Education
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.
Understanding the Language of Music Key Signatures and Scales
Modern Drummer founder Ron Spagnardi wrote a very educational book called Understanding the Language of Music, a Drummer’s Guide to Theory and Harmony. This book presents the basics of theory and harmony in a very organized and easy to understand…
Master Studies Eighth Notes with Flams
Last month we learned about an often-ignored sound of drumming called Flat Flams. This month we will continue with a study of playing (the more common) Flams. Both sounds are useful on both the snare drum and drumset and are…
The Encyclopedia of Double Bass Drumming Feet Only
In the new and revised edition of the Encyclopedia of Double Bass Drumming, Bobby includes nine new double bass drumming chapters. The new and expanded edition covers contemporary techniques such as bass drum double strokes, feet-only exercises, binary and ternary…
Exercises in African-American Funk “Mangambe” Part Two
In Modern Drummer’s ongoing introduction to Jonathan Joseph’s book Exercises in African American Funk: Mangambe, Bikutsi, and the Shuffle; This month we will continue with Jonathan’s explanation of a unique African groove, Mangambe. We will continue to explore some interesting…
Stop Skipping Steps!
Many people never realize their life through rhythm by unknowingly skipping steps. I get it, this is how I started too! I was eager to get right to bashing out the joyful roar I was hearing from my drumming heroes.…
The Bass Drum Owners Manual: The Leg Stroke
This month Modern Drummer will continue to include excerpts from Michael Packer’s essential book on bass drum control and technique The Bass Drum Owners Manual: Applying the Moeller Technique to the Bass Drum. As you will see, this is a…
The 4 Practice Pockets: #4. Celebrate the Wins
“Each day, and the living of it, has to be a conscious creation in which discipline and order are relieved with some play and pure foolishness.”-May Sarton CELEBRATE, THE FUN PRACTICE To celebrate is to refill your well of enthusiasm,…
The Bass Drum Owners Manual: Applying the Moeller Technique to the Bass Drum
This month Modern Drummer will begin to include excerpts from Michael Packer’s essential book on bass drum control and technique The Bass Drum Owners Manual: Applying the Moeller Technique to the Bass Drum. As you will see, this is a…
Flam Studies
In all of our learning, we (hopefully) concentrate of the creative use (and sound) of flams. However, in our desire to play the “perfect” open and fat flam sound, we often ignore the (also unique) sound of “flat flams.” These…
Snare Drum Duets: Duet 1
As an ongoing tribute to Ron Spagnardi who founded Modern Drummer Publications in 1977 and was an excellent drum teacher and author in his own right, Modern Drummer has been including some of the articles, exercises, and pieces that Ron…
Exercises in African-American Funk “Mangambe”
In our ongoing introduction to Jonathan Joseph’s book Exercises in African American Funk: Mangambe, Bikutsi, and the Shuffle published by Modern Drummer we will include Jonathan’s explanation of a unique African groove, Mangambe. Today we introduce our first African element:…
The Encyclopedia of Double Bass Drumming: Double Strokes
In the new and revised edition of the Encyclopedia Of Double Bass Drumming, Bobby includes nine new double bass drumming chapters. The new and expanded edition covers contemporary techniques such as bass drum double strokes, feet-only exercises, binary and ternary…
Double Bass Drumming Broken Bass Drum Patterns
To conclude Modern Drummer’s excerpts from Joe Franco’s groundbreaking book Double Bass Drumming, this month we will include Joe’s concepts of playing fills and solo ideas with broken bass drum patterns. These are very cool sounds, and can be used…
The 4 Practice Pockets: #3. Push the EDGES: The Blue Ocean (Great Unknown) of Practice.
Venture into the blue ocean (great unknown,) by doing something you don’t know how to do… YET! I’ve never met a drummer that didn’t want to learn in the “Matrix style.” In the hero’s journey movie The Matrix, Neo plugs…
