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EDS Songbook Level One  Introduction

Drum Songbook Index – Level 1

Gigajam Songbook introduction

The Gigajam Songbook for Level 1 Drums contains five pieces of music. These have been written specifically to enable students to practise the skills they have learned through their study of Level 1 Drums.

Each of the songs represents a genre within contemporary popular music, and begins to demonstrate how widely the skills learned can be applied to music of varying styles.

Developing your skills

Working with the written music, and the music played by the DrumXtractor, you will develop your ability to:

  1. Read a drum chart.
  2. Play consistently in time.
  3. Play grooves and fills, using the skills learned through the course.
  4. Develop some new variations to learned grooves.

By playing with the DrumXtractor, you can record your performance and compare it to the drummer in the DrumXtractor, using Analyser. You should be listening to your performance and comparing the sound you create to that of the recorded drum part. You should use Analyser to identify areas of your playing where you feel you are not quite getting it right or, perhaps, where you are unsure as to why you are going wrong.

Playing live

The songs have been written for guitar, bass, keyboards and drums. So, when you have become familiar with your part in the band, you can play the songs with friends and colleagues in a live band situation — with or without the DrumXtractor.

If you have a drummer and guitarist, for example, you could play together — muting the drum and guitar parts on the Xtractor — and use the DrumXtractor parts for the keyboards and bass, so that you have ‘virtual’ players in your band.

How to use the Songbook

In the Drum Songbook Index — Level 1 panel (at the top right hand side of this page) is the list of songs you can learn to play. Choose a song and then use the notes that accompany the song. These will help you to understand the structure of the piece and they contain many tips to help you get started.

As always, play along to the DrumXtractor whilst reading the part. Feel free to cycle tricky parts of the tune, using the looping function on the Xtractor. You can also slow the tune down to help you learn small sections. When comfortable, record and analyse your own performance and see how you are getting on.

We hope that you enjoy the pieces and hope that you have lots of fun playing along.