Messin Wid Da Bull is the latest in the popular Turn it Up and Lay it Down Series, by creator Spencer Strand. These play along CD/book packages focus on helping drummers develop their skills by playing along with a band.  Jeff Salem wrote the book that accompanies these RnB based horn tunes.

The book begins with a system for building beats based on three concepts: broken 16^th note patterns, paradiddle sticking patterns, and linear patterns. For those of you who are familiar with Benny Greb’s The Language of Drumming DVD, there are some excellent drum kit voicings of the rhythmic alphabet right in the beginning of this book.  They are very similar to the voicings used in Gary Chaffee’s books.

One page of note in Messin Wid Da Bull is page 14, where Jeff shows how to build different beats around a bass line.  Hi Hat, Ride and Hi Hat foot ostinatos are covered.  Although those pages are short, the material can be quite time consuming to master.  You can teach many lessons from pages 14 through 17 alone.

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Click here to check out a FREE chart and play-along mp3 from Messin’ Wid Da Bull by Jeff Salem!

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The next section is based on paradiddle stickings. Jeff shows 16 combinations (reminiscent of the beginning pages of Stick Control) and then applies bass drum patterns to them.  There is a full page of linear combinations of four notes played as one beat of sixteenth notes.  Jeff shows how to combine them based on a bass line. This is important, as it gives the student an idea when and why to play these rhythms.

“The Fill Shop” is two pages of fills based on the rhythmic alphabet described earlier, some linear phrases, accent patterns and rolls.  The last part of section 1 demonstrates how to combine all of these elements, again based on a bass line to show the musical logic behind the process.

The rest of the book is based on thirteen funk tunes, each with a slightly different flavor.  Many are modeled after popular horn bands like Chicago, Blood Sweat and Tears, and Tower of Power.  One of the best attributes of this book is that players of almost any level can play each song.  For each song, Jeff suggests easy, intermediate and advanced grooves. Good readers can use the chart for each tune that has ensemble figures, repeats and full musical notation.

For those who are not as skilled in reading, or after you learn the chart and just need to keep your place, there is a quick road map for each tune that just outlines the form.  Lastly, for each song there are suggested fills and some examples of how to accent some of the band figures.  The book ends several useful lists of influential drummers, bands, and further resource material.

This book is an excellent stand alone book or can be a great compliment to any other material you might already be using.  It can serve as a follow up to some of the Groove Essentials songs, a great compliment to The Code of Funk or any of David Garibaldi’s other books, it serves as a great musical application for Rick Latham’s Advanced Funk Studies book and Gary Chaffee’s Patterns series.