The Complete Idiot's Guide to
Playing Percussion

About the Book

You're no idiot, of course. You know that you have to do more than bang things together to create percussion music. Whether you're expanding your percussion skills or writing for the percussion section, you need to know about dozens of different instruments -- how they work, what they sound like, and how they're played.

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Playing Percussion takes you on a guided tour of the entire percussion family, from drums to cymbals to mallet instruments and more. In this Complete Idiot's Guide you get:

• An introduction to the instruments used in the modern orchestra, marching bands and drum corps, and popular ensembles
• Ethnic sounds from Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia
• An easy-to-understand guide to all types of percussion notation

Welcome to the instruments of the percussion family:

• Play a beat on the concert snare -- and learn the marching rudiments
• Strike a cymbal or gong and feel those good vibrations
• Spice up your music with an Indian tabla, an African djembe, or Middle Eastern doumbek
• Tickle the wooden bars of the xylophone and marimba
• Discover how to hold sticks and mallets for all instruments
• Learn the proper playing techniques -- and how to make all the right sounds
• Discover how to create percussion melodies and harmonies

Table of Contents

Part I: Welcome to the World of Percussion
1. A Quick Tour of the Percussion Family
2. A Quick Guide to Percussion Notation

Part 2: The World of Concert Percussion
3. Drums
4. Timpani
5. Cymbals and Gongs
6. Mallets, Bells, and Chimes
7. Auxiliary Percussion

Part 3: The World of Marching Percussion
8. Marching Drums and Cymbals
9. Marching Bells and Mallets

Part 4: The World of Popular Percussion
10. Drum Set
11. Drum Circle Drums and Percussion

Part 5: The World of Ethnic Percussion
12. Latin Percussion
13. African Percussion
14. Middle Eastern Percussion
15. Indian Percussion
16. Asian and Indonesian Percussion

Appendixes
A. Glossary
B. Into the West: A Short Piece for Percussion Ensemble
C. CD Contents

CD Contents

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Percussion comes with an accompanying audio CD, which contains examples of many of the instruments discussed in the book's text. It demonstrates 50 different instruments, and concludes with a performance of the Into the West percussion ensemble. It's a good way to get a handle on how some of these percussion instruments sound when played together.

How to Buy This Book

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Playing Percussion, is available at bookstores everywhere, or you can order the book online by clicking the button to the left.