Books

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Drum Instruction / Books About Drummers / Women in Music / Drum Equipment

Drum Instruction

• Phillips Drum Publications
  Drumset instruction textbooks with designed co-ordination exercises.
  
  
• Berklee Practice Method: Drum Set - Teaches skills for playing in a band
  by Ron Savage; paperback and cd; 2001
  Lessons throughout this book guide you through basic rhythms, beats, and subdivisions. Daily practice routines are designed for practising by yourself or with other musicians. The accompanying CD features Berklee players and covers a variety of styles including rock, funk, jazz, blues, swing, and bossa nova.
  
  
• How to Play Djembe (Book/CD Set)
  by Alan L. Dworsky, Betsy Sansby; paperback; 2000
  User-friendly course on how to play djembe, the popular West African hand drum.
  
  
• Complete Idiot's Guide to Playing Drums
  by Michael Miller, Greg Bissonette; paperback; 2000
  Information about drum purchasing and maintenance, instructions about the snare drum fundamentals of sticking, syncopation and rolls.
  
  
• Drumstick Spinology
  SMG publications
  Complete method to drumstick spinning ("twirling") techniques, it is the first book ever published on the subject. Drumstick Spinology tm (ISBN number 0-9705342-0-5) is available through Baker and Taylor, SMG website, and/or directly through SMG Publications.
  
  
• Drum Basics, Steps One and Two Combined : Steps One & Two Combined (The Ultimate Beginner Series)
  by Mike Finkelstein (Editor), et al; paperback; 1996
  Packed full of tips, lessons, and practical knowledge. Topics include: about the drum set, how to hold the sticks, how to play basic beats, note values, song structure and the drummer's role in a song, how to play drum fills, and warm-up exercises.
  
  
• Syncopation for the Moder Drummer
  by Ted Reed; paperback; 1997
  
  
• 200 Drum Machine Patterns
  by Rene-Pierre Bardet; paperback; 1988
  
  
• Afro-Cuban Drumming: A Comprehensive Guide to Traditional & Contemporary Styles
  by Glen Caruba; paperback; 1996
  
  
• Conga Drumming: A Beginner's Guide to Playing With Time
  by Alan Dworsky; paperback; 1994
  
  
• How to Play Drums (How-to-Play Series)
  by James Blades and Johnny Dean; paperback; 1992
  
  
• Instant Drumming: Quick and Easy Instruction for the Table-Top Drummer
  by Patrick F. Byrne; paperback; 1993
  
  
• Rock-Solid Drum Patterns: Grooves, Patterns & Fills You Can Learn Today!
  by Dave Zubraski; paperback; 1997
  
  
• The Drummer's Almanac: Tips & Tales From the Pros
  by Jon Cohan and Jon Coban; paperback; 1998
  
  
• Gene Krupa Drum Method
  by Gene Krupa; paperback; 1995
  
  
• How to Play Drums
  by Vincent L. Mott; paperback; 1985
  

Books About Drummers

• Tito Puente's Drumming with The Mambo King
  by Tito Puente and Jim Payne; paperback, 2000 (book and cd edition)
  Includes instruction covering Latin rhythms and patterns applicable to the timbales and the drum set, a retrospective--through Tito's own words and in photos--of Tito's incredible 50-year career as The King of Latin Music, a history of Latin music, a72-minute CD.
  
  
• Buddy Rich: Jazz Legend 1917-1987: Transcriptions and Analysis of the World's Greatest Drummer
  by Buddy Rich; paperback; 1997
  
  
• Great Jazz Drummers
  by Ronald Spagnardi; paperback; 1997
  
  
• Give the Drummers Some!: The Great Drummers of R&B, Funk & Soul
  by Jim Payne, et al.; paperback; 1996
  The story of the rhythmic revolution in R&B, funk, and soul, as told by the drummers themselves. Includes interviews, discographies, rare photos, transcriptions, and a cool CD with more than 90 drum-set rhythms. The drummerboys include Earl Palmer, Clyde Stubblefield, and Bernard "Pretty" Purdie.

Women in Music

• Angry Women in Rock, Vol. I
  Andrea Juno and V. Vale, editors; paperback; 1996
  
  
• Angry Women in Rock, Vol. 2
  Andrea Juno, editor; paperback; 1998
  Another great collection of interviews, including veterans like Joan Jett, Phranc, and riot grrrl superstars like Kathleen Hanna from Bikini Kill and the members of Tribe 8. Juno, the editor, used to be co-publisher of those cool Re/Search books, and this project kind of reads like one of those, which is a compliment.
  
  
• Big Star Fallin' Mama: Five Women in Black Music
  by Hettie Jones; paperback; 1997
  According to its press blurbs, this is a revised edition of a "classic history of blues singers" aimed at young adults. It's set up as five chapters on five legendary divas: godmother of the blues Ma Rainey, early blues star Bessie Smith, gospel queen Mahalia Jackson, sweet-voiced Billie Holiday, and still-going-strong Aretha Franklin. Lots of good candid black-and-white photos from the golden age that sowed the seeds for hip-hop, rock, and everything else you hold near and dear.
  
