Phrasing: Advanced Rudiments for Creative Drumming (Drums: Technique)

I have been working with this book for a couple of months now and it has become a staple of my daily hand technique workout routine. I love the concept of applying a variety of rudiments to various 'essential' one-bar phrases (I think of them as 'melodies) many of which I would not have thought of on my own. The back-flap fold out of the one-bar phrases makes it easy to go from one lesson to another. I even made a copy of them that I keep in my gig bag to use for my pre-gig warm-ups! This is at a minimum an intermediate level book so a good knowledge of the basic rudiments is a must. I immediately gravitated towards the lessons dealing with flams and rolls. After a short time as I became familiar with the exercises, I began to play the one-bar phrases alternating with lessons that have similar themes. For example, rather than playing each phrase four times with one lesson, I will play a four bar phrase using a different lesson on each bar, such as the lessons involving sextuplets (42, 43, 48, 50). A great mental workout! Several of the lessons can also be applied to the feet for double-pedal players such as lessons 9 & 21, using alternating triplets or lessons 39 & 41 using 16ths. Your only limit is your imagination!Full disclosure, I know Russ a little bit having shared the stage with him on several gigs. He is great guy and fabulous drummer. But that didn't influence my review...the book stands on it's own merits.

I recently purchased Russ’s book and am just starting to scratch the surface. As a teacher, there are concepts for my intermediate and advanced students. As a player, there are ideas and concepts that are exciting to practice and learn. Going through the rudiments alone is a great hand work out, and adding the underlying grooves with the feet opens up so many more possibilities and challenges. Russ gives you different ideas to practice in each of the 50 lessons. Plus, you have access to go online and see him demonstrate. Great stuff.

Many more-advanced musical concepts are covered, and instructions and context are clear. As indicated in the title, this exercise book focuses on elements of phrasing and rudiments to give players a rounded and flexible approach to live musical settings. 50+ lessons, with 8, 12,16+ bars in detailed “Stick Control” formatting, while also involving useful standard rudiments. Great material, highly recommend!

I got this book because I thought it dealt with using rudiments to make your playing more musical, how to employ rudiments in phrases that "say something" as opposed to just shredding out random technique-heavy licks. What the book really does is give you 14 "essential one-bar phrases" and then go through all kinds of rudimental permutations and variations of them.If you're looking for a book that will keep you busy building your technique, this could be a decent book, but it doesn't look very promising to me if you're looking to put more musicality in your playing. I don't know where the "essential" phrases come from or what makes them essential. They sound pretty corny when played with a jazz feel but OK with a rock feel, so maybe this book is good for someone who wants to beef up their fill-in vocabulary for a funk or fusion setting. But because the book's limited to these "essential" phrases it doesn't seem like it's very helpful for developing a sense of phrasing in general.

This new book from Russ Gold takes each rudiment and applies it throughout a page of different clave patterns. The results are clear; any student who uses this book will expand their vocabulary on the drumset tenfold. Russ's method is great because it forces you out of your own "go to" stickings so that you are forced to come up with new and creative patterns on the set. I highly reccomend this book for students of all levels and incorporate it into my practice on a daily basis. The stickings also come along with drumset applications so the bridge between hand technique and drumset applications in clear as daylight, something missing from most technique literature. Congratulations, Russ.

Not quite what I expected but this does open up new possibilities for syncopated stickings using double strokes, paradiddles, etc., etc., over foot patterns such as samba and baiao. Now part of my daily warm-up session.

Clear and concise instruction from a hardworking experienced drummer. The online videos make a perfect package of theory and realtime action! Thank you Berklee Press and Hal Leonard and Russ for this excellent technique experience.

An eye opener! Well thought out and organized. If you want to take your drumming to the next level this is the book.

If you are already a trained drummer, this is a good book.

I just started working out of this book today. My first impressions were that it is very well laid-out, completely avoiding visual overload either in the written instructions or the exercises. It's easy on the eye and looks accessible.I've only got as far as Lesson One, but it's more challenging than I expected it to be, given that I regularly use "Syncopation". What I like most of all is the amount of guidance that Russ Gold provides - nothing wordy, just instructions on how to use the exercises: he gives 7 or 8 suggestions for each one, plus variations. That's an awful lot of exercises!I can see how this book might narrow the gap between what is learned and what is instinctive, so that the first might become the second quite quickly. Sometimes it's difficult to see how what you're practising will translate into your playing, but everything I did today made sense to me.The book also gives access to other complementary resources. Although I haven't checked them out yet, my feeling is that "Phrasing" will turn out to be an Aladdin's Cave, packed full of drumming treasures.

Non ho avuto molto tempo per analizzare bene il libro ma come ogni guida per migliorare l'uso di uno strumento credo che sifaccia ben apprezzare.