I just picked up my very own copy of Jim Chapin’s Advanced Techniques for the Modern Drummer. This book, just like Stone’s Stick Control, is one of the true monuments in percussion methods, but I can’t believe it’s taken 20 years to finally own a personal copy. It’s one of things that my instructors or peers always had ready and I would copy certain pages to work on a particular exercise or etude. The book always seemed manageable by looking at one or two pages at a time, but now that I have a full copy, I’m truly astounded at how much knowledge and expertise is crammed into so relatively few pages.

However, there is one good thing about buying a copy now. Amazingly enough, the guys at Warner Bros. Publishing have managed to unearth a RECORDING of the exercises in the book. WHOA!! Turns out, the 1963 recording has been lost since the mid sixties (the book was first published in 1948) and has now been remastered and released on CD with the latest, 2002 publishing. They that wait on the Lord?? LOL! But what’s the most impressive is hearing the master himself (decidely younger in voice, as track 1 reveals) blast through these exercises proving once and for all that all of these can be performed!

Contemplating how long it’s going to take me to work through this book is a bit staggering. Sure, it’s not as if I’m a novice player, and I’m sure I’ll take to the exercises quicker than younger players, but I want to devout serious time to improving the interdependence that this book teaches.

Now, where are my sticks??