The Drummers Vade Mecum / The Drummers Enchiridion / Gary McDonald / Thedrummers.com.au

Gary McDonald

BACKGROUND AND BIOGRAPHY

Gary is a full‑time professional musician based in Albury–Wodonga, Australia, with a background shaped by both formal study and independent learning.
He began playing drums in 1996, taking private lessons while also doing his own research and practice. In the early years, Gary developed his skills by playing along with recordings, jamming with friends, rehearsing regularly, and performing in local cover bands.

After relocating to the Albury–Wodonga region in 2001, he undertook Certificate IV in Contemporary Music Performance at the Riverina Institute of TAFE (2002).

In 2003, Gary accepted two part‑time drum kit teaching positions—one at the Murray Conservatorium of Music and another at Albury Music School—marking the beginning of his long-standing commitment to music education.

Gary went on to complete all four grades of the Australian Music Examination Board’s (A.M.E.B.) Contemporary Drum Set syllabus, while also taking lessons and partaking in masterclasses with some of the world’s most respected drummers. Around this time (2005), his teaching and performing work began to grow. He started teaching across a range of primary schools, high schools, and private music programs, all while playing in a variety of musical settings — cover bands, original projects, community concert bands, and regional music theatre productions.

Gary has experience across a wide range of contemporary styles including rock, pop, blues, funk, metal, and country, and has also performed in big bands, marching bands, and numerous musical theatre shows.

Over the years, Gary has taught in more than 15 different schools and music education institutions. He also completed a Certificate IV in Training and Assessing, and currently works in several high schools across Albury–Wodonga and the wider North East Victoria region as part

of the Victorian Government’s instrumental music program.

Gary has published three drumming textbooks — The Drummers Vade Mecum (2007), The Drummers Enchiridion (2021), and The Drummers Overture (2022). All three have been well received within the music education community, with the first edition of The Drummers Vade Mecum even appearing in Modern Drummer magazine. A revised edition of The Drummers Vade Mecum was released in 2015.

Gary has also had the opportunity to represent Bosphorus Cymbals (Turkey) and Promusic Australia as an endorsee, and more recently joined the regional ensemble Sweet Buzz as their drummer.

Gary plays and teaches all styles of drum set performance, auxilary percussion (shakers, tambourine, cymbals etc) as well as basic orchestral percussion (glockenspiel, xylophone and timpani) throughout the Albury–Wodonga and North East Victoria region.

MORE ABOUT GARY / FAQs

The Drummers Vade Mecum

The Drummers Vade Mecum is a 243 page spiral bound text book dedicated to the subject of drum set playing.

The Drummers Vade Mecum covers the drumming styles of Pop, Rock, Heavy Metal, Country, Blues, Jazz, Brazilian and Afro-Cuban Music. It contains comprehensive exercises on note values, drum fills, accents, double bass drumming, using the hi-hat stand, as well as providing information on topics such as polyrhythms, metric modulation, odd time signatures, and snare drum rudiments. It also provides practice advice and a glossary of terms that all drummers should know and a list of resources for further study.

WHAT'S IN THIS BOOK?
The Drummers Vade Mecum includes materials on reading rhythms, note values and drum fills, with a primary focus on three- and four-way coordinated drum set grooves, with lots of hi-hat/ride cymbal, bass drum and snare drum-orientated rhythms.

CROSSOVERS WITH THE The Drummers Enchiridion
Although The Drummers Vade Mecum and The Drummers Enchiridion are separate independent texts there is some crossover between the two texts when it comes to snare drum rudiments, rhythm reading and note values.

While you'll find plenty of references to The Drummers Vade Mecum in The Drummers Enchiridion, the same isn't true of the reverse. Why? The Drummers Vade Mecum came several years before The Drummers Enchiridion.

PURCHASE ONLINE NOW

AVAILABLE IN STORE FROM

Can I buy the book directly from Gary?

Retail outlets: Please Contact Gary.

Individual customers: Since local music stores have been good to Gary, Gary would like to be good to them by encouraging purchases via those businesses. They also have better logistics in place for purchasing and shipping, so it's a win all around.

