These are technique guides I find to be the cornerstone of rocking the drumset. In their specific way they will increase your dexterity, agility, focus, control and power. They are mostly the original books on their subject matters, and their essential truths persist in to all genres of drum set playing.

Syncopation for the Modern Drummer is one of the few essential classics in drum education

The first book I mention I wish every musician would study, not just drummers. It is called Syncopation for the Modern Drummer. This book will guide you to rhythmic clarity and articulation. It will teach you the art of subdivision, and get you accustomed to playing challenging rhythmic phrases. It is the first book many classically trained percussionists start with. The knowledge in this book translates to every instraument in existence. Rhythmic quality is perhaps the most exacting aspect of contemporary music and this book will help you achieve it.

Stick Control for the Snare Drummer is a seminal work in drumming dexterity.

4-Way Coordination is the ultimate guide that will make you like a ninja. Its exercises may even change your brain in fundemental ways as you develop and strengthen limb independence and coordination.

Stick Control for the Snare Drummeris a seminal work in drumming dexterity. This books is a regiment for a lifetime as well as an introduction for novices. This book will give you the uncanny feeling of advancing your dexterity. It is focused on your hands, which are generally your most dynamic appendages. This books is particularly great if you’re very interested in rudimental drumming. It is not a rudimental book but it will help you develop amazing rolls.

4-Way Coordination is also focused on advancing the musicians coordination. This book features exercises and guides players to use their feet in coordination with their hands, in musical and complicated ways. It is useful for every kind of drummer, and is a seminal, essential work like the others I’ve mentioned here. This book will make you feel like a wizard as your limbs begin to fly in every direction with skill and precision.

These are some books on pop music, mainly funk, that have really helped my drumming. They are all really fun and feature historical notes about the musicians discussed. Later I’ll post the technique books that are essential and what to get out of them.

Groove Alchemy is almost a history book, with transcriptions of important and interesting funk beats. Stanton Moore discusses many nuances and tricks that can help an advanced player and a beginner. He’s one of the great living, mid-career drummers.

Give the Drummer Some, is an in depth look at the drummers of James Brown. There are many charts and historical notes.

And last, The Funkmasters – the Great James Brown Rhythm Sections, deals with the whole ensembles. They are very dedicated to transcribing and it covers many great beats.

Incidentally I think all three of these books have a chart of Funky Drummer, as played by Clyde Stubblefield. I felt Stanton Moore’s Groove Alchemy helped me play that beat the best.

This is a repost of a blog entry I did on Dayvsnight.com; I wanted to share it here since it’s so much about drums.

There’s a million words I could write about the many drummers of James Brown and those combined with pictures would never do their music justice. As a drummer and contributing musician, 60s & 70s funk plays a huge role in our music, and I’m quite giddy to discuss it.

The two most famous drummers of James Brown are Jabo Sparks and Clyde Stubblefield, so I’m going to focus on them as a pair. James Brown’s bands weren’t like contemporary rock bands. He easily had five drummers on stage at any performance, sometimes playing in tandem, other times, all but one drummer would sit there and focus on looking good, and that one drummer would play as hard as he could. Especially because early on, the drummers were completely unmic’d. I read interviews with both those guys and they both talk about blood on their hands from bashing so hard.

Notice the snare on the up beat of four, and the bass drum on the up beat of the following one.

Now, what defines their style most poignantly, and the concept I incorporate most visibly is the displaced back beat. A typical James Brown song with a displaced backbeat is “Cold Sweat”. The drummer shifts the backbeat of the snare by an eigthnote, and the subsequent rhythms are played as if the down beat was the up beat, and then with a little funk magic, it all resolves neatly on the one. Typically each time through the rhythmic sequence was two measures, 8 total quarter notes. This observation I have on the modality of 2 measures in rhythmic figures is also a major concept in my scripting, and I’ve noted it in Dave Grohl’s & John Bonham’s drumming as well. I will discuss this at length later.

While that typified them and came to define a whole genre, the essential quality all of James Brown’s drummers had is CLARITY OF RHYTHM. It is hard to sit through a movie where the actors cannot enunciate or speak clearly. Akin to this, drummers who slur their rhythms make messes out of their band and have no tightness. This is not a rant against a shuffle, as a shuffle can be either consistent, or inconsistent. Inconsistent drummers are bad. The Drummers of James Brown play rhythm like it was crystal, so clear, with no flubbing or sloppiness. Rhythmic articulation is the first step in to excellence as a musician overall, nevermind drummers.

There’s a lot of amazing things to learn about the drummers of James Brown. I own “Give the Drummer Some”, “Rhythm Sections of James Brown” and I’m dying to get “Groove Alchemy” by Stanton Moore. More than anything this funky music introduced me to the concept of rhythm as the melody. It also kept me enchanted, with the raging, incessant pulse pounding rhythms.

In our music, the EP is soon available on iTunes, and we have a track available at the end of this article, the displaced back beat, as well as our crystal clear rhythm, is evident in Caught on the Radio, Twisted and Summertime. All three of these have different points where I play a back beat on the & of 4 and skip right over 1, so I can really attack beat 2. Skipping beat one of a measure is also super funky and I believe I learned it listening to the drummers of James Brown. Also I remember a lot of songs where Police drummer Stewart Copeland skipped beat 1 too. He’s also to be discussed in the future, and lately I notice Jack White drumming, skipping beat 1 for maximum groove in many Dead Weather songs.

Check out Caught on the Radio first to see, in the chorus, what shifting the back beat on the 2nd back beat can do. I also skip over beat 1 of every other measure when I skip the back beat, adding to the funkiness.