You have found your way to the strangest website in all of percussion: the House of Dr. Ummer, the world's foremost historian of the drum.

Dr. Ummer, PhD, holds the only doctorate of its kind — the one earned by his three warring personalities: the Professor, the Historian, and the Drummer. He has never shown his face. He has never given his real name. He has never once stepped out from behind the velvet curtain, and he does not intend to start now.

This house exists for three reasons and three reasons only: your entertainment, your education, and your plain, unashamed delight. So wander freely — watch the videos, study the imagery, and lose a happy afternoon in the stories that dwell within.

And for the drummer who has everything — save, perhaps, the whole story of where it all came from — there is the book. Dr. Ummer Presents: A Comprehensive History of the Drum Kit is the most exhaustive account ever written of that magnificent hollow cylinder we call a drum: a 400-plus-page history and encyclopedia tracing nearly every drum maker who ever lived, from the great houses to the smallest one-person workshop.

You will find it on Amazon, at Barnes & Noble, and wherever fine books are sold — in a handsome print edition, a Kindle edition for your e-reader, and (Coming Soon) an audiobook on Audible. Or, if you would rather keep it in the family, you may buy it right here.