I’m excited to announce that my next book Rudimental Grand Tour will be coming out in November of 2022 with publisher Mel Bay!
This is my largest project to date, exceeding even the monstrous Encyclopedia Rudimentia in scope and size. Rudimental Grand Tour is a book like no other, documenting the rudiments of 22 Old World and New World rudimental cultures over a span of 600+ years. Many people know about the standard 40 American rudiments and, perhaps, have heard of some selections from the Basel, French, or pipe band traditions, but the grand tour within also features rudimental systems most modern drummers never knew existed. Along with all the major world traditions, learn about such obscure corners of the art form as Norwgian Trommeslåtter, Mexican Banda de Guerra, and the drumming of the Carnivale de Ivrea. Some of these 22 traditions have never been discussed in any book or academic paper in the English language and others have been generally misrepresented outside of their home regions. This will be one of the definitive explorations of rudimental drumming as a whole.
Each of the 22 systems on the tour will have a dedicated section offering region-specific rudiments with rhythmic interpretation, a bit of history and some discussion of the historic manuals and notation styles, one or more example pieces from the standard military or solo repertoire, and a list of primary and secondary sources from which the information was derived. The tour includes Ancient American Drumming, Scotch Pipe Band Drumming, British Drumming, French Drumming, Basel Fastnacht Drumming, Swiss Drumming, Spanish Drumming, Mexican Banda de Guerra Drumming, Argentine Drumming, Belgian Drumming of the Sambre-et-Meuse, Danish Drumming, German/Prussian Drumming, Austro-Hungarian Drumming, Bavarian Drumming, Norwegian Trommeslåtter Drumming, Swedish Drumming, Dutch Drumming, Russian Drumming, Italian Drumming, Sicilian Drumming, Colombian Drumming, and Eporedian Drumming from the Carnivale de Ivrea. This isn’t every rudimental tradition to ever exist, but it’s close.
This book differs from my Encyclopedia in several notable ways, despite some surface similarity in the goals of the two books:
-The Encyclopedia has a huge collection (540+) of modern Hybrid drum corps style rudiments and some foreign or older traditional American rudiments.
The Tour focuses heavily on foreign and older traditional rudiments and has almost no Hybrid content.
-The Encyclopedia is organized like a giant rudiment sheet, grouping similar rudiments together in categories based on the PAS 40.
The Tour is organized by region and groups together rudiments from the same tradition.
-The Encylcopedia is made up only of rudiments (850+).
The Tour has rudiments and musical examples drawn from military signaling or classic solo rep. There is something to actually play from each region.
-The Encyclopedia focuses on rudiments from just 7 rudimental traditions.
The Tour features 22 diverse traditions, including Europe and the Americas.
-The Encyclopedia uses only modern American style notation for clarity.
The Tour has examples of alternative regional or historic rudimental notation styles, though American notation is used to clarify in cases where the notation style inhibits easy reading.
Each book has a unique set of features that make them completely different and useful in their own ways. There is some overlap, they are both rudimental books, after all, but there is enough unique content to each book to warrant picking up both for the most complete picture of modern, historic, and foreign rudiments.
I will have more details closer to the release date, please stay tuned!
Ryan Alexander Bloom 