Todd Bishop over at the Cruise Ship Drummer blog never ceases to amaze me with his prolific output. His recent publication is a Kindle book called – Playing Samba and Bossa Nova: a field manual for drummers. It costs in the neighbourhood of ?4 and is a very well put together guide to playing Samba and Bossa for any drummer who wants to add these styles to their skill set in a practical manner. The guide is concise, it contains no esoterica and is aimed at helping you develop the vocabulary to perform these Brazilian styles in a modern jazz combo type setting on a regular drum kit.
Playing Samba and Bossa Nova: a field manual for drummers contains not only drum kit exercises but some very useful information for gaining an understanding of how to play this music including a good long list of songs and records that will get your ears up to speed on the music.
Todd’s created a very tight and easy to use book that packs a massive amount of information that can take any drummer from not knowing how to play Samba and Bossa to knowing how to play Samba and Bossa at a level you could use in a pro playing situation.
I highly recommend this to anyone who’d like an easy to understand and comprehensive guide to playing these styles and will be adding this to the list of books I recommend to students.
I would quite like the option of a real book for those who don’t have access to a tablet or can’t bring them to their lessons. I suppose most people do have the means to read this, though.