Category: Drum books

Clave Metronome App

I recently started practicing Latin patterns and working out of the book New Ways of Brazilian Drumming by Sergio Gomes. I’ve also been working on Latin independence exercises while reading from the Ted Reed Syncopation book and playing those patterns with my left or right hand.

I quickly got tired of listening to a straight click while practicing and instead of programming the various clave patterns into my drum machine or computer, I searched for an app and found one that’s perfect!

The Clave is highly recommended. It’s also free.

The interface is brilliantly simple and gives me everything I need. Tempo adjustment, several different patterns, the ability to invert the clave from 3:2 to 2:3 and an option for low or high pitched claves.

Here are some screenshots:

 

Clave metronome

Click here to get the Clave app

Here’s the book I mentioned above. It came highly recommended to me by one of the faculty of the Jazz Studies department at the University of Minnesota.

Latin Sounds From The Drumset

This is a long shot, but I am trying to find a copy of Latin Sounds From The Drumset by Frank “Chico” Guerrero.

It’s a drumset book that’s long been out of print. I used to have a copy, but must have lost it when I was at Berklee or in one of the several moves I’ve made.

Last week I spoke to someone at the publishing company and heard that there may be a digital version available by the end of the year, which would be great.

Until then, if anyone out there finds a copy or has one to sell, please get in touch.

Update! (4/13/2017)

I found a copy on Ebay. I’m very happy to have this book again. The section on the Nañigo around page 218 is particularly great.

I’ll see if I can get permission from the publisher to share a few pages.