An Editor's Overview
Modern Drummer is the world’s most widely read drum magazine, is dedicated entirely to the art of drumming and caters to the needs of amateur, semi-pro, and professional drummers.
Behind the Curtain
After Sarah Jones’ interview this month, we started talking about the Beatles movie Get Back. Sarah asked me, “Did you see the Beatles movie Get Back? I thought Ringo was amazing in that movie. He was so calm when things…
Going Above and Beyond
In Robert Girouard’s excellent interview this month with Ed Sheeran’s drummer Mark Pusey, they talk about “having more skills than you need for the job.” I was extremely happy to see Mark mention this, as it is something that I…
Allan, Chick, Edward, Jeff, and Wayne
One of my favorite sayings is “great drumming lives within music” or simply “music contains drumming (and hopefully Drumming Contains Music.)” In the last few years many of my favorite musicians have died. Throughout their careers these musicians have invited…
Ready and Prepared
In reading this month’s Modern Drummer I saw a bit of a theme. When the time came, all of this month’s great drummers were ready and prepared for anything that the music world could offer. I often hear the question…
Persistence
As I read this month’s Modern Drummer, I see a common theme, persistence. Unfortunately, as I look around the musical world (and the world in general,) I see less and less of it. There seems to be a lot of…
Under The Radar
We have all seen the lists on the internet: Underappreciated Drummers, Underrated Drummers, Unsung Drumming Heroes, Drumming Talents Deserving Wider Recognition… Why do so many drummers go under the radar? What does a drummer have to do to get some…
Carl and I
This month’s Modern Drummer documents another milestone in our drumming community’s storied history: Carl Palmer and the reunion tour of Emerson, Lake & Palmer. It’s hard to believe that EL&P has not performed for many years, but they’re back, and…
The Old and The New
As this month’s issue was coming together, I thought of the interesting mix of features that we have. There is no newer and more cutting-edge drummer and producer around today than Butch Vig. His use of electronics with his drumming…
Drumming Surprises!
I must admit I often get surprised by interviewing certain drummers. This month I had the pleasure to interview double bass drum groundbreaker Joe Franco, Megadeth’s Dirk Verbeuren, and Drumology’s Rob Silverman I have taught from Joe Franco’s amazing book…
Past, Present, and Future
Music, drumming, and art (in general) is about past, present, and future. It’s a fine line to walk. If you are too much in the past, you are an out of touch dinosaur. If you are too much in the…
Modern Drummer Next Level
Fresh on the heels of our well received Salute to Women in Drumming issue, Modern Drummer is stronger than ever! Whether you are an eager to learn developing drum student, an intermediate drummer playing in a band, a working pro,…
A Salute to Women in Drumming
While we were planning this month’s Salute to Women in Drumming issue, I happened to be talking with Peter Erskine. We talked about the fact that singling out women drummers could be counter-intuitive, and segregating people by anything other than…
Tribute To Taylor
Although much of what I’ll share here in this month’s overview is echoed over and over throughout this issue, I’ll speak on behalf of my team and me, the inside Modern Drummer family, many of whom were close to Taylor.…
Introducing...
My name is Mark Griffith, I am a professional musician who happens to play drums. I tour, play locally, record, do clinics, masterclasses, teach, and I write. I started writing for Modern Drummer under Ron Spagnardi’s leadership 25 years ago,…
