I’ve started writing Double Bass Drumming Training Manual. This is a companion to Bobby Rondinelli and Michael Lauren’s well-known book The Encyclopedia of Double Bass Drumming—. The manual will work equally well as a companion to either the Original or Revised edition of the book since the content of the first fourteen chapters of the two editions is identical.

I bought R&L’s book since it was cited as an indispensable resource for aspiring double bass drummers. Indeed, it is a really good book. Unfortunately, I doesn’t offer sufficient structure and step-by-step guidance for a beginner to know how to consume it. If you have a teacher, then that isn’t a problem: your teacher can advise you on how to read the book. I don’t currently have a real teacher, so I decided to write a companion describing in detail my approach to using the book. The manual describes its pedagogical approach as some length for those who are interested but the overarching principle of the manual is The best training regimen is the one you actually follow.

Bear in mind that it naturally takes a lifetime to “master” double bass drumming and that there’s enough material in the book to last said lifetime. Therefore it’s likely that it’ll take me years to complete the manual since I intend to write it as I progress through the book. To give you an example of the current pace of writing, I started working on the book and the manual around 30 July 2026. So far (early September), I’ve completed Chapter 1 of the manual (corresponding to Chapter 1 of the book). This chapter is ready for anyone else to work through. I’ve graduated to Chapter 2 and this is now mostly complete. It’s likely that it’ll take about another month to complete Chapter 2 of the book and, accordingly, Chapter 2 of the manual. Note that I’ll revise older chapters of the manual as the pedagogical approach evolves but I don’t expect Chapter 1 or Chapter 2 to change drastically in spirit or structure.

Even though the manual is not complete, and won’t be for a long time, I believe there’s value in sharing it with the world, particularly for anybody who’s just starting out like I am. If anybody “catches up” with me as I’m writing the manual, it probably means they’re not following it properly (and skipping ahead) or that my progress has slowed significantly or I’m bored of the whole thing!

The source code for the manual is available on GitHub and released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 4.0 International licence. I invite anyone who’s interest to work on the manual and open issues as they find them.

Note that you will need to own a copy of either the Original or Revised Edition of the book as the manual intentionally doesn’t include the book itself.

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