Learn Rudimental Drumming
Rudimental, Traditional, American
Drumbook Recommendations
Charley Wilcoxon's All American Drummer
This legendary collection of 150 rudimental solos is a drumming classic. There is no better book that I have come across for improving sightreading skills. If approached as a sightreading book, the sheer variety of rudimental combinations is certain to have you comfortably reading American rudimental compositions no matter who the author in no time. Mr. Wilcoxon will write the same rhythm in all its possible iterations throughout the book, and plugs the same rudiments into a multitude of rhythms. Especially useful to many drummers are the solos (about half) written in 6/8. These demonstrate a difficult concept: how to play subdivisions and rudimental combinations while maintaining a triplet pulse.
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Recommended for advanced drummers, although the first 20 or so solos are equally suited to the beginner. If you are a beginner, this book will help you, but if you are an advanced drummer or feel like you're close, you have no excuse for not owning a copy.
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Can be purchased on Amazon here.
Larry Stone's Stick Control
This excellent primer will get you comfortable manipulating the sticks. It is composed of hundreds of little exercises that introduce hundreds of sticking patterns, from the common to the obscure. On top of this, it includes with the general theme dozens of roll progressions that will help the drummer in playing many of the most common rolls with a more exact sense of time. The lessons of this book are common to all drummers, and although intended for the rudimental drummer, it has also been called a "drumset classic." There is no better book for releasing the mental barriers that you sometimes feel around your hands and building the muscle memory to play the vast majority of sticking patterns you will ever come across.
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Recommended for all drummers. Nobody has an excuse for not owning a copy.
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Can be purchased on Amazon here.
John Wooton's The Drummer's Rudimental Reference Book
Written by a drumming legend, this book contains so many useful rhythmic, rudimental, and sticking exercises for the student. This book contains useful explanations of important concepts, including stroke types and relaxation. There are many exercises geared to correcting bad habits. Some of the exercises also focus on precise time changes between straight and "tuplet" rhythms. I can only recommend that you get yourself a metronome and start running through them. Drum instructors will find, as the book itself advertises, that they will stop having to write out so many exercises.
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Recommended for intermediate and advanced drummers, and drum instructors. I cannot recommend this book highly enough for instructors.
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Can be purchased on Amazon here.