Linear Drumming

Steve Gadd, Gary Chaffee, David Garibaldi and Rick Latham - to name but a few - are regarded as pioneers of linear drumming. This drumset playing technique emerged in the mid-1970s and is still as popular today as ever. Teaching aids such as Time Functioning Patterns (1980), Linear Time Playing (1993) - both by Gary Chaffee -, Advanced Funk Studies (1980) by Rick Latham and Future Sounds (1990) by David Garibaldi quickly found their place on the music stands of amateurs and professionals alike.

In Creative Dimension the Swiss drummer Charlie Weibel shows in an impressive way what cool grooves and fills are possible with linear drumming. Even the preliminary exercises in Weibel's booklet are fun and are also suitable for beginners. But then it really gets down to business with over two hundred one-bar examples. There are linear as well as quasi-linear grooves representing funk and fusion styles, Latin rhythms and shuffles.

The exercises and rhythms in Creative Dimension are reminiscent of the works of the above-mentioned protagonists, from whom the author says he is strongly inspired. Rick Latham may well have been the inspiration for the choice of notation form, where the simultaneously played beats are notated under an upward-facing stem. An additional advantage of this form of notation is that there are almost no rests; the rhythms are therefore easy to decipher.

Charlie Weibel deliberately avoids long passages of text and lexical explanations, which benefits the booklet greatly. As a supplement, he presents six challenging solos from his 2001 booklet Drumspectrum. A good 150 sound samples are provided on the enclosed CD. The recordings impress with their precise recording and rich sound. Really cool.

Charlie Weibel, Creative Dimension. Contemporary concepts for drumset, special grooves & solo drumming, Linear Time Playing (L.T.P) in Funk Latin Fusion Style, with CD, Fr. 39.00, Ghost Note Productions, Lucerne, ISMN 979-0-000-00158-9, www.weibeltech.ch