WHY IS THIS BOOK NEEDED?

Although finger drumming has been an art form since the '80s, there remains a lack of sufficient resources to educate aspiring finger drummers. Beyond hardware manuals, there is little available that fosters real intrinsic musical skill for finger drummers. This book aims to develop a wide range of essential skills required for fluid rhythmic performances using an 8 or 16 pad drum machine. The book takes a holistic approach to teaching finger drumming, starting at the very basics, such as common sounds, finger strengthening exercises, pad layouts, and progresses through a series of chapters on Rudiments, Foundational rhythms, and ideas on integrating melodic sample chops into a pattern.

This is by no means an exhaustive resource but provides a strong foundation of rhythm styles, rudiments, and techniques to assist beginners in becoming versatile and flexible electronic percussionists. This book solves the problem of not knowing what or how to practice by providing easy-to-read tablature and clear diagrams. Finger Drummers can consider themselves well-rounded pros by mastering everything contained within these pages.

The unique tablature created for this series of books helps to expedite the learning process by bypassing the learning curve inherent in traditional notation. There are aspects of this tablature that integrate some traditional concepts, but overall, a learner can open the book and easily understand what to do.

This book contains a variety of foundational rhythms in both electronic and acoustic genres. However, the content caters to the modern electronic musician by offering tablature of popular electronic genres that are commonly forgotten within acoustic drumming literature.

Often I hear of aspiring finger drummers getting stuck trying to decide on the most ideal pad layout. This book has included a meticulously considered layout, called the Standard Pad Layout, that is both ergonomic and flexible. You'll find clear diagrams of this layout along with links to download example sounds, Expansions, and Ableton Racks to get you started quickly. As an added feature, there is a chapter that explores two additional layouts for speed playing and sample chopping.

With consistent practice of the concepts in this book, you will strengthen the essential skills needed for finger drum mastery. Those skills include:

1. Developing a sense of timing and consistency. Every rhythmist requires a keen sense of timing, which is something that can be practiced and improved. Following the recommendations in this book will help increase your feel for consistent timing.
2. Utilizing all fingers and thumbs independently. A capable finger drummer can unlock complex patterns by utilizing all 10 fingers independently. The rhythms in this book aim to develop your finger and hand independence so that you may also perform complex rhythms with perfect accuracy.
3. Building adjacent and non-adjacent finger combo strength. Some patterns require awkward combinations and positioning of fingers on the pads. The patterns and exercises in the book will assist you in building the muscle and mental strength to handle strange combos.
4. Naturally introducing fills and flourishes. Nothing lifts the energy of a rhythm quite like a good drum fill. The culmination of varied patterns coupled with increased strength and control will build your ability to quickly switch between patterns and feels to create intriguing rhythmic transitions, naturally.

My personal hope is to see a torrent of new finger drummers who have realized their aspirations with a little boost from this book!