Progressive Steps to Syncopation for the Modern Drummer (Ted Reed Publications)

Reminds me of over-xeroxed pages. On p. 54 --59 I had to whiteout the unnecessary '3' over the repeated triplets due to continual confusion with the accent marks. That was a lot of work. Should give it 3 stars but it really is a great book. Wish Alfred would clean up the copy.

It's a shame really that this book is titled "for the modern drummer".Any musician that plays different rhythmic patterns (which is pretty much all of them) will benefit greatly from this book. All the lines are in 4/4 time with steady quarter notes shown marking the "beat". So the exercises really consist of all the patterns shown on the top.It's a simple enough concept, but he had the good sense to write it all out for the rest of us. All your basic patterns: quarter notes, dotted eighths, 16th's, 16's mixed with 8's and all varied in order and with different rests so they come on different beats each time. As you progress through the book, the lines get more complicated and intricate until you get to the syncopated section.I remember this book from when I was a drummer in high school almost 30 years ago. Now I play rhythm guitar, and am looking to get away from the "standard" strumming patterns and get more creative. This book will help me do that. It will also help immensely with learning and playing leads and solos. It really doesn't matter if you play drums, guitar, sax, keyboard, bass, or mandolin this book will help teach you to recognize and play rhythms - and that is a key part of sight-reading.I guess the TL:DR version would be: If you play a musical instrument, get this book. It will be the some of the best use of money and time you'll ever spend.

This is a really good guide for a percussionist. Very thorough.

I am surprised to see comments about how this book isn't for beginners. I'm very much a beginner (have only been playing a few months) and have loved it. There are a couple of things in here that are too hard for my current level, but don't we all want to stretch? It has a decent range from very easy to quite a bit harder and plenty for the beginner. I wouldn't buy it as a first drum book - but I did in fact buy it as my second. And, it's great. t love that it challenges me and that there are things I will have to come back to when I become more knowledgeable. Additionally, the rhythms are more interesting and not as straight forward as most books that are appropriate for beginners. That's a big plus in my book and it makes me want to practice more and longer. I agree that some of the handwritten notes are a little sloppy and inconsistent. This may sound weird, but I find that charming and an additional challenge. And, it adds to the beauty. It's like the difference between hearing a live drummer and a drum machine.

Yes, this book will help you if you have trouble counting in music. I use my left hand tapping on my left knee for the 1,2,3,4 and my right hand doing the more challenging rhythms. Starts off easy and then increases. The cover is a brave and wonderful example of simplicity and don't change if it's not broke. Fun

If only i had found out about this book sooner! As a drum teacher for the past 12 years, i can easily say Syncopation by Ted Reed is the best most effective book to get beginners started with learning to read rhythms. Some of my students who at first had zero reading ability managed to sight read quarter notes all the way through different 16th note rhythms by the end of class, identifying all the different rests along the way while keeping a steady kick pulse underneath. All this thanks to how systematically the exercises are written out, getting more challenging as you progress through the pages. One step at a time, slowly but surely.Not just for beginner or intermediate drummers; i come back to this book just to brush up on my sight reading every once in awhile, or i'd pick some of the exercises out and use it as double pedal exercises or independence stuff like left foot clave, right/left hand ostinatos etc. A thousand different ways to use this wonderful book!

Excellent book for anyone trying to learn drums. Great exercises and ideas that really develop when you can work with a teacher to help flesh out ideas and give you creative patterns to incorporate into your drumming from these exercises. Make sure to google around and get ideas and not to just read the book as is if you are self learning.

The introduction says a goal of the book is to introduce basic music reading skills whish the rest of the book completely fails to achieve. Im sure the exercices are very good but theres no explanation at all as to what the notes represent or mean (left hand or right hand, time qunantity etc.. who knows?) or what any of the notation means.. Some basic undetstanding of music notation, esp for drum notation, is essential for the reader

I'm teaching myself to read bass clef and this book has been phenomenal at explaining rhythmic structure and getting my brain accustom to reading notes on a page. I've found that once I understood the note values and could tap out all the exercises in the book, that when I picked up my bass grade book my playing went through the roof as I no longer had to take time to work out the rhythms, now I just have to focus on the note pitch. Every musician sound study this book if you're serious about reading notation.

A classic book, full of excellent sight reading exercises that can be used in many different ways. Highly recommended.

Excellent

One of the best books for any drummer from beginner to pro (you are never too good to learn something new or old) - This book was recomended to me by my 1st drum teacher and I now recomend it to all my drum students...