With the Modern Drum Method Grade 2, Steve Fidyk picks up where Grade 1 leaves off continuing his sequential teaching method and guiding the intermediate student through the most fundamental drumming concepts.
The exercises in Grade 2 focus significantly on reading dotted note and rest values, rock, funk and swing beat variations, techniques for tuning the drum set, and a section featuring 2, 3 and 4 beat drum fill examples. The accompanying mp3 CD features every exercise covered in the text.
A supplementary DVD entitled Modern Drum Method Grades 1-3 is also available and features many of the concepts and exercises introduced in all three method books.
If you are a new drum student who has just purchased your first kit, or an experienced player looking for ways to improve your fundamentals and sound production, this book series can help clarify many of the mechanical and conceptual drumming skills for you. Throughout, Steve explains each drumming topic as if he were teaching a private lesson.
• Reading exercises featuring dotted whole, half, quarter and eighth notes and rests
• Exercises to help develop sight reading ability
• Eighth and sixteenth note rock beats
• Information on the history and development of the drum set
• Ideas on tuning and choosing drumheads, cymbals and sticks
• 2, 3 and 4 beat drum fill examples
REVIEW 
Modern Drum Method - Grade 2, part two of the three book series by Steve Fidyk, is an 86-page, spiral bound book with a companion MP3 CD.
After the Introduction, Acknowledgements and a Drum Set Notation Key, the book starts out with Reading Dotted Notes and Rests, and a Dotted Rhythm Primer. A Final Reading Review covers quarter, eighth, and sixteenth note combinations, triplet rhythms, dotted notes/rests. a page of 3/4 exercises, a page 6/8 exercises, and four short Snare drum solo exercises.
Next, Eighth and Sixteenth Note Rock Beats, Swing Beat Variations, and Drum Fills using eighth-notes, eighth-note triplets and sixteenth-notes.
Throughout the book are timely words of advice and concepts, such as the importance of using a metronome, History of the Drum Set (with photos), Tuning the Drum Set, choosing drumheads, cymbals and drumsticks, and Drum Set Sounds and Textures.
The book seems to be straight forward. I didn't find anything unique about the book to set it apart from other books like it, however, the fact that it's spiral bound and comes with an MP3 CD of all the notated exercises is a definite plus. Since this is the second book in a three part series and picks up where Volume 1 left off, students and teachers will probably want all three books in order to fully appreciate what the series has to offer.
