Making Your Own Drum Book

Hi there, I’m Nigel Sanders from Chelmsford, Essex in the UK. I’ve been teaching drums for over 20 years and another 15 years as a special needs teacher in schools. I have been a freelance musician since 2007, in which I continue to teach drums and music composition.    

 

 

In this blog, I will guide you through the process I have developed for creating drum books. Creating any type of book can seem overwhelming and often the key is the starting idea. So, the following steps will hopefully give you some ideas of how to develop your own. I find writing out my practice ideas on sheet music a really great way of focusing on how to learn any new technique or part of a song. I can then use that as my practice pattern or patterns. It was from this process that I realized I could develop this further.

So, in the first instance, I would write out something you are working on at the moment and that interests you. (Obviously, this requires some knowledge of writing drum music, but help is at hand, you can always contact me, and I can teach those very skills or alternatively find a teacher near you).

Once you have got your initial idea, sit behind your drum kit and come up with at least 6 to 7 variations of the idea or even break it down into 7 different steps. This will form your first worksheet or page of your book. So write them down before you forget them. If you then repeat this process with other similar ideas another 6 times you have already made a short book or worksheet pack. This can be useful for your own learning or to share/sell to others.

The final stages include making a decent front cover, index and put a title and basic instructions for each individual page.

Finally, always try and keep things simple and clear. Try and read through what you’ve created and see if you can follow the instructions and learn from it. Maybe even try it out on friends to see if it makes sense or if they notice any mistakes. So, give it a go and see what you create, believe me when I say you’ll learn loads yourself.

Nigel Sanders has been working as a professional freelance musician since 2007. Prior to this, he was a semi-professional. He works as a private music teacher and a composer. Nigel also writes teaching materials, books and sheet music for the drum set, percussion, and a range of instruments.

To learn more from Nigel himself, here’s how you can get in touch:

Nigel Sanders Artist Profile | Instagram l Website