THE DRUMMERS VADE MECUM FIRST EDITION
The Drummer’s Vade Mecum was first released in 2007. It was barcoded, assigned an ISBN, and submitted to the National Library of Australia. Although the first edition was well received and I was proud of it, I knew I could do better.
That realisation led me to revisit the project with fresh eyes, more experience, better software, and—this time—some help.
References to the first edition may still be found online, and copies might surface in the deepest, darkest corners of the world. I have a couple stored away, but even I no longer refer to them.
The revised edition is exactly that: a cleaned‑up, expanded, and properly edited version of the original. It includes exercises I had always intended to add, along with additional information for those just beginning their drumming journey.
The first edition was officially discontinued in 2015 when the revised edition was released.

TDVM First Edition

The Drummers Enchiridion

The Drummers Enchiridion is a 321 page spiral bound text book dedicated to the subject of orchestral and rudimental snare drumming.

Whether you play snare drum in a concert band, orchestra, marching band, or play drum set in a rock band, The Drummers Enchiridion covers everything you'll need in order to master this essential skill. From reading and playing simple rhythms and note groupings to more challenging exercises and solos focusing on accents, flams, drags, ruffs, sticking patterns and odd and compound time signatures, The Drummers Enchiridion covers it.

The Drummers Enchiridion also contains background information on rolls and the various ways they can be notated and played, drumstick technique and grip, common methods of rhythm education, world music rhythms, and general practice advice. An appendix of well known songs in a variety of musical styles that utilise rudimental snare drumming is also included to assist with further research and practice.

WHAT'S IN THIS BOOK?
The ability for a drum set player to be able to read rhythm and use rudimental snare drumming elements such as flams, drags, rolls, ruffs, accents and sticking patterns is paramount to them improving their skill, technique, sound and approach to the drum set. Even if the player’s preference is to deliberately not use them, their knowledge of and ability to use such elements helps with their stick control, rhythmic knowledge and creative ideas. While The Drummers Vade Mecum covers many of these aspects, The Drummers Enchiridion goes into much more detail and provides many more exercises focused specifically on this subject. Using both books together can provide examples and ideas of how snare drum rhythms can be interpreted and/or used as inspiration for drum set grooves and vice versa.

CROSSOVERS WITH The Drummers Vade Mecum
Although The Drummers Enchiridion is a separate, independent text, it has been designed to work in conjunction with The Drummers Vade Mecum revised edition. You may wish to refer to The Drummers Vade Mecum at times for further information, or for more examples and exercises on the topics discussed.

PURCHASE ONLINE NOW

AVAILABLE IN STORE FROM

Can I buy the book directly from Gary?

Retail outlets: Please Contact Gary.

Frequently Asked Questions about the books

1. What does Vade Mecum mean?

Vade Mecum. (Ancient Latin)

Originally from a 16th century Latin phrase meaning to take or carry with you.

It is now just an alternative to handbook, manual, guide, reference book, instruction book, enchiridion.

A handbook or guide that is carried on the person for consultation.

And as a teacher this is exactly what the book was, I carried it with me everywhere for work and practice.

2. What does Enchiridion mean?

Enchiridion (Ancient Greek)

A text or book containing essential information on a subject.

Handbook, manual, guide, reference book, instruction book, vade mecum.

3. Why did you choose these particular names for your books?

The original working title of the first book was The Complete Drum Kit Player. I quickly grew tired of this name and went looking for something a little more interesting.

I eventually settled on The Drummers Vade Mecum as it made people ask "What's that mean?" I felt it separated this book a little from all the other books out there.

When it came to naming The Drummers Enchiridion I knew I wanted something similar. I eventually went with the same word in a different language. Again it made people ask "What's that?'

4. Why didn't you put an apostrophe in the title of the books?

Drummers' Versus Drummer's - The rules of apostrophes.

This is without doubt the most frustrating question, comment and criticism I get about my books.

Statements like "You forgot the apostrophe in Drummers " drive me nuts.

Yes ignore the years of work, painstaking research and practice, late nights, thousands of dollars spent. and the 200 to 300 pages of detailed music engraving and text editing. you're worried about a little apostrophe.

Needless to say, I did not spend 18 years of my life and thousands of dollars developing these products to not consider the need for an apostrophe, especially given it's the title of both books.

Put simply, we're talking about the use of an apostrophe to designate or point to ownership, or not.

Singular ownership: The Drummer's Vade Mecum = The Vade Mecum owned by that particular drummer.

