Hal Leonard Progressive Drumming Essential

I got the book about two months after an intensive search on titles that could give me an insight on progressive drumming and odd-time signatures. Initially, I was slightly disappointed that the book was only 80 pages long, but now I can see the reason: not a single paragraph of this book is dull. It has information and exercises from the word go, and if you are honest in your efforts and new to progressive drumming techniques, you would be spending approximately an hour per page.

Aaron has written the book in a very direct manner, to-the-point without any unnecessary pages. It feels almost as if he were standing next to you, and instructing you with the exercises. Perhaps the best part is his emphasis on patience, perseverance and regular practice, and not for a second does he downplay the importance of toiling and pushing yourself further to achieve results.

The exercises themselves are challenging, which I guess are necessary for getting the timing and muscular independence right.

Understanding the book requires a basic understanding of drumming notation, as he does not spend any time on that. Hence, not recommended for drummers who are not yet familiar with drum sheet music.

The topics cover a variety of aspects of modern day progressive drumming, such as odd-time signatures, double bass syncopations and polyrhymic drumming to name a few. If you?ve appreciated drumming of bands such as Dream Theater, Tool, Meshuggah and Tesseract, you would definitely be interested to have a look at this wonderful book!