Fundamental Concepts for Drummers

Stefan Schütz

Gert Sass

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This book is a comprehensive guide. It describes the fundamental concepts which a modern drummer should be familiar with. All elem...

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This book is a comprehensive guide. It describes the fundamental concepts which a modern drummer should be familiar with. All elementary issues of drumming are analyzed systematically. The book demonstrates approaches from scratch for reaching top results and a maximum joy of playing the instrument. A conceptional guide for all drummers, teachers and students alike. I took a long time wondering whether it would make any sense to write yet another book on drumming. The market is fully saturated, and for any conceivable topic you will find more or less sophisticated literature. In the course of my activities as lecturer and director of the drum department, I was granted many really astonishing experiences. I have developed many concepts of my own, some of which are based on the support and suggestions provided by my colleagues1. Intensive encounters with some of the world's best drummers2 have helped me analyze and understand the most various approaches to drumming directly at the source. Realizing the fundamental structures of today's drumming practice has inspired and encouraged me to start this project. In this book I will try to introduce these concepts to the reader. I want to show how people can learn and experience drumming in a way that is different from what is perceived and described in the existing literature on drumming. The whole book is free from any musical notes, because it is not about learning yet another set of licks, patterns, and combinations, but instead a fundamental approach to the instrument we all love to play so much. Some colleagues may consider the one or the other issue from a completely different point of view and tend to a different approach. But that doesn't mean in turn that my concepts are insufficient. They are just different, and they may seem odd in certain respects, but in fact they have been shown to be highly efficient. Many roads lead to Rome, but one definitely doesn't: Following a path and then turning around and going back, then going forth another path, only to return again, and so forth. This would definitely not be recommendable for pursuing a goal. The important thing is to decide for a path and then follow it all the way through. I have made a decision for myself and want to ask the interested reader to join me on this journey, which will lead us to the very core of this instrument, its very substance and basis. It will soon become clear that this is not about abstract ideas and concepts, because the active musician will always remain in focus. A human being with his or her own emotions, conceptions and ways of thinking, with his or her personal traits and individual body awareness. With hopes and joys on the one hand, and fears and insecurities on the other. This is where all the work needs to be aimed at: The very basis. I am sure and have often been assured that the fun you can have with your instrument rises, that the rhythmical skills will improve, and that you will simply sound better as a musician. And that's what it's about for me. All ideas are based on our Western culture and do not raise any claim to be universal applicable. There are completely different rhythm structures in Indian, Arabic, and African regions which I will not expand on. I will focus on those rhythm structures which we find in contemporary popular music, and which contemporary drummers should be able to handle. It goes without saying that only the outlines will be dealt with, and that there are exceptions to each "rule". As a principle, anything that pleases is approved. Every individual is free in his or her personal artistic Expression. As far as I am dealing with musical rules and principles, I am actually referring to patterns of listening. There isn't such a thing to our instrument as an academic domain, an absolute doctrine which everybody would be expected to follow, as we know it to be a usual case in the context of empirical science.