It’s time for the continuation (and perhaps conclusion) of the Syncopation saga with David Black’s Drumset Independence and Syncopation. 

Even if you don’t recognize this book by name, you have probably seen it without realizing — as far as I know, every copy of Syncopation that’s been printed in the last ~25 years has this big ad on the back cover:

I’ve been looking at this ad for approximately the same length of time, as I’m sure many other drummers have; this might be one of the most widely seen ads in the drumming world, but despite the ubiquity of Syncopation in the practice room, I knew shockingly little about this book until I picked it up a couple of months ago.

So, what’s the skinny with Drumset Independence and Syncopation? Well… it’s basically a jazz book. In fact, the first 59 pages of this 80-page book are primarily comping patterns:

Throughout this first chunk of the book, Black lays out different rhythms a la Syncopation, providing a “notational variation”, where the rhythm is rewritten with longer note lengths reduced to rests:

Similar to Reed, Drumset Independence and Syncopation uses different chapters to introduce different subdivisions, summarizing things with a combination study that writes the solo line on the snare under the classic ride pattern and quarter notes on the kick.

Afterward, we get the more intricate comping patterns, with the solo line orchestrated between the kick and snare (I don’t know what the exact system is, and the book doesn’t explain how the rhythms are split between the kick and snare).

There are a handful of short sections about “drum fills in context”, but aside from comping, the other big section of the book (about the last 20 pages) is all about kicking figures and interpreting drum charts.

And… that’s really the long and short of it.

When it comes to off–the–shelf practice materials, I tend to enjoy comping drills. I’m not really sure why — I don’t play jazz for a living, but I think I enjoy a coordination challenge that’s still within the bounds of musical drumming (as opposed to heinous independence challenges that make you sound like a drum machine gone amok).

Pages of comping patterns do have their limits, and to paraphrase Todd Bishop, you need to be wary of rotely parroting “hip comping shit.” And like Jim Chapin, Drumset Independence and Syncopation relishes in jive licks of straight 16ths under the jazz ride pattern:

Black doesn’t go nearly as overboard with it as Advanced Techniques does, and this is mercifully contained to only nine or so pages. Nevertheless, I just can’t abide by this byzantine, polyrhythmic timekeeping. I don’t like the way it sounds, I don’t enjoy playing it, and these skills are not valuable to me.*

The other parts of the book didn’t really click with me. The “drum fills in context” are little more than this:

It makes me wonder what the audience of the book is — again, some of the aforementioned comping drills are quite gnarly, but as far as fills go, this is pretty elementary stuff. 

The materials about ensemble figures are in a similar place for me. Kicking a figure is one of the most important things for me as a drummer, but much of this content is pretty redundant; it’s often the case that a rhythm from earlier is just rewritten with some bars of slash time beforehand:

I’m not convinced this is offering much more than just reading the rhythms from earlier in the book, or perhaps even the original Reed Pages. The final pages more properly resemble drum charts — perhaps this is the goal, but it’s undermined by how the book forgoes writing ensemble figures with slash noteheads, instead using kick, snare, and cymbal (which was once common but is now antiquated):

In the absence of being able to actually hear the figures in question (i.e., a playalong), this is a difficult skill to develop, but I can see some sight–reading utility. 

I have some other gripes about the book: the engraving of the comping sections is a bit messy, the comping sections are organized somewhat strangely (they’re split between two chapters, “Independence” and “Syncopation”, but the mechanics of them are the same), and I don’t dig the typesetting… but now we’re starting to get a little nit–picky. 

So… I like (most of) the comping stuff, but the other sections do not compute. Again, I wonder exactly what the target audience is overall.

The biggest thing I have to say about Drumset Independence and Syncopation is that, with how open–ended the title is, you probably weren’t expecting it to be so focused on swing and jazz, and this book isn’t typically considered one of the essential jazz books out there.

The funny thing is that something like Advanced Techniques is billed as a jazz book when it’s really a coordination book, but Drumset Independence and Syncopation is kind of the opposite case — by and large, I like the comping patterns more in this book. They’re certainly more musical.

Another thing to consider is that Syncopation is primarily a reading book, but its legacy comes from all the possibilities and interpretations. The David Black book, on the other hand, is somewhere in between pure reading and actual drum set playing.

I wonder what a more open–ended book of this sort would look like. You could probably sketch out a couple of pages of rhythms and then write out 70 pages of interpretations regarding timekeeping and fills.

Anyway, to conclude, the comping patterns get a thumbs up, but the rest of it… eh. As is often the case, I may have enjoyed more of this book if I were a beginner, but some of the comping patterns would have melted my brain 15 years ago…

* ^ Oddly, there’s no discussion anywhere in the book about swinging 8th notes, suggesting the horrifying possibility that you are supposed to play everything as written. I certainly hope not!