The DVD is actually a re-released version of the original video that was on VHS, but it’s now armed with slow motion, looping, & chapter select features. Which means that it kicks the crap out of the VHS version.

Ginger Baker starts out the video with a bare bones minimum description of how to hold a drumstick and a woefully inadequate section on tuning the drums. It does get better from there, however. Baker’s approach to teaching is a lot like your standard drum teacher’s method. As soon as you can hold the sticks you move on to rudiments, the first two being the paradiddle and the mummy (it’s an english thing) daddy roll. Cool thing about this video is that whenever he does demonstrate a rudiment, the sticking appears on the screen. Nifty. After he demonstrates the basic rudiment he usually turns it into some form of a tom groove. Baker’s tom grooves are probably one of the most interesting parts of his playing and he does a great job of showing how he uses them in his playing. For example he plays a song called “Ants in the Kitchen” where the main groove is a paradiddle that has been shifted one sixteenth note. Instead of RLRR LRLL it’s RLLR LRRL. Read the rest of this entry →