5 Drum Instructional Books

This post came about from an episode of The Drum Shrink Podcast about drum instructional books. There are so many good drumming books that it’s really difficult to narrow them down – from the tried and true ones that have been around for decades, to new ones that keep popping up every so often.

I use each of these with my students (if appropriate), as well as my own curriculum. Some of these are geared towards beginners dealing with the fundamentals and others are more specific, dealing with more advanced concepts. These are in no particular order. 

This is a series of books with a thorough collection of beats and fills. The genius part is that the beats are paired with popular songs, so the student can hear the beat and how it sounds musically, and play the beats along to their respective songs.

This is one of the tried and true ones, most commonly just called Stick Control. I consider this a continuation of the rudiments. It’s helpful for working on timing, dynamics, and control. 

Often just referred to  as Syncopation. This is another standard that helps you internalize offbeat rhythms. 

This is a great introduction to learning and playing different styles of music. It comes with play-alongs that are essential in my opinion for the working professional drummer. 

This is great four liimb coordination systems on the drum set for developing your creativity.