal and rhythmic music notation; and selecting and rehearsing beginning band solo, ensemble, and full-band music. The book also addresses curriculum design, scheduling, and staffing of band programs. Ideas about managing student records, inventory, and equipment are also given special attention. Written in a casual narrative style, the book features real-world examples of how the principles in the book might be applied to actual teaching situations. Another special feature of the book is a set of early field-experience application exercises. Starting Out Right guides readers as they explore a comprehensive individual and ensemble approach to teaching each woodwind, brass, and percussion instrument.

George Lawrence Stone's Stick Control is the original classic, often called the bible of drumming. In 1993, Modern Drummer magazine named it one of the top 25 drumming books of all-time. In the words of the author, this is the ideal book for improving "control, speed, flexibility, touch, rhythm, lightness, delicacy, power, endurance, preciseness of execution, and muscular coordination," with extra attention given to the development of the weak hand. This indispensable book for drummers of all types includes hundreds of basic to advanced rhythms and moves through categories of single-beat combinations, triplets, short roll combinations, flam beats, flam triplets and dotted notes, and short roll progressions.