If you love rock beats then this is the book for you! 100 Legendary Modern Rock Drum Beats breaks down the most essential rock grooves, both classic and modern. Regardless of whether you're a fan of classic rock, blues, hard rock, modern rock or prog, you will get a major insight to how all of these styles are played. Beats made famous by the likes of Led Zeppelin, The Police, Rush, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against the Machine, Dave Matthews Band, System of a Down, and more, are presented in standard drum notation and on the accompanying audio. Five bonus beats are included at the end featuring double bass drum patterns. After mastering this book you will be ready to create your own legendary rock beats!
REVIEW 
Mel Bay's 100 Legendary Modern Rock Drum Beats is a 23-page book with supplemental CD by Jason Prushko.
The beats in this book are organized as Basic Rock Drum Beats, Subtle Hi-Hat Patterns, Ride Cymbal Grooves, Most Legendary and Common Hi-Hat and Ride Cymbal Shuffle Beats, Tom Beats, Time Signatures, and Double Bass Drum Beats.
Although the book mentions that many of these beats where "made famous by" or that "you'll hear these types of beats in the music of" Led Zeppelin, The Police, Rush, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against the Machine, Dave Matthews Band, System of a Down, Aerosmith, Nirvana, Green Day, Jimi Hendrix, Blink 182, and so on, there are no direct connections, references or sources cited that direct us as to which beat was used by who, when or where.
The music engraving (notation) in the book is below the industry standard, an example being the strange use of different note-heads for the closed versus open Hi-Hat as well as appearing on different lines on the music staff. There is no key or legend for the notation, although, for example, the words "hi-hat open" or "crash cymbal" appears next to the note-head to direct the user accordingly.
The CD provides audio examples of each drum beat, performed well enough to give the user a good idea of what the beat sounds like based on the notation. Strangely, tracks 97 through 99 each have three different beats strung end-to-end on each track. A portion of this includes the five bonus Double Bass Drum Beats. So 100 Legendary Modern Rock Drum Beats actually contains 105 different beats on 99 audio tracks. I'm not certain as to why each beat didn't receive its own audio track; 105 beats in the book, 105 audio tracks on the CD. As is, one might find it rather confusing.
As the book assumes that the user already reads music notation very well and doesn't actually delve into breaking down the beats (although it says that it does) from an educational standpoint, I would not recommend this book to the beginner or self-taught drum student. Be prepared to do your own research and homework with figuring out who actually used these "modern drum beats." Teachers may or may not find 100 Legendary Modern Rock Drum Beats useful as a supplement to their curriculum. The book/CD package retails for $17.99.
