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.
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…
The Encyclopedia of Double Bass Drumming Four Consecutive 16th Notes
Bobby Rondinelli and Michael Lauren wrote The Encyclopedia of Double Bass Drumming. It takes a slightly different approach from our ongoing studies from the Joe Franco book on double bass drumming. This month’s excerpt develops your ability to create warm-ups,…
Half-Time Shuffle-Funk Exercises in African-American Funk
This month, we move the backbeat of the shuffle groove over to beat three. What this does is transform the shuffle into a half-time, triplet-based funk groove, which we’ll call “shuffle funk.” The Purdie shuffle made famous by the legendary…
Understanding the Language of Music A Drummer’s Guide to Theory and Harmony Pt II
Modern Drummer founder Ron Spagnardi wrote an excellent book called Understanding the Language of Music, a Drummer’s Guide to Theory and Harmony. This book spells out the basics of theory and harmony in a very organized and easy to understand…
The Stone Killer Part 3
Last month we included the second part of Joe Morello’s “Stone Killer” that was inspired by George Lawrence Stone’s “Stone Killer” exercise. These exercises originally appeared in Joe Morello’s book Master Studies. Originally George only wrote out the first four…
The 4 Practice Pockets: #2: Stack the Reps, The 10,000 Reps Mindset
“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.”–Bruce Lee Back in the early days of recording, bands had to be grittier to get a magical…
The (American) Shuffle Exercises in African-American Funk
This month we’re taking a look at some basic American shuffle grooves. We’ll begin with a groove to be played with the hands. Then we’ll offer a list of bass drum options. When you practice these grooves, a strong sense…
The Encyclopedia of Double Bass Drumming Three Consecutive 16th Notes
In Modern Drummer’s continuing series stemming from Bobby Rondinelli and Michael Lauren’s book The Encyclopedia of Double Bass Drumming, this month we will continue with how Bobby integrates the idea of playing three consecutive notes with the bass drums. Included…
The Stone Killer Part 2
In the September 2022 issue of Modern Drummer, we reprinted Joe Morello’s version of George Lawrence Stone’s amazing exercise The Stone Killer Part 1. There are actually three parts to this legendary speed and endurance workout. This month we will…
The Only Way Out Is In
World Premiere of the Full Length Track “The Only Way Out Is In” In this month’s Issue, we will discuss a video I featured in the January 2023 issue of Modern Drummer. The music from this video has evolved into…
