Filling in the Grooves: The Ultimate Guide to Drum Fills, Book & Online Video/Audio

If you've gone through "The Complete Book of Drum Fills" by Jim Holland (excellent book too), then "Filling in the Grooves" is a good next step. The grooves and fills are more challenging, and the downloadable recordings are well done and give you something to strive for - those recordings are unbelievable, no way I can play that fast.The CONTENT of the book is excellent. Nothing to complain about. The grooves are imaginative, the fills are challenging, the accompanying audio sets good goals, and the author's commentary is valuable.There are a number of factors that prevent this book from getting five stars, though:1. The binding. It's terrible. The book does not open flat. If you try to force it open flat, it doesn't stay flat. You have to clip it to a music stand. Eventually pages come loose and fall out. This hasn't happened to our book yet, but my son's drum instructor has this book and it's nearly a bunch of loose pages by now. The book is too thick for a staple binding (like Holland's book), so a spiral binding would have been best. Yes, maybe more expensive, but at least you aren't making a product that falls apart! Go have a look at anything by Tommy Igoe, those spiral-bound books are great to use because they not only lie flat, but you can fold them all the way backward so that only the page you want is visible.2. The organization. While there are chapters that organize the fills into categories, there is no difficulty progression from one chapter to the next. So don't expect a teaching book where you start at page 1 and work your way through. You CAN do it that way, but you'll hit roadblocks and walls when things suddenly get difficult real fast. Think of it more like a reference book where you go to the chapter having fills you're interested in.3. The layout. The typical chapter is layed out to introduce a groove on one page, and then on the other side of the page are the fills. My son is using this book, and I must make a photocopy of the groove page so he can see it side-by-side against the corresponding fills page. By the time he gets through it all, I will have copied half the book! Would it have been SO hard to offset the pages by one, so that the groove and fill pages face each other??In spite of those gripes, I can recommend this book. It's worth having. Just try to treat it so that it survives your journey through it.

I was looking for a good instructional book on fills as many of my students claim they "don't know what to play". Jim Toscano offers a great book for teachers and students on this topic. I was really impressed with the depth and time it must have taken to complete this book (it's over 160 pages!). He also provides a web link in Alfred with video demos of all the fills presented in the book. This one is a MUST if you teach drums or are looking to improve your own drum fills. Finally, great "Tribute" section at the end with classic fills from the greats like Bonham, Cobham, Copeland, etc...

Great book for anyone looking to learn new drum fills or developing a more musical creativity behind the drum kit. I would highly recommend thus book.

Good couse for learning different drum fills, access to videos and music

I am going to give this 5 stars because, really, how can anyone complain about a well-organized, well notated book with tons of high-quality recordings, song recommendations, etc. For the price of this book, I could get half a private lesson for a local drummer.That being said, getting this book and all it advertised was a massive pain in the ass. I ordered the book, but when it arrived, it didn't include the code I needed to access the files. I contacted the seller, got a new copy, and it also didn't include the codes. The seller and I messaged back and forth for a weeks, and eventually, they told me they couldn't help and that I should contact the author directly.I also contacted Alfred Music, and messaged back and forth for a month (I am still not convinced I was communicating with a human), and eventually, they recommended I also contact the author. It was infuriating. Neither the seller or the publisher took responsibility for the product they were selling.Eventually, I got in touch with the author, and he give me the unique codes on one of his own copies, so that I finally had access to the files. Thank you, Jim Toscano!That was after about a month (maybe more) or trying to get them. It was pretty irritating.But if am to review the product (as advertised), and not the costumer service, then I am very happy with the book.It's excellent.

I teach drums and over time have bought numerous books but this is the only one I have found focussed so acutely on drum fills.It's really well constructed with insightful perspectives not just the fills themselves but how to use them in context with the music too. You can tell that a LOT of time and thought has gone into this(My only tiny gripe: why so many photos of the author doing basically the same thing?! I would have liked to see images that illustrates some specific practical point OR just less photos of the same thing! but as I say it does not detract from a first class book)Highly recommended.

I've been looking for a while for that kind of book and actually very pleased with its content. Well written, nice concept between balanced exercises, audio, photos, orientation toward key drummers to listen to. My only regret is that it took almost 4 to 5 weeks to get it, that's too slow.