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No matter what kind of drumming one enjoys, there is no substitute for learning and perfecting the official rudiments. Matt provides excellent technical instruction as to how to perform each rudiment with loads of examples for building chops. In addition, most of the exercises are also played on the accompanying CD's so that you can hear how they are supposed to sound. To top it off, Matt has included 40+ snazzy arrangements, also performed on the CD's, that apply the unique characteristics of each rudiment. The snare part has been recorded on one channel so that you can audition it by itself, mute it, or play along at varying volume levels. The tunes are brilliantly written with engaging melodies/rhythms, fun to play, challenging (esp. if you follow the written sticking patterns), and make practicing rudiments a joy rather than a burden. I have played through the entire book many times along with the CD's. Not only has my drumming skill taken a giant leap forward, my sightreading has improved as well. My copy is so worn out, after just a year or so, that the pages have all come apart and are now in a 3-ring binder. I definitely have my favorites (e.g. "Relax and Roll With It") and there a couple of charts that contain very difficult sticking figures that I have yet to master at tempo. A useful addition to this package would be a data CD containing all of the tunes in MIDI format so that the tempos could be easily varied.

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This book teaches so many different approaches to the 40 rudiments and executes them well.