Tommy Igoe: Groove Essentials (Dvd) [2004]

If you're new to drumming or you've been playing a while - if you're a beginner or a well practised veteran - this DVD has something for everyone.Tommy's enthusiasm and passion for drumming exudes from every moment of this DVD.He breaks down 50 groove styles into their component parts, highlighting what you need to do in order to play jazz, or with brushes, or a reggae beat...And he does it so well.Something for everyone.

A good product which allows my son to have personal tutorials between lessons. You can start at whichever exercise you want and skip the ones you don't. It has helped my boy to improve his drum skills and is recommended by his drum tutor.

I would very strongly recommend this DVD. I learned more from it than from any other dvd or book I have come across. Igoe is an excellent teacher with an infectious enthusiasm. Some of the later stuff is fairly difficult to play, but it's all explained sufficiently well that anyone should get it with a little practice.

Tommy Igoe's Groove Essentials is quite simply the best book/dvd tuition available. Second only to 1-to-1 tuition, of which it can be intergrated.

Comprehensive, very easy to follow TI is a great drummer who is also a brilliant instructor, this is probably the best first tutorial one can buy and indeed possibly the only one an aspiring drummer need buy.

First let me say that the Synopsis on this page seems to be wrong - this is NOT the Tommy Igoe Getting Started DVD that deals with kit setup etc. This is Groove Essentials.Based on the Groove Essential poster originally produced by Igoe & Vic Firth, this DVD covers 47 grooves of all sorts of styles - Rock (10 grooves), Funk (3), R&B/HipHop (4) Jazz (9), "World" (20).As Tommy says, this is obviously not all possible grooves in all possible categories. But it is a great selection that will provide a solid foundation, ranging in complexity from the most basic to (what seems to me anyway, a year into drumming) as pretty awesome & challenging stuff.Tommy is incredibly enthusiastic & his love for drums is infectious.Each groove is introduced slowly with explanations of key points. Then he demos it with a slowish tune & then a faster one. The tracks are all great to listen to & play along with (& the DVD is designed for playalong practice).He says in the intro he will only play the grooves, not fancy fills - but he just can't help himself! So you can learn some interesting embellishments too if you pay attention.The only slight drawbacks are1. Some over-zealous editing so when he is talking to camera the angle keeps changing. A minor distraction, not a big problem.2. He explains the early grooves very thoroughly but as he goes on the explanations get much shorter, so it is harder to work out what all the limbs need to do.On the whole an excellent investment for anyone at any level (which you can't say about most instructional DVDs).Only misses the 5th star because of the point 2 above (i could live with the editing)