The Complete Idiot's Guide to Playing Drums, 2nd Edition Paperback – January 6, 2004

I am in my senior years and one of the many things on my “bucket list” was learning how to play a few musical instruments. So far I have tried the (Kazoo), Ukulele, flute, and harmonica. I can play numerous songs with the harmonica and thought taking up the drums would be a fun thing to do. After purchasing some drum sticks and a striking pad I took some free lessons on line. I also purchased this very informative 282 soft cover book (The complete Idiot’s guide to Playing drums second edition by Michael Miller) which also includes an audio CD exercises and songs. I purchased it on Amazon for a bargain price.This text actually covers the subject in great detail and is organized into five parts. Part one (Let there be drums!) explains the positive and negative aspects of learning how to play the drums. The second part (Bang the drum slowly: snare drum basics) deals with learning the basics of reading music, how to grip your sticks and other material. The third (You got the beat: drum basics) part further explores different drum playing methods. The fourth part (Wipe out! Advanced Drum set techniques) covers some advanced drum playing techniques. The final part (Drummers rule! Drummers speak) has numerous interviews’ with some famous drummers. There are also two appendixes.It is essential to emphasize, and the author points this fact out; in order to really learn the drums you also need a good hands-on instructor to get the most out of this book. Since I only intend to practice the drumming methods for my own personal enjoyment rather than for more ambitious goals, I found this to be a fantastic basic guide with combined with me taking free on line lessons in drumming technique.If you are presently taking lessons this wonderful book can help guide you in understanding the essential basics of drumming.Rating: 5 Stars. Joseph J. Truncale (Author: Use of the Cane, Walking Stick and Hanbo for self-defense)

Love this, easy to read. I am learning so much.

I played music in school for almost eight years and went through a phase where I thought I was going to be the next Buddy Rich. If I had had this book back then, my chances would have increased dramatically (the advice about practicing using a pillow was worth the purchase price.) The book is easily read, which I guess accounts for saying it's for "idiots"; however, what's inside could take the rest of your life to master. Aside from all the info on the instruments themselves and how to set them up, the exercises on sticking, reading music, even just plain learning how to count out the beat have proven to consume more hours than I thought I had. Maybe I'm uncoordinated (or just getting old) but I would challenge any drummer (except maybe the consumate professional) to sit and play through all of these exercises and not mess up. This book is serious and if you're serious about playing well and developing technique, you'll dog-ear your copy just like me. As an aside, I highly recommend the use of a metronome while practicing. Are there any negatives about this book? A few. Mr. Miller does a reasonable job describing drum tuning but never mentions what drum to tune first (floor tom on a five piece kit from what I've been told) and the audio CD, although it does contain all the exercises and a couple of tunes, is not easily navigated in picking a specific exercise. What would have been nice is for the publisher to include digital pictures of the practice bars for display on your computer so you wouldn't be trying to prop the book open on a music stand. Although I haven't yet made it there myself, my prediction is that by the time you get through all the material in this book, you'll be one heck of a drummer.

This is fine for learning all about drum kits, how to select them and cymbals, etc. and how to maintain them, learning the basics and has some nice exercises. It is a very good way to gain a lot of information in a hurry. And it is a good way to learn the rudiments. But don't worry if you happen to buy a used copy that lacks the cd, it is fairly worthless anyway. For some reason, they neglected to announce which exercise they were covering. So, for example, if you are looking for exercise 15.3, lots of luck finding it. All you will hear is one drum exercise after the other. If you don't follow all of them from the first one, you will be lost. The book itself, however, if fine and would be of great benefit to many a beginning and intermediate drummer.

This is a very sold overview of drums and drumming. I have a bunch of other drumming books that specialize (and go deep) into different aspects of drumming but I like this book because gathers a lot of disparate pieces of knowledge into one place. It’s a great starting point from which you can head more deeply into subjects introduced here.Besides drumming the book discusses the drum set up, purchasing drums, how to read drum notation and many other important side topics.For advanced drummers it provides easy refresher if they wish to go off into a new direction (such as move from rock to latin drumming) or if they need to review the basic rudiments again.Of all the drum books I own this is the one I come back to time and time again.Highly recommended.

Can't complain as it only cost me a couple of quid, complete with CD. However... hell of a lot of kit setup tips and information, lots of index and glossary, etc., etc... all very interesting stuff about tuning heads (not applicable to me with an electronic kit), when to change heads... and then by page 80 you get to play your first note! The lessons themselves are straightforward enough and will no doubt get you playing. I think the 'Complete Learn To Play Drums' Manual by Lerntoplaymusic.com is far easier for total beginners to get into though. Still, as I say, for a couple of quid not bad.

For my grandson who praised it enthusiastically.

The link to the online drum tracks is not correct—so this book did not deliver as promised. Unfortunately, I’ve already written in the front, as it was a gift for my granddaughter.Please provide correct link or a CD!

So i received the book stating online audio files. Finally found the molehiĺl link, and it is incorrect.Had i known ahead of time i wouldnt have purchased this book . It is outdated and useless.A total waste of moneyPass on this one, and check out something else.Not worth the price of the paper it is printed on.Ripped Off