“An extremely well-thought-out and all-encompassing piece of drum education”: Millenium Legendary Drumbook review

What is it?

After 30 years of success crafting both acoustic and electronic drums, Millenium Drums has released its first educational book, aimed to cater for absolute beginners and more advanced students alike. Written by Nuremberg-based session drummer Peter Söltl, the book is available in both English and German languages.

As Millenium is one of Thomann’s many in-house brands, Legendary Drumbook is available exclusively through its online store for £18.90 (at the time of writing).

Content

Chapter one

The Basics starts with an in-depth comparison of e-drums vs acoustic drums – weighing up pros and cons in regard to feel, size, volume and other important considerations. There are then step-by-step walkthroughs (with loads of images) on how to set up acoustic and electronic kits. The chapter also covers tuning, choosing the right sticks and headphones, posture, hand technique, foot technique and practice tips.

Chapter two

First Steps, is split into two age-dependent options. For under 13s, there is a stripped back and colourfully illustrated lesson which works though building basic co-ordination and grooves through a simplified image-based notation system (a paw for hi-hat, heart for snare drum etc). These pages are recommended for 6-12 years, while the alternative First Steps section is for older kids and adults. Despite this more grown-up portion working through a more typical notation standard, the patterns themselves are actually exactly the same.

This is a well-thought-out feature of the book which should make mastering the basics a little less daunting, and more fun for very young students (my five-year-old daughter certainly appreciated some of the drumming cats artwork).

In-depth content

Once the basics are covered, the book goes on to cover a massive amount of content including tons of grooves, fills and specific styles including blues, reggae, swing and Latin. Each exercise in the book is accompanied by a QR code which when scanned will open audio examples or video demonstrations.

Verdict

Legendary Drumbook does a remarkably good job of balancing the almost impossible task of pitching a book at such a broad ability range.

It does seem somewhat peculiar to conceive a book that introduces basics like ‘how to sit at a kit’ or ‘how to hold a stick’ (not forgetting the kids section littered with pictures of cats), yet also covers advanced concepts such as half-time shuffles, samba co-ordination and permutation studies. Needless to say, these are worlds apart.

Some might consider this to be a little too much to pack into one book, whereas others will consider it good value for money. Whichever side of this particular fence you fall, it’s worth considering that for the average student, this book represents at least a decade of dedicated practice.

The book is well presented and incredibly in-depth. There are detailed explanations of every concept plus additional notes with key terms throughout. It starts at a leisurely pace through the beginner parts and then ramps up in difficulty level fairly quickly when 16th notes are introduced.

The media content is also well organised and will undoubtedly be extremely useful in helping bring the pages to life. On that note, we thought that the video accompaniment for the kids' section could have matched the playful tone of the book more closely.

Hands-on demos

Millenium Drums

Legendary Drumbook | Millenium Drums - YouTube

Watch On

Alternatives

John Savage The Art of the Drummer: £15 at Musicroom.com

Now in its 12th edition, The Art of the Drummer vol. 1, still holds up, even at nearly 20 years old.

Read more about The Art of the Drummer by John Savage

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