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.
Duet 4
For this month’s Teacher’s Forum, we present another snare drum duet from Modern Drummer founder Ron Spagnardi’s book Snare Drum Duets. This piece is in ¾ and integrates a lot of flam and flam rudiments. The ¾ will nudge a…
The Four Practice Pockets #1 Release Your INTUITION
“Good practice is fluid and adaptable, it mirrors nature.” The IREC practice model (Modern Drummer Dec. ’22) is when we use the four practice pockets of Intuition, Reps, Edges, and Celebration to get more out of the time we have…
Exercises for the Development of Control and Technique
This month we continue to feature the wonderful exercises from Joe Morello’s book Master Studies. While some teachers talk about speed and chops, Joe Morello focused on control and technique. Proper technique and controlling your hands, movements, and the sticks…
Pat Petrillo’s drum solo on “Runnin”
This month’s transcription is Pat Petrillo’s solo on the song “Runnin’” from his recording Pat Petrillo: The Big Rhythm Band, The Power Station Sessions. He explains, “We do a cool version of Earth Wind and Fire’s “Runnin’.” They were in…
Double Bass Drumming Accented Rolls and Accented Patterns with Triplets
As we continue to include sections from Joe Franco’s book Double Bass Drumming, this month Joe teaches us about playing accented rolls and accent patterns over a double bass drum roll that uses his Single Stroke System. This is a…
Six- Against-Four Polyrhythm Exercises in African-American Funk
This month we continue with our excerpts from Jonathan Joseph’s book Exercises in African-American Funk: Mangambe, Biktusi, and the Shuffle. We began with last month’s exploration of the three-against-four polyrhythm, the next step in our exploration of African polyrhythms is…
The Encyclopedia of Double Bass Drumming Two 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. Last month we began with some basics. This month’s…
Understanding the Language of Music A Drummer’s Guide to Theory and Harmony
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…
Pat Petrillo Groove Breakdowns
Pat Petrillo breaks down some important Roots Grooves that every drummer drummer know. EARL PALMER GROOVE: The great Earl Palmer is one of my favorite drummers. He influenced an entire generation of drummers from Ringo all the way up to…
How To Practice When You Have No Time: The 3 Minute Rule
“Don’t break the chain. Your only job is to not to break the chain!” These are not the words of a drummer, but of comedian Jerry Seinfeld. When asked how he works on his craft, he says that he writes…
Joe Franco Double Bass Drumming, Double Bass Fills
In this part of Joe Franco’s book Double Bass Drumming patterns are broken up systematically between both hands and both feet. These patterns can be used as one bar fills, or they can be repeated or combined with each other…
The Encyclopedia of Double Bass Drumming
This month we are starting to introduce a book by Bobby Rondinelli and Michael Lauren called The Encyclopedia of Double Bass Drumming. It takes a slightly different approach from our ongoing studies from the Joe Franco book on double bass…
Three-Against-Four Polyrhythm
Exercises in African-American Funk This month we will address is the three-against-four polyrhythm, which is crucial to many African rhythms. It’s necessary for you to be able to hear and feel this rhythm in order to alley some of the…
Master Studies
In Modern Drummer’s ongoing salute to Joe Morello’s legendary book Master Studies and his teachings, this month we present Joe Morello’s Table of Time, and his advice on Using the Metronome. Table of Time This will help your development of…
