BOOK
Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1796759678
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Peaks:
#33 in Percussion Books
#48 in Jazz Books
#71 in Music Theory Books
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The aim of The Melodic Jazz Drummer is to use the drums to bridge the gap between the rhythm section and the melodic instruments in a seamless fashion.
A lot of teachers and books just give you a bunch of "beats" and "fills" so you end up repeating a static beat and occasionally throwing in a fill. The music kind of just trudges along while you play the beat. When you play a fill, it spikes up in intensity for a brief second before settling back down to where it was. The music never really feels like it goes anywhere on a macro level even though it seems like you're playing everything correctly.
Learning the melody on drums gives you a stronger connection with the melody instruments. It helps you identify which parts ought to be emphasized and which parts ought to be played through. It also gives you content to work with and adds to your bank of melodic phrases.
Not all rhythms carry the same weight and have the same function. Ambient rhythms are relatively unimportant and only serve to push the music along whereas melodic rhythms are actual musical statements that resolve a phrase, fill a gap, or play on top of the melody serving as a counter-melody.
A gear is a distinct level of intensity that's dictated by the density of the music. Shifting up and down in gears gives a song constant movement so it has definitive peaks and valleys.
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This book is more of a way to organize your thoughts when learning a piece as opposed to a bunch of exercises to be played explicitly. After you're done, every note you play will feel like it has a renewed sense of purpose.