Plural ownership: The Drummers' Vade Mecum = The Vade Mecum owned by a group of drummers.

General descriptive phrases do not need apostrophes. For example;

Please sign the visitors book before leaving.

The visitors in question do not own the book, hence it doesn't include an apostrophe.

Art, logos, banners and brand names do not need apostrophes. Some brands have them, but plenty don't. Consider Phillips, Barclays, Siemens, Chupa Chups.

When it comes to the title of my books the word drummers can be thought of in all of these ways.

It is Gary McDonald's book because he wrote it, so The Drummer's Vade Mecum could be correct.

It is a book for all drummers to own and use, so The Drummers' Vade Mecum could be correct.

The cover is a piece of art (trust me, it is), and The Drummers can be thought of as a brand, so The Drummers could be correct.

Leaving the apostrophe out neutralises the ownership issue while still clearly communicating who the book is by and for. Artistically, I also felt the apostrophe made the title look unbalanced. As did the diacritics (accent marks) on vade mecum, though no one has yet commented on their absence.

Email addresses and website URLs also tend not to contain apostrophes either.

Ultimately, it's my book, so if I want to leave off the apostrophe and diacritics, I will. And I have. Hopefully that answers the concerns over the use or non use of an apostrophe in the book titles.

5. Why are the books so big?

The primary reason these books were designed was because I grew tired of having to change from book to book when practicing and teaching.

Another reason was because I didn't like that each book I picked up had a small piece of information the others didn't. It frustrated me that I had to have so many books just to get a basic understanding of how drumming worked. Because of this I attempted to compile as much information as possible into one location.

The whole idea is that all the foundational elements are in one easy to find location.

6. The back cover of my copy of The Drummers Vade Mecum looks different to another version I saw, is it the same book or is it different in some way?

When The Drummers Enchiridion in was released in 2021 the back cover of The Drummers Vade Mecum Revised Edition was changed to make it match The Drummers Enchiridion. A few minor typos were fixed as well. Apart from this all copies of the The Drummers Vade Mecum Revised Edition are the same.

7. Why are the books spiral bound?

The original version of The Drummers Vade Mecum was comb bound. I quite liked this as it allowed the book to stay open on a music stand without having to use pegs or bulldog clips to hold it open, break the spine or fold the pages. It did however have one problem, the combs deteriorated over time and broke.

After some more research I found that spiral binding was more suitable to my needs.

While the spiral binding makes the book more expensive to produce, it is more durable and it's an element I will not negotiate on because I hate music books that won't stay open on a music stand!

8. How long did it take to write the books?

I started the project in December 2003 with the nieve idea it would only take a few months.

The first edition of The Drummers Vade Mecum was released in 2007.

The revised edition was started in late 2013 and released in mid 2015.

With The Drummers Enchiridion being released in mid 2021.

So all up around 18 years of study, research and practice.

(There were many 12-to-16-hour days sitting in front of a computer.)

9. What software programs were used to write them?

Much of the original creation process was done with pen on manuscript paper. Eventually these were transferred to computer using a mixture of programs.

Sibelius, Microsoft Word, Adobe Acrobat and Photoshop were used to create the finished products.

10. What are the photos on the covers of?

The covers are up close photos of drums I personally own.

The Drummers Vade Mecum cover is a photo of my 22" inch Pearl master series bass drum.

The Drummers Enchiridion cover is a photo of my Tico Torres signature series snare drum by Pearl.

11. Are there other books, or will there be more books in the future?

In mid 2022 I released The Drummers Overture; A beginners guide to drumming and percussion.

This is a small 28-page book designed for beginners who maybe working towards getting into a school or community concert band. The Drummers Overture covers the elementary skills needed for playing concert snare drum, bass drum, auxiliary percussion, drum set as well as some keyboard percussion.

I also have a semi-developed a draft for junior students (aged 10 years and under) This is on hold as I realized it would need several more years of development before it could be released.

12. Where do you get the books printed?

The current printer for The Drummers Vade Mecum, The Drummers Enchiridion and The Drummers Overture is a local printer in Albury called Quantum Printing. They have an onsite graphic design team, printing and binding capabilities and can do everything from small business cards and flyers to large quantities of textbooks like mine.

I do recommend them, their website and details can be found here: www.quantumprinting.com.au

F.A.Qs