June 2026 – Volume 50 • Number 6
On 01st Jun 2026
Articles in June 2026
It ALL Comes Back Around
The fact that the first names that Lamb of God drummer Art Cruz mentioned, when I asked him about his drumming influences, were Michael Shrieve, David Garibaldi, Dave Lombardo, Chris Adler, and Poncho Sanchez, made me smile. These are not…
A Late Bloomer Gets Her Tama Dream Kit
This month’s Kit of the Month comes to us from Tracy Urvater. Tracy found her drumming passion at the age of 51 and that passion still drives her nine years later. She is taking lessons, practices a minimum of 20…
Music Minus One
The running cliche amongst my peers these days is, “Don’t fall down.” We’re all desperate to remain injury-free. Stories shared are more often about non-slip hotel bathroom shower stalls than musical conquests (romantic conquests went the way of the sideman…
Yamaha EAD50 Part 2: It Feels Like Home
In Part 1 of this series, David Frangioni and I brought the Yamaha EAD50 into Markee Music in Deerfield Beach, Florida, to evaluate its most basic configuration in a professional studio environment. With the DSU50 drum sensor mounted to the bass drum, the system…
YAMAHA EAD50, NEW PORTER & DAVIES USERS, NEW AKAI SOFTWARE UPDATE
New Yamaha EAD50 Yamaha is proud to introduce two exciting additions now available to drummers: the EAD50 Electronic Acoustic Drum Module, a high‑spec next‑generation model that expands on the EAD10 concept, and the DSU50 stereo condenser microphone, included with the…
Speed-A-Beat: Universal Bass Drum Pedal Roller-Ball Module
Can you double your foot speed? That’s what John Crocken’s Speed-A-Beat sets out to answer. The patented module is built around a single mechanical idea: replace the friction between foot and footboard with a bed of free-spinning steel bearings and see what happens. John Crocken, known…
YAMAHA YOUNG PERFORMING ARTISTS COMPETITION, MID ATLANTIC DRUM CAMP SCHOLARSHIP CONTEST WINNERS
Yamaha Honors Two University of North Texas Students in its 37th Annual Yamaha Young Performing Artists Competition Elijah Marrewa and Alex Parker, students at the University of North Texas in Denton, TX, are among the thirteen winners of the 2026…
Lamb of God’s Art Cruz: Learning and Listening, Musical Moments, and Healthy Obsessions
After hitting the East LA music scene with his band Winds of Plague and spending four years and doing four records with Prong; Art Cruz got the call of a lifetime in 2018. Lamb of God was one of his…
Greg Clark Jr. Taking Things Seriously and Keeping Things Interesting with Will Smith and Stanley Clarke
When you talk to Greg Clark Jr. there are two words that you will hear him say many times: “interesting” and “100 percent!” They are also the two words that might best describe him and his drumming. After listening to…
Jimmy Madison: Drumming. Climbing. Living.
There is always a lot to be learned from a drummer who has been successful in the music business for 60 years. Jimmy Madison has seen it all. In 1966, he toured with Lionel Hampton. He came to New York…
Jeff Elwood: Engineering A New Way to Play
For Jeff Elwood, giving up the drums was never an option. After a life-changing accident left him paralyzed from the chest down, he spent years experimenting with homemade triggers, modified pedals, and custom setups in order to find a way…
Tower of Power’s “The Skunk, The Goose and The Fly,” from East Bay Grease. Drummer, David Garibaldi
This month, we travel back to 1970—the explosive dawn of funk music. At the time, James Brown ruled the genre, building its very foundation alongside legendary drummers Clyde Stubblefield and Jabo Starks. Concurrently, Sly and the Family Stone were riding…
Applications on the Drumset: Part 2
Some of you might have seen my snare drum book entitled 20 Modern Snare Drum Solos that was released in 2024. When I wrote that book, I really had the drumset in mind meaning that most of the vocabulary found…
Tapping Into Your Drumming Intuition
There’s a kid’s game called random lines, where you take a piece of paper and draw a line anywhere on the page. Then, you pass it to the next person, and they draw another line connected to the first, and…
Progressive Drumming Essentials: Another New Realm of Groove
Progressive Drumming Essentials is a collection of articles originally written for Modern Drummer magazine. They are exactly what the title says, PROGRESSIVE drumming essentials. This series of articles, and the book that contains them all, represent a great deal of…
Master Studies II: Sticking Variations in Groups of Five
As a follow-up to Joe Morello’s legendary Master Studies book, he released Master Studies II in 2006. Joe was a masterful teacher and helped many great drummers with their musicality, technique, and touch. Joe was also masterful at creating exercises,…
The New Breed: (Even More) Advanced Reading
Gary Chester’s groundbreaking book The New Breed is legendary. The book, and Gary’s teaching methods are deeply intertwined, it is a lifelong commitment of dedication, study, and development. Gary Chester’s Systems, Reading Exercises, Advanced Systems, Advanced Reading Exercises, Composite Systems,…
Elvin Jones’ First Set of 1982 American K Zildjians with Embossed Bag
Shortly after Elvin Jones passed in 2004, his wife Keiko invited me to help her with the massive collection of drum gear Elvin had amassed throughout his career. The collection filled an entire apartment in their New York City apartment…
Out Now June 2026
Modern Drummer is spotlighting new recordings that have the drums at the center of their sound. These recordings might be drummer-led, or just include a high-quality, special, or unique drumming and musical performance from the drummer and/or musicians in the…
Aerosmith (Legendary Edition)
The Debut That Changed Everything, Finally Heard the Way It Was Meant to SoundBy David FrangioniCEO, Modern Drummer Artist: Aerosmith Album: Aerosmith (Legendary Edition) (Capitol Records/UMe, 2026)Format: 5LP Deluxe Box Set / 4LP Deluxe / 3CD Expanded / 1CD /…
Isaac Carpenter’s Guns N’ Roses Touring Kit (B-Rig)
Drums: DW Collector’s Series Pure Maple with Black Ice Finish: 18 x 24 Bass Drum, 9 x 12 Rack Tom, 10 x 13 Rack Tom, 16 x 16 Floor Tom, 16 x 18 Floor Tom, 6 x 14 Snare Drum. Cymbals: Zildjian: 14” K Light Hi-Hats, 20” A Ping Ride,17” K…