  
• Grrrls: Viva Rock Divas, Vol. I
  by Amy Raphael; paperback; 1996
  Each chapter is devoted to a single woman in rock who gives her own story in her own words. Serving up a pretty wide variety of rockers, from Kim Gordon to Liz Phair to Pam Hogg (of Doll), this book lets each woman have her moment in the sun. The interview with pre-makeover Courtney Love is a standout.
  
  
• Historical Anthology of Music by Women
  James Briscoe, editor; paperback; 1987
  
  
• The International Sweethearts of Rhythm
  by D. Antoinette Handy; hardcover; 1983
  
  
• Music and Women: The Story of Women in Their Relation to Music (Diane Peacock Jezic Series on Women and Music)
  by Sophie Drinker; paperback; 1995
  This book first came out in 1948, and its straight-up feminist take on the history of music is as necessary today as it was back then. Drinker doesn't just ask-she demands to know what women were doing with their talents in the many centuries of supposed female "silence." She has a classical background, and a lot of the analysis is of "high art," but don't let that deter your from this vital history lesson.
  
  
• The Norton/Grove Dictionary of Women Composers
  Julie Anne Sadie and Rhian Samuel, editors; hardcover; 1995
  
  
• The Rolling Stone Book of Women in Rock: Trouble Girls
  Barbara O'Dair, editor; paperback; 1997
  Written and illustrated (with photos) by women, this collection of essays is broken up into sections on individual artists and trends. With everyone from blues legend Memphis Minnie to alterna-rocker P.J. Harvey represented, the musicians profiled cover a lot of ground, from blues, to hip-hop, to country, to punk, and beyond.
  
  
• She Bop: The Definitive History of Women in Rock, Pop, and Soul
  by Lucy O'Brien; paperback; 1996
  Definitive is right: O'Brien comprehensively traces women's progress in the music industry from the very early years of ragtime, vaudeville, and the blues to the present. She focuses not only on the women in front of the camera, but also those working behind the scenes in a male-dominated industry.
  
  
• She's a Rebel: The History of Women in Rock & Roll
  by Gillian G. Gaar, preface by Yoko Ono; paperback; 1992
  This book touts itself as an "encyclopedic narrative of the role of women in pop and rock over the last four decades," from Big Mama Thornton, who topped the R&B charts with "Hound Dog" three years before Elvis, to the female powerhouses of today. Naomi Wolf (who also brought to our collective attention that nasty "beauty myth" you've been fighting against all your life) called it "a lively history of our rock heroines."
  
  
• Stormy Weather: The Music and Lives of a Century of Jazzwomen
  by Linda Dahl; paperback; 1989
  Stormy Weather is a tribute to the women who made the jazz scene what it was and is, profiling and interviewing (when possible) major jazz and blues women from the turn of the century until now.
  
  
• Women Composers: The Lost Tradition Found
  by Diane Peacock Jezic and Elizabeth Wood; paperback; 1994
  Genius isn't always male, no matter what you've been lead to believe. Beginning with the brilliant Medieval composer Hildegard of Bingen, then profiling twenty-four other female composers through the ages (from the Baroque Barbara Strozzi, whose cantatas are just beautiful, to six contemporary composers), this is a major, long-overdue resource for music lovers and those who just want to establish women's place in music history. The companion cassette has works from all twenty-five composers.
  
  
• American Women Songwriters: A Biographical Dictionary
  by Virginia L. Grattan; hardcover; 1993
  This dictionary profiles 181 lyricists and composers, with coverage arranged by genre-from pop to gospel to motion picture songs. Each entry has it all: career highlights, a list of most famous songs, and sources for further info. The repressed librarian in you will be tingling at the news that everything is even cross-referenced!
  
  
• Backstage Pass: Interviews With Women in Music
  by Laura Post; paperback; 1997
  This is a collection of interviews with everyone from 1940s folkie Ronnie Gilbert to drummergirl interviewee Moe Tucker to righteous babe Ani DiFranco.
  
  
• Girls! Girls! Girls!: Essays on Women and Music
  Sarah Cooper, editor; hardcover; 1988
  Journalists, fans, academics, and workers in the music industry contribute a dozen essays to this collection with titles like "Dead White Men in Wigs: Women and Classical Music," "Tell the Truth: Meeting Margie Hendrix," and "I Was a Teenage Country Fan." One eye-opening hypothesis: The brutal assassination of women in rap music is not unrelated to the deadly fate of mothers in grand opera. Talk amongst yourselves.
  
  
• Signed, Sealed, and Delivered: True-Life Stories of Women in Pop Music
  by Sue Steward and Sheryl Garratt; paperback; 1985
  
  
• Women in Music
  hardcover; 1993
  
  
• Girl Groups; The Story of a Sound
  by Alan Betrock; 1985
  
  
• New Women in Rock
  by Liz Thomson; 1982

Drum Equipment

• The Drum Book
  by Geoff Nicholls; hardcover; 1997
  From the simple kit of the 1950s to the sophisticated setups of the 1990s, this book tells the story of the drum in rock music. Two hundred color photos and two fold-out spreads display dozens of key drums, kits, and hardware made by Ajax, Brady, Pearl, and others.
  
  
• Great American Drums: And the Companies That Made Them (1920-1969)
  by Harry Cangany et al; paperback; 1996
  
  
• Star Sets: Drum Kits of the Great Drummers
  by Jon Cohan; paperback; 1995
  

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