While the interview is fresh, I want to give my recommendations for Joel Rothman book purchases. God knows I haven’t seen his entire catalog, but these are very strong books:
Basic Drumming – An everything classic. See my review for more information.
Mini Monster Book of Rock Drumming – Embrace the goofy cover. The best overview of rock/pop/funk/backbeat-oriented drumming I’ve seen. Review coming soon. You may also be interested Rothman’s newest book, which I have not seen, Son of the Mini Monster for Rock Drumming: “…concentrates on developing simple to complex-sounding bass drum patterns against a variety of rock cymbal beats in various time signatures.”
Drumming And All That Jazz – An excellent overview of primarily triplet-based jazz concepts.
Basic Drum Technique and Beyond – Contains a lot of material further developing things found in Stick Control. Particularly interesting are the parts dealing with stickings of mixed rhythms, and the dynamics section.
Rock with Hand-Foot Drum Breaks
Swingin’ in 3/4 Time – One of his earlier books, this first came out when the jazz waltz was still a fairly exotic style- Elvin Jones had just joined John Coltrane’s band, and was expressing (I think to Charlie Persip?) what a difficult time he was having playing in 3/4. This is still a solid introduction to playing in three, and an excellent companion to Joe Morello’s later New Directions in Rhythm. [Note: Mr. Rothman informs me that this book has been out of print for some time, and most of the content has been included in Drumming And All That Jazz above; there do seem to be a few copies of Swingin’ in… available through Steve Weiss Music. I think it’s worth the purchase price just for the cover.]
The Compleat Jazz Drummer
I am happy to help you with any of the materials on the site, and with anything else drumming related— contact me for private lessons, online world wide, or in person in Portland, Oregon. All levels of players, and all people, are welcome.
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