Drum Atlas: Africa by John Marshall

Africa is widely regarded as the birthplace of drumming. The powerful rhythms of this continent have influenced musicians all over the world. Drum Atlas: Africa gives you all the musical tools you need to incorporate African rhythms into your drumset playing. You’ll learn traditional rhythms from each region of Africa, as well as modern styles that are popular in Africa today.

One of the challenges with learning African music is translating the sounds of traditional percussion instruments to the modern drumset. This book makes the transition easy by showing you how to approximate the different percussion sounds using your drumset and, also, ways to augment your set by adding secondary percussion instruments for a wider range of sounds. You’ll even learn how to collaborate with other drummers and percussionists to create authentic-sounding multi-drummer performances. This book is designed for intermediate to advanced drummers who are already familiar with musical notation and basic drumset technique. Whatever your musical style, you’ll benefit from the rhythmic concepts and exercises contained here.

The included CD demonstrates all the book’s examples and compositions and also features duet parts for you to play along with.