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Rick Latham: Advanced Funk Studies / Contemporary Drumset Techniques (DVD) Review

Star Ratings: Teaching Effectiveness: Styles Covered: Features: Ease of Use: Formats of Supplied Materials: Customer Support: Value for Money: Editor's Overall Rating:

Cost

• $34.95 (currently reduced to$31.49 on Amazon.com.  Includes free shipping.)

Features:

• 180 minutes of high quality video on one DVD.

• Presented by Rick Latham,

• Features two courses on one DVD:
• • Advanced Funk Studies.
  • Contemporary Drumset Techniques.

• Lessons taught include:
• • Funk patterns.
  • Playing solos.
  • Combination exercises.
  • Hi-hat patterns.

• Split-screen feature for all examples, shows you how everything is being played.

• Bonus features including:
• • 25th Anniversary edition introduction.
  • Interviews with drummers Louie Bellson and Ed Shaughnessy.
  • In depth look at the setup of Rick's playing equipment.
  • Photo gallery, chronicling Rick's career.
  • 9 live band performances.

Editor's Verdict:

Rick Latham: Advanced Funk Studies/Contemporary Drumset Technique introduces players to a world of new rhythms, techniques and styles.  At three hours, it is longer than the majority of drumming DVDs on the market, and is equally generous in content.  As well as providing detailed tuition in playing funk rhythms, Rick explores other modern genres from RnB to Rock and Soul.  Although not suitable for absolute beginners, who will be looking for more detailed instruction in absolute basics such as buying and setting up a kit, the DVD can be used by drummers of most skill levels above this.  Because it teaches a particular approach to the drums as much as individual techniques, even if you don't have the skill to play a particular pattern you can move on to something else.

As well as aiming to develop a polished and accurate playing style, the DVD encourages intelligent and thoughtful playing.  This means it is does much more and provides much longer lasting lessons than many similar products in this category.  The instruction style is good and Rick makes an effective teacher. And if you appreciate the opportunity to watch a great player at work, the live band performances will be a treat.

The DVD comes with a number of bonus features, including a photo gallery of Rick's career and interviews with two successful professional drummers.  Although these can make a nice addition to a product, they are by no means important, and in this instance it appears that these have been added at the sacrifice of features that might have been more useful.   A helpful addition might have been a set of content on the history of drum playing, which would have allowed the user to link the techniques and genres to their historical evolution.  Instead, the producers have gone for features that are mostly gimmicks.

Rick Latham: Advanced Funk Studies/Contemporary Drumset Technique is more expensive than many drumming DVDs and is lacking a lot of the material that you might expect from a product in this price range.  If you are looking to make the most of everything Rick has to teach, you might also be interested in the CDs and book that have been produced in the Advanced Funk Studies series.  These provide more detail and further opportunities to practice the topics covered in the DVD.  However, by the time you have purchased the DVD and the CD/Book package, you will likely have spent over $50, for which you can buy some much more comprehensive and versatile tuition packages.  For this reason, we recommend that those who are serious about giving themselves the best tuition available at the most affordable costs look elsewhere.

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Review of Rick Latham: Advanced Funk Studies / Contemporary Drumset Techniques (DVD)