Drum Book Recommendations

I thought it was about time I updated my previous post on the best drum books. As I've got close to 50 drum books in my collection at the moment, I decided not to limit myself to my top five like before.

I've grouped the books loosely by theme, but many of the books could fit into multiple categories. I've linked to Amazon where possible as they include a book preview. If the book has a “*” by the author's name it means it's a favourite of mine.

When buying a drum book, I recommend the paperback version. If you're anything like me, you'll want to annotate and mark your favourite exercises. For obvious reasons, this is a lot easier with a physical book!

Here we go...

Stick Control / Bass Drum Control / Technique

• Stick Control - George Lawrence Stone*

• Sticking Patterns - Gary Chaffee*

• The Drummer's Rudimental Reference Book - John Wooton

• Technique Patterns - Gary Chaffee*

• Bass Drum Control - Colin Bailey

• Master Studies - Joe Morello

Grooves

• Jost Nickel's Groove Book - Jost Nickel*

• A Funky Primer - Charles Dowd

• Linear Time Playing - Gary Chaffee*

• Linear Drumming - Mike Johnston

• Time Function Patterns - Gary Chaffee

• Future Sounds - David Garibaldi*

All Rounders

• The Language Of Drumming - Benny Greb*

• Exploring Your Creativity On The Drumset - Mark Guiliana*

• Mastering The Tables Of Time - David Stanoch

• The New Breed - Gary Chester*

• Progressive Steps to Syncopation for the Modern Drummer - Ted Reed

Styles

• Art of Bop Drumming - John Riley*

• Advanced Techniques for the Modern Drummer - Jim Chapin

• Advanced Funk Studies - Rick Latham

• Afro-Cuban Rhythms For Drumset - Frank Malabe & Bob Weiner

• Indian Rhythms For Drumset - Pete Lockett

Advanced Concepts

• Jost Nickel's Fill Book - Jost Nickel*

• Rhythm & Meter Patterns - Gary Chaffee

• Odd Time Sticking - Gary Chaffee*

• Extreme Interdependence - Marco Minnemann & Rick Gratton

• Rhythmic Illusions - Gavin Harrison

Sight Reading

• Modern Reading Text in 4/4 - Louis Bellson

• Portraits In Rhythm - Anthony J Cirone

If you’d like to be updated about future posts, you can sign up here. If you have any questions or recommendations of your own, let me know in the comments below.