Hip Grooves for Hand Drums: How to Play Funk, Rock & World-Beat Patterns on Any Drum

The last few months I have attended several drum circle classes and love playing the drums. I have even taken a few on line courses on playing the hand drums. When I saw this 91 page soft cover book (Hip Grooves for hand drums: How to play funk, rock & world-beat patterns on any drum by Alan Dworsky and Betsy Sansby) on Amazon for a bargain price I immediately purchased it.I found this book to be a fairly good guide to playing the hand drums because it also included a CD with the drum routines. I have to emphasize that it might be a good idea to take a basic hand drum course to completely understand everything in this guide. The lessons in this book are easy to follow and the explanations are clear. The material in this book includes who this book is for and how it works, how to read the charts and work with the CD, playing position, patterns, lessons include slap on the back bear in four, kassa, straight-eighth feel, one-bar clave, hip-hip, kpanlogo, tumbao rock, paradiddle funk, ¾ time, slap on the backbeat in six and 6/8 bell.Using this book with actual hands practice will with produce good results for anyone interesting in playing the hand drums of all kinds.Rating: 4 Stars. Joseph J. Truncale (Author: Training alone in Combatives and self-defense).

"Hip Grooves" is a good beginning to intermediate book for developing drumming rhythms and timing. Although there are some instructions and illustrations for how-to obtain basic sounds for large handdrums, this book is not recommended for the raw recruit. However, if you know your way around your drumhead, you'll find this book rewarding in both style and variety of rhythms. What I like best is the drum tablature which is easy to learn and follow along with the CD. Each section (ranging from a tumbao to hip-hop to funk) begins with an explanation of the rhythmic style and a layered approach involving several steps culminating in an intricate rhythmic pattern. By building on patterns already presented the authors managed to keep the pace of learning both a challenge and a pleasure. The CD follows the steps of each rhythmic example at a comfortable tempo for learning. The rhythms can be played alone (with touch/"ghost" tones included) or can be incorporated in a group setting. If you are looking for a book to help you sharpen your drumming chops, give this book a try. Although the book is promoted as useful for "any" handdrum, I would not suggest it for those who play doumbeks or frame drums which require finger technique. This book is best suited for djembe, conga, or other large hand drums.

This book has been exactly what I have needed for playing the djembe. I play guitar and sing and was trying to get some more of a whole sound so I bought a djembe but was sort of lost until I found this book. I first got it from my library and then bought it. It covers a lot of different styles and it is great for what I wanted. It's five stars from me but I suppose it is what you are looking for. Oh and I think I am pretty musical and this book was still quite challenging making my way through the beats, so if you don't really have the desire then you know...

I've been working my way through this book. The grooves sound hip on the cd, and a drummer of modest talent like myself can learn them. The book uses the same easy-to-follow system of notation that this team of writers has used in several other books. An experienced musician could easily translate their system into standard 16th and 8th notes, so that isn't a problem.I especially liked the "paradiddle funk" and the groove based on the one-bar clave. The 6/8 beats are also pretty cool, and would provide more of a challenge for a more expert player.

I started messing around on hand drums about a year ago. It was pretty slow going until I got these series of books. After hip grooves, I bought the djembe and rhythmic vocabulary books. At this point I can say with confidence that anything Alan Dworsky and Betsy Sansby come out with is probably a worthwhile investment of your time and money. I'm so stoked to have funky grooves in my fingers- finally!

Met my expectations of how to integrate hand drums with other instruments.R.C., Madison, WI.

I found this to be fairly informative, but certainly not all inclusive. Good for the beginner. I bought the kindle version, and wish it would have come with the dvd or a downloadable equivalent.

fun, easy to follow & understand

I bought this on Amazon along with 'Have fun playing hand drums' (By Ben James)I mention this because both books are for beginners and might sound kind of similar, but in reality are not.Both books are very good for learning the basis (open tone, muff tone, bass, open/close slap). Hip Grooves has maybe a slight hedge as for clarity, but they are both good, pleasantly friendly and cover stuff like how to practice and tricks to keep rhythm as a beginner.Hip Grooves covers a few traditional rhythms but also covers much more ground, also because it doesn't deal with bongos. In particular, heel/tip with both hands is well explained an it's actually true that the book helps a lot a non drummer to understand what makes different rhythms (funky, rock, hip-hop, salsa) well, different.For this book you will need a drum good enough to produce well distinguished slaps, open tones and bass tones, and ideally large enough to play with your both hands (e.g. with an head large enough to comfortably lay both hands on it, no less that 8" I would say, probably 10")A conga or djambe will work fine.I have been trying to adapt some of the stuff for bongos and a couple of tiny ceramic moroccan drums I have. It's good fun but with some rhythms it just cannot be done using the same patterns.Also, Hip Grooves focus on being the only or main rhythmic support, so all rhythms tend and fill weak beats with muffle tones, to keep things going and fill the spaces that in a drum circle would be shared by other percussion.The cd is very well recorded and mostly useful for learning. There also some backtracks which are very useful (particularly for the rhythms involving the clave or for non western rhythms).Explanations and diagrams are very clear and I think the rhythms explained are actually useful to play along other musicians.The approach is kept, sorry for the pun, very playful, but still lots of interesting stuff is covered.The other book, 'Have fun playing hand drums', focuses on Djembe, Conga and Bongos, and each instrument gets a section about pretty much any rhythm explained.You won't find anything about bongos in Hip Groves, so if you are starting and have both bongos and another drum (anything large enough to play open tone, muff tone, bass, open/close slap with both hands will do) 'Have fun playing hand drums' is probably a better option. The same if you are planning to play with friends and want examples of interlocking rhythms using different drums.Also, 'Have fun playing hand drums' focuses mostly on traditional rhythms and is aimed at playing in a drum circle (it also gives you some backtracks to play along with, for when you are out of drumming friends).It also has some rhythmic games to play with you friends, for stimulating creativity and having more fun. For sure the author sounds good fun to play with.In conclusion, if you want to learn bongos as well and/or are mostly interested into having fun in a drum circle with traditional rhythms, my advice is to go for 'Have fun playing hand drums'.If you want to learn how to comp in modern styles also and want to learn how to create a supportive groove without other percussionists, go for Hip Grooves. (Also, just to be clear, Hip Grooves does cover some traditional rhythms and turns some of them into modern comping, which is good fun)I would love to get something else from the same Author, but I am not quite sure how much overlap there is with his other books, so I think I'll scout some bookshop beforehand.

The customer service team were brilliant sorting out a problem with the order.Would definitely recommend their company.If you have any problems they go above and beyond.Impressed :)

very engaging, fun for beginners. love the cd. this is immediately useful. great book! great series!

I find this book very useful. The CD helped me to hear what the groove should sound like when played up tempo and the play along practice track is also very useful. This is a great skill to learn for musicians who do not have access to a drum set or prefer not to drag one around. Its especially good for parties and small jams.