Grooving Christmas
Gerwin Eisenhauer has published a second volume of play-alongs for the Advent season. They offer plenty of scope for every level.
The Christmas Drum Book 2 contains a variety of Christmas play-alongs in different styles of pop, swing, hip-hop and funk. It includes traditional American songs as well as some classics from the German-speaking world.
Except for Jingle Bells the drumset titles are open, i.e. there are various grooves to choose from that match the piece. The chart only shows the form and sequences of the song with details of the feels and possible fill-ins. This is very practical, clear and leaves room for your own interpretations.
As with the first volume, some pieces are specially arranged for the snare drum so that young drummers can play something in front of the Christmas tree without having to get the whole drum set out of the cellar. Here, too, there is an open chart for each title, as well as three levels of difficulty: easy, intermediate and difficult. So there is something for every level and there is also enough freedom here to let your own creativity flow.
In the foreword, the author Gerwin Eisenhauer writes: "I firmly believe that it makes a lot of sense (even for very young students) to explore grooves outside of the usual 4/4 time signature in order to get a broader view of our wonderful rhythmic world." Many of the songs therefore focus on odd time signatures.
The songs have been elaborately recorded to a high standard and can be downloaded as MP3s with various audio and play-along versions.
This book is a great musical Christmas package for beginning and advanced drummers. There is enough material for the teaching period from November to Christmas to practise technique, musicality and different feels while bringing some Christmas spirit into the classroom.
Gerwin Eisenhauer: The Christmas Drum Book 2, D 420, with audio download, € 18.80, Dux, Manching
