The Complete Guide to Playing Brushes: Brush Skills for Playing Jazz and Pop Music, Book & Dvd Paperback – March 26, 2011

Tons of great stuff to learn in this book. I have admired Florian Alexandru-Zorn's brush playing for some time and was extremely excited to find this book and DVD combo. The material is presented well and the DVD is a nice extra. I am stoked about the little bit that I have learned so far and look forward to continuing and expanding my brush playing abilities.

It's a good book for people who doesn't want to change its hand technique, highly recommend.

Good for who want to started playing brush technique in jazz and pop music... This book gave complete guide in technical side to rudiments...

I was expecting some sort of explanation at least, for some of the examples. Instead you need to follow the book that comes with the DVD as Florian Alexandru-Zorn demonstrates each example. Don't get me wrong it is still a good book & DVD package, but I think he could have spent some time to explain the motions of the tecniques that he is demonstrating & perhaps could have slowed down some of the exercises as well. Perhaps they did it this way because he is German & doesn't speak good English, which is why I only gave a 3 out of 5.

Great book and dvd. Well organized and complete. Highly recommended if you'd like to take your current brush work to the next level. Nice job Florian!

I own all of the main instructional DVDs ( The Essence of Brushes (DVD) , Clayton Cameron: Brushworks - The DVD , The Art of Playing with Brushes DVD/Play Along CD ), and think this one deserves a place along side them. What distinguishes this book/DVD set from the videos I cited above are two things:(1) It is not jazz-centric(2) The instructor, Florian Alexandru-Zorn, uses match grip when demonstrating exercises and techniquesLet me back up and state up front that I am a jazz drummer and I use traditional grip exclusively. I think it's folks like myself who sometimes are the barriers to pop drummers learning how to play with brushes. This set removes those barriers in my opinion.For one thing the instructor and material clearly demonstrate how to employ brushes in pop music, which can extend to I-IV-V rock some call blues, as well as country, Americana and roots music. And, of course, rock (especially some forms of alternative rock!). For that reason this package should make a lot of sense to non-jazz drummers. From personal experience I can say that every other package on the market falls far short in that respect, and is a barrier to non-jazz drummers even considering learning how to play with brushes.Another barrier this package breaks is proving that playing brushes using match grip is perfectly fine. Most drummers play match grip, yet most brush instructional videos are demonstrated with traditional grip. If nothing else that is a psychological barrier to many drummers who play strictly match grip.If you are not a jazz drummer, but want to add to your sonic palette then this and the companion DVD,  The Brush Secret: How to Apply Your Own Voice to the Brushes..., DVD , will get you there. If you are exploring brushes do a search on my last name and brushes as keywords and you will find extensive content covering mainly jazz. And if you are a jazz drummer this set is still valuable because the author - Florian Alexandru-Zorn - is an accomplished jazz drummer as well and has ideas that are outside the box.

Fantastic book for playing brushes. It is most useful for applying them in a modern setting. I am a professional musician/educator. I worked through "the sound of brushes", "brushworks", and "brush artistry". I have also used their accompaning DVD's as well as the dvd "the art of brushes". I found this book (complete guide to playing brushes) to be the the most enjoyable and rewarding to work through. This book has completly changed my brush playing opening up new doors and avenues of expression. The accompaning dvd is a fantastic addition to the book allowing you to see the patterns being played. With dedicated practice you will be able to transfer everything you can play with sticks to the brushes. What more can you ask for out of a brush technique book. Bravo to Florian for a job well done!

I've been playing drums for about 14 years, and have spent a considerable amount of time on brushes lately (transcribing patterns by brush masters, watching videos, checking out methods, etc.). I came across this book via clips on youtube. I rushed to pick a copy at my local music store.What I can say about this book, is that it has a very "ground-up" approach, in that you start with straight quarter notes, with both hands playing full circles. There's four ways to play quarter notes in unison in this book, with different motions, and areas of attack on the drum. He does this same approach for all other subdivisions. Basically, this comprehensive approach helps to prepare the drummer for comfortability playing on any part of the drum.The accompanying DVD is great, too, in that we can watch Florian play the patterns himself, answering any sort of questions we may have.I do have one gripe with the book. I'd like to see what he has to say about the reading exercises. How exactly are they supposed to be interpreted? When there is a rest, what should we be doing with the brushes?Other than that, I really like this book. After only a few practice sessions out of this book, I can see improvement in my brush facility.

Un buon testo per lo studio delle spazzole (scritto ovviamente in inglese); buono anche il DVD allegato.

Sehr gutes buch für brushes. Schönes dvd gute camera aufteilung

an exalent book with a great dvd to acompany it. well thought out and very informative. its werth evry penny

I love this book! If you want to develop your brush playing, this is really a great book. Like Stanton Moore says in the foreword: it honors the tradition of brushes while pushing it forward.The book shows fundamentals (grip, tap, sweep, etc.) then shows a couple of patterns (circular, half-circular and linear motions), you also have the 26 standard rudiments applied to brushes and finally a couple of grooves as examples to get you started.The patterns are well drawn, but what makes them great are the "reading" pages where you have notes to use as accents within these patterns. So you're not just learning a motion, but you're also learning to play different notes within those motions. You have quarter notes, eight notes, sixteenth notes and eight note triplets. These reading exercices will really help you play what you want within any type of motion you are doing.You also get some ideas on how to apply this to odd-time and polyrhythmic figures. Mr. Alexandru-Zorn doesn't go in details for this, but he opens the door. Since i love to play polyrhythms, its weird that I never really thought of it before....The rudiment section is also good. Sweeping drags, ratamacues and flams adds a new dimension to my playing. Once again, Mr. Alexandru-Zorn has open a door for me.There is also a section about grooves. Here, you get a couple a different grooves that you can apply in different styles (jazz, ballad, funk, drum n' bass). There isn't that many examples, but it more than enough to get started and then do you own thing.Finally, i need to say a word about the DVD. All the exercices (not the reading pages though) are included on the DVD. This means all the motions, different taps, rudiments and grooves are there. There is also a solo and a duo. This is really great since it is difficult to explain movement and so much simpler to simply show it. The motions are played slowly at first then faster. But don't expect a "drum DVD", there is not a single word spoken on the DVD, only a demonstration of the exercices. This is a book with a DVD and not a DVD with a book. That is fine for me, but some might be disappointed. Don't worry, the book explains the movements.

très bonne méthode à conseiller à tous ceux qui veulent s'initier ou se perfectionner aux balais, on n'en sait jamais trop