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.
Concepts for Beginners
This month’s article will focus on some monumental ideas that will help you quicken your growth as a drummer when first starting out. Some of these concepts were taught to me by my drum instructors when I was younger, and…
Bob Moses Drum Wisdom: The 8/8 Concept
This month we will be begin exploring Bob Moses’ classic book called Drum Wisdom. In this book Bob explores the organic side of drumming with wonderful explanations of some of the most important ideas in playing music. We will begin…
“Essential Dialog” for Creative Percussion Controllers
This is where the journey begins… This is the first in a new series of articles exploring the creative use of percussion midi controllers. I was recently watching YouTube videos covering the history of electronic drumming. It’s amazing to see…
Chad Smith’s Red Hot Chili Peppers Audition
I grew up in Detroit and moved out to California in August of 1988. Through a friend of a friend, I got the audition with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. My friend knew a girl who was dating John Frusciante.…
Transcriptions:
“Salute to Kareem,” Mother’s Milk; “Suck my Kiss,” Blood Sugar Sex Magik; “Breaking the Girl,” Blood Sugar Sex Magik;“Readymade,” Stadium Arcadium; “Dark Necessities,” The Getaway; In this month’s cover story and interview Chad Smith talks about R&B and funk drumming,…
Past Masters of Rock... Absorb, Adapt & Adopt!
I have the incredible honor of interviewing some of the greatest musicians in the world on the YouTube channel, “The Sessions Panel.” The purpose is to capture the story of these great artists for future generations to learn and be…
Carl Palmer Applied Rhythms
This month’s Basics contains a series of fills that are based on flams, and is included in Carl Palmers book Applied Rhythms. The idea here is to flam various 8th notes in the bar, and to voice the 8th notes…
Sixteenth Note Triplets
Carmine Appice’s Ultimate Realistic Rock book is an educational standard in teaching “realistic” rock drumming. The title means you are learning drumming vocabulary (beats and fills) that you would realisticly use in a rock song or band. The recently updated…
A Salute to Van Halen’s 1984
Van Halen’s 1984 recording set the music world on it’s ear. The group’s songwriting had evolved to Top 10 single status. Guitar genius Eddie Van Halen’s rhythm guitar playing had become funkier, and his solos continued to redefinine the instrument.…
Dom’s World of Drumming
I believe to really understand anything, you must be fully involved to experience the journey. There are many music and drumming events worldwide. These conventions, festivals, carnivals, and shows open our minds while opening the doors of opportunity! When I…
The Empty Canvas
Accepting Creative Input For this article I’d like to talk about a luxury that we don’t always get to experience as a professional drummer, I call it “The Empty Canvas.” This simply refers to the amount of creative input that…
Breaking Down “Lightning in a Bottle”
When I start the Summer Set’s “Lightning in a Bottle,” I like using the rim. In the recording, it sounds like there’s a hi-hat, but when I play it live, I change it up. I like to add ghost notes…
Play “Sole Survivor” by Asia
“Sole Survivor”—from Asia, 1982—was one of the first pieces of music Asia recorded. The drum part is quite interesting because it has various sections where bars of 4/4 go into bars of 3/4 and 2/4. Normally, the music with Asia…
Kenny Aronoff
Excerpted from Modern Drummer Legends Vol. 5: Kenny Aronoff “Paper in Fire” John Cougar Mellencamp, The Lonesome Jubilee I always tried to come up with new innovative and creative drum parts for all of John’s songs. After the success of…
