The Ten Best Jazz Drum Books (2024)
What are the best books for beginners learning how to play jazz drums?
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Learning jazz drumming, from basic techniques to advanced concepts, is historically an oral tradition: knowledge is passed down through the generations via word of mouth and from the masters who shaped the craft.
Drawing from the best jazz drumming instructional books, often written by master jazz musicians themselves, is a great way to tap into this vast knowledge.
Whether you’re a beginner jazz drummer, or an experienced player, books are still one of the best ways to learn how to play drums.
Here are the 10 best jazz drum books that will help to hone your technique, increase your playing vocabulary, and ultimately grow your creativity. So jump on a drum set or grab a practice pad and your favourite sticks and dive in.
At a glance: The best jazz drum books
Stick Control for the Snare Drummer by George Lawrence Stone | Check Price
Progressive Steps to Syncopation by Ted Reed | Check Price
The Art of Bop Drumming by John Riley | Check Price
The Post-Bop Drum Book by Mike Clark | Check Price
Afro-Cuban Rhythms for Drumset by Frank Malabe and Bob Weiner | Check Price
Advanced Techniques for the Modern Drummer by Jim Chapin | Check Price
Exploring Your Creativity on the Drumset by Mark Giuliana | Check Price
The sound of Brushes by Ed Thigpen | Check Price
New Orleans Jazz and Second Line Drumming by Herlin Riley and Johnny Vidacovich | Check Price
Beyond Bop Drumming by John Riley | Check Price
Stick Control for the Snare Drummer by George Lawrence Stone
Stick Control is a classic of drumming literature, sometimes referred to as the Bible of drumming and certainly one of the most important books for learning how to play jazz drums.
This book is fantastic for developing control, speed, flexibility, touch, power, coordination, endurance and accuracy - so basically all of the hand technique you need as a jazz drummer.
This indispensable reference book for drummers includes hundreds of basic to advanced-level rhythms, using single-beat combinations, triplets, short roll combinations, flam beats, flam triplets, dotted notes, and short roll progressions.
Working through this will help develop your essential techniques as a jazz drummer.
2. Progressive Steps to Syncopation for the Modern Drummer by Ted Reed
Progressive Steps to Syncopation is a comprehensive approach to, as the title suggests, mastering syncopation: a vital skill for any aspiring jazz drummer.
Ted Reed’s highly practical work will help drummers to master reading, as well as building a sense of timing, swing and feel: essential elements of learning how to play jazz drums.
It is also a fantastic resource for teachers to guide students through and a must-read for any jazz drummer.
3. The Art of Bop Drumming by John Riley
The Art of Bop Drumming is perhaps the definitive book on drumming for bebop - one of the most important sub-genres to emerge from the jazz tradition.
John Riley’s teaching is a comprehensive book and audio combination that covers time playing, comping, soloing, brushes, jazz essentials, and charts (so all of the skills a bop drummer needs) as well as quotes and insights from jazz drumming greats.
This is still one of my go-to best instructional books for learning jazz drumming.
4. The Post-Bop Drum Book by Mike Clark
The Post-Bop Drum Book brings the jazz drumming book into a more contemporary era.
Written by a legend of jazz/funk drumming, Mike Clark, the book provides exercises and transcriptions, as well as sharing Clark’s thoughts and concepts from bebop to post-bop styles.
This includes how to develop your jazz ride cymbal beat, how to comp, using triplet variations, developing advanced independence, playing a jazz waltz, rolls, concepts with groupings of fives and sevens, be-bop phrasing, post-bop phrasing, straight-eighth phrasing, and more.
Mike Clark also describes his own drumming journey and therefore how developing drummers can create their own style and art by studying and respecting the history and tradition.
This also includes audio and video files of Mike performing which is always a treat.
5. Afro-Cuban Rhythms for Drumset by Frank Malabe and Bob Weiner
Afro Cuban Rhythms For Drumset is a fantastic introduction to the history, instruments, and grooves of Afro-Cuban music: an important reference point for jazz drummers. In particular this book aims to adapt the traditional rhythms, played on traditional percussion, to the modern drum set.
The book explains the complex rhythms of Afro-Cuban music in a simple way, so is an ideal gateway into this important style of music that often crops up in jazz contexts.
6. Advanced Techniques for the Modern Drummer by Jim Chapin
Jim Chapin is known as the “Father of Jazz Independence” and his book Advanced Techniques for the Modern Drummer is one of the most popular drumming method books of all time.
This is a must-have classic for every drummer, packed with new concepts to learn and ways to develop your technique and limb independence.
Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned drummer, the system outlined in this book will improve your coordination, sticking, power, speed, improvisation and endurance on the drum set.
7. Exploring Your Creativity on the Drumset by Mark Giuliana
In Exploring Your Creativity on the Drumset Mark Giuliana, featured in our list of the greatest jazz drummers, outlines his system for developing creative drumming ideas. He calls his system D.R.O.P.: standing for Dynamics, Rate, Orchestration and Phrasing.
The book explores these building blocks helping to develop concepts that you can learn to apply creatively and confidently in your jazz playing. These concepts help you to move around the kit freely and develop exciting phrases that sound complex but are built upon a solid foundation of drumming basics.
This will help you to develop your own voice as you learn how to play jazz drums.
The book also includes live footage of Mark playing with Tim Lefebvre (bass) and Jason Lindner (keys), the rhythm section featured on David Bowie’s final album Black Star, which you can access online using a code contained in the book.
8. The Sound of Brushes by Ed Thigpen
The Sound of Brushes was developed by Ed Thigpen, renowned master of jazz brush playing, in a step-by-step guide to master the beautiful art of brush playing.
The book includes patterns shown with full-size diagrams as well as Thigpen’s own advice and commentary.
The Sound of Brushes also appears on our list of the best books for learning brush technique.
9. New Orleans Jazz and Second Line Drumming by Herlin Riley and Johnny Vidacovich
New Orleans Jazz and Second Line Drumming is a must for any drummers interested in mastering the high energy swing of the Big Easy.
This is the foundation of jazz drumming, as we explore in our article on the history of New Orleans jazz drumming, and our view is it’s highly valuable for any jazz drummer to get to grips with and embrace.
The authors Herlin Riley and Johnny Vidacovich are both legends of the New Orleans drumming scene, and their book packed full of advice, techniques and history is a hugely insightful and inspiring reference for modern drummers embracing the history of our art.
10. Beyond Bop Drumming by John Riley
John Riley is another legend of the drumming education pantheon, and Beyond Bop Drumming is an exploration and explanation of the development of drumming in the post-bop period of the 1960s.
The book includes post-bop concepts such as: broken time playing, ride-cymbal variations, up-tempo unison ideas, implied time metric modulation, solo ideas, solo analysis, complete transcriptions, and play-along tunes.
It’s fair to say it’s packed full of content that will inspire and stretch you to your maximum creative potential.
That concludes our round up of the best jazz drum books that will push your playing to new heights and help you to learn how to play jazz drums.
We hope you enjoy getting stuck into these books and getting your creative juices flowing.
If you’d like to read more of our perspectives on jazz drumming try our look into the best jazz drummers of all time, our dive into the history of Brazilian rhythms, or our look into New Orleans jazz and second line drumming.
Looking to invest in a drum kit for jazz? Check out our guide to beginner drum kits for jazz.
Happy reading!
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