Illusions in Rhythm for Drum Set

[Josiah]

hrm was away for a few days...

GREAT book. Osami actually hand wrote a letter to me when I got it, seems like a wonderful person. havent checked out his books on Dawsons stuff.

the book is monstrous, and to go out on a limb, if you don't "get it", gotta take a step back. the concepts are brutal and hardcore.

as for 'Illusions', it is straight forward - chap 1. learning the note values and applying them over a simple groove. have you got page 10 down? because it all relates to that. understanding where the various values land. you should have page 10's exercises down cold before moving on.

from there it takes off, and if you dont have that stuff down, nothing else will work right and be very frustrating. the entirety of the book is about modulating time (or grooves) to the various values. most of us have learned to do half time/double time, this is just that same concept applied to 3's, 5's, 6's, 7's, 9's, etc...


section 2, the 'by vinnie...' part is effectively the same thing. he's taking various grooves and manipulating or translating them to various frameworks with a different base value. most the examples are triplet based - but go well beyond.


i would suggest checking out 'The UnReel Drum Book' by Mark Atkison (spell?), though the basic exercises are the same. various artificial or odd values over time. the transcriptions simply show how vinnie is using the concepts in a musical context, as well as providing some truly daunting licks and material to cover.


i would say the precursor to these books is Chaffee's 'Rhythm & Meter Patterns: Polyrhythms', which deals with almost entirely single line rhythms manipulating time and/or value. the aforementioned books are applying those concepts to drum set.


for the record i've never met a fellow drummer who handled this level of material before (in person) other then a very select few instructors. and for that matter, i think even fewer can apply the concepts musically in context without sounding clinical. this stuff is so far beyond just imposing odd groups in time that it's sick. most people cant even hear the difference. vinnie said this in a clinic straight up. the difference between, at tempo, a group of 5 or two 16ths and a triplet is negligible in the .25 seconds it passes by.

particularly when you start getting into the elasticity of notes, stretching and compressing phrases to fit. i personally believe it is better approached from the emotional side then the clinical side. play what you will, go out on a limb, make it work in time. when you go back and translate these ideas to paper, these books are what you get.

[Dave Capuzelo]

I followed the links to order the 2 Dawson books...total for both is 102 dollars!!!

I cant spend this kind of money on 2 books...Ill pass for now.