Rogers-Solo Studies for Drum Set Book 1

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To start off, I have my Bachelor's in Music Education and extensive experience in method book analysis. I own all three books in this series and have studied from them and taught from them. This is not a method book but there are methods worked into all three books. The premise is simple, Dennis Rogers creates a solo using one rudiment and orchestrates it around the entire drumset. What you can expect to find is logical phrasing and form within everyone of these solos. The phrasing I can best describe as standard and symmetrical, there are obvious cadences that every drummer should know. This may sound like a deal breaker within the context of current trends in solo drumming to sound different (odd meter, odd phrasing, "complex sounding", etc.) But these solos are meant for a specific purpose, these are logical solos, there is obvious climax through out the whole form as well as within smaller phrases (dynamics are few but the smart teacher can see where dynamics are begging to be used and pencil them in for the student). It is my belief that a working drummer needs to be versatile and these solos are a great tool to achieve just that. Intrinsic in these solos, though not articulated by the author, are internalization and awareness off the pulse and subdivision, cadences, anticipating cadences (a skill necessary when performing for an average audience), rudimentary vocabulary, examples of orchestration on the drumset, coordination, and certainly more. If studied diligently, the drum student will internalize these concepts and take them with to what ever styles and methods they desire. Simply put, this series works on the fundamentals of drumming namely syntax and grammar, not so much vocabulary. This is a great tool as an educator and as a student. Steve Weiss Music was the only vendor I saw that sold all three so thumbs up for that.

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