Alfred’s ( L a t e E lementary )

The Easiest Drum Method Ever!

Dave Black • Steve Houghton­

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Copyright © 2006 by Alfred Music

All rights reserved. Printed in USA.
No part of this book shall be reproduced, arranged, adapted, recorded, publicly performed, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted by any means without written permission from the publisher. In order to comply with copyright laws, please apply for
such written permission and/or license by contacting the publisher at alfred.com/permissions.
ISBN-10: 0-7390-4383-8
ISBN-13: 978-0-7390-4383-7
Cover and interior illustrations by Jeff Shelly.
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Introducing the Dotted Eighth
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 and Sixteenth Note . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Selecting Your Sound Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Practice Warm-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Basic Music Notation Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 If You’re Happy and You Know It . . . . . . . . 22
Getting Ready to Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Sho-Jo-Ji . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Reading Music Notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Dotted Eighth and
Basic Playing Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Sixteenth-Note Duet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Let’s Review the Matched Grip . . . . . . . . . 6 El Rabel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

6
Introducing Tempo Signs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Body Drumming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Review: 8 Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
68
Three-Tempo Rock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 25
Review: Skip to My Lou . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Duet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Skip to My Lou . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Tarantella . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Introducing Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Review: Improvisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
My First Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Practice Warm-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
The Tide Rises and Falls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Body Drumming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Review: Dotted Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Introducing Four New Rhythms . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Practice Warm-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Arroz con Leche . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Dotted-Note Duet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 The Kerry Dance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Sha Lee Hung Ba . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Body Drumming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

2
Review: Body Drumming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Review: Syncopation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Review: 4 Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Practice Warm-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Grasshopper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Syncopation Duet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

3
Body Drumming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Nobody’s Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Introducing 4 Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Body Drumming—Nobody’s Business . . . . 32
Three is for Me! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Review: Five-Line Staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Paru-Parog Bukid (Meadow Butterfly) . . . 14 Introducing Drumset Notation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Introducing Ties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Practice Warm-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Practice Warm-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
All Tied Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Practice Warm-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Chacarera . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Old MacDonald Had a Farm . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Review: Sixteenth Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Ahg-Doom Bahg-Doom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Practice Warm-Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Introducing the Two-Beat Rhythm . . . . . . . . . 36
Sixteenth-Note Duet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Russian Dance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Ha-Yah-Ho . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Body Drumming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Review: Trio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Turkey in the Straw . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
La Bamba . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Body Drumming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Body Drumming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Siyahamba . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Don Simon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Body Drumming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Cajueiro Pequenino . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Certificate of Completion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Body Drumming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Recording Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

2
After completing Alfred’s Kid’s Drum Course, Book 1, you should
have a good foundation and understanding of certain basic
rhythms, counting, drum rudiments, musical terms, form and
notation, improvisation, coordination and ensemble playing.
Book 2 continues the building process by establishing sound
playing techniques and a better knowledge of the rudiments.
Improved improvisational skills, drumset skills and the ability
to play with an ensemble will be introduced in the process.
As with the first book, body drumming has been woven
throughout to help the player internalize the rhythms and
understand the movement associated with each rhythm.
As with Book 1, a specific drum or instrument is not
required. Remember, musical sounds can be produced
with simple, inexpensive objects found around the home.
Book 2 will continue our exploration of drumming and
rhythms by taking a trip around the world, learning
rhythms and musical styles from a wide variety of
countries. Learn, have fun and enjoy the trip.

The authors wish to thank Karen Farnum Surmani, Kate Westin and
Bruce Goldes for their invaluable assistance in the preparation of
this book. A very special thanks to Rich Eames for his engineering,
orchestrations, and multi-keyboard talents.

About the Online Audio

The online audio contains many of the exercises and all of the tunes included in this book, so you
can listen and play along with them. The recordings also serve as a model to help strengthen time
keeping, improve ensemble playing, clarify phrasing and expand your knowledge of musical styles.

3
 3
Introducing 4 Time
3 means there are three beats in each measure.
4 means a quarter note (q ) gets one beat.

ã 43 œ œ œ ˙ œ œœœ œ ˙.
Count: 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 & 2 3 1 2 3

Three is for Me!

Track 8

Use two different sound sources for this duet. Before playing along
with the recording, practice each part separately until you are
comfortable with it. Start slowly and gradually increase the tempo.

Andante {q = 84}

Player 1 ã 43 Fœ œ œ œ œ Œ Œ œ œ œ œ œ Œ Œ

ã 43 ∑ œ œ œ œ œ Œ Œ œ œ œ œ œ
F
Player 2

j j
ã œ. œ œ œ. œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
f
ΠΠ..
j
ã Œ œ Œ Œ œ Œ œ. œ œ œ œ Œ Œ ..
f
13