At One Day Drum Shop on 5th May, we had the pleasure of welcoming Dave Longman, creator of the Skins Drum Performance Method to demonstrate his book & tell us about the reasons behind him writing it.
Not only is Dave an all-round good egg, he's come up with something to fill a gap in teaching books, and we think it's great! Have you ever had a pupil who just can't seem to make the leap from the very basics to grade 1? It can be demoralising and frustrating, but Skins DPM helps to fill that gap...
The book contains 18 tracks of real music (backing tracks are available for download from his website) building on more basic rhythms and becoming progressively more challenging. It's designed to work through with a teacher, rather than being self-taught.
By the end of the book, a student will be roughly grade 1-2 standard, and ready to progress onto a traditional graded book if they want to (until Dave writes Skins DPM book 2, that is!)
The tracks are "spiced up" with humerous (and track-appropriate) count-ins, which have had my pupils giggling and engaged. The tracks are fairly short and very manageable, also helping with reading. I've found the book massively helpful with some pupils who had been struggling to progress.
