Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #38523 in Books
• Published on: 1996-11-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 324 pages

From the Publisher
An in-depth study (324 pgs) of all the percussion instruments, rhythms and song styles of Afro-Cuban music, along with their applications to the drum set. Detailed technical studies of each instrument are presented along with notations of many rhythm styles. The entire rhythm section (parts for bass, piano, horn section, string section, tres and guitar) is also studied in detail. The book comes with two CDs that include performances of each percussion instrument, drum set, all rhythm section instruments, as well as examples of all musical styles with full instrumentation in score form.

Customer Reviews

a very good resource
This is a very good book, packed with concise information on latin rhythm section. It is not for beginners, as you need to be able to read music and know the basic technique for instruments, but it is a very good reference for anyone wanting to play in a latin band (and not only percussionists, but bass, piano and horn players as well should have a look at it). It covers all the classic popular styles up to songo and delves a bit into some of the folkloric genres too. Can't say anything about the drumset section, as I'm only learning the percussion.
I'm giving it four stars only because the bongo section is disappointingly short compared to congas and timbales. There's more to this instrument than just couple of martillo variations!

masterpiece
Really a masterpiece! It learns you everything about afro cuban drumming/percussion. I like especially the background information and it pays a lot of attention to playing together. Most afro cuban methods don't learn you anything about playing together, this method really does. It will give you lesson material for years!

Excellent reference and study book
If you're looking for reference or study books for afro-cuban percussion, Ed's book is very good. It contains rhythm scores for several important instruments such as congas, timables, bells, bombo, guiro, clave and pailitos, as well as scores for many different song styles for these instruments. Styles include son, son montuno, bolero, yambu, guaguanco, columbia, guiro, abakua, mozambique, songo, bombo, and calypso. Ed also includes many hand exercises that are worthwhile, I'm a guitarist of many years, and learning hand independence and percussion rhythms and rudiments has been invaluable for me. I practice on congas, cowbells, claves, drum sticks (pailitos) and bass drum several times a week, and regulary use this book as reference for different songstyles. There is of course much more to the book (and of course no one can include everything) but for what I use it for I consider it a great reference book from a very talented teacher.