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.
Popular Play-Alongs: Part 4: Dance-Rock
In the last three play-along articles (July and October 2012 and January 2013), we focused on developing the proper performance technique, groove vocabulary, and sound to play alongside Top 40, pop-punk, and synth-metal tunes. In this month’s installment, we’re taking…
Further Beyond the Barline
2/4 Hemiolas in ¾ and 6/8 Welcome to my second article discussing an approach to improvisation that will allow you to play longer and more interesting solo phrases in a variety of styles. As in the first part, which appeared…
Polyrhythmic Coordination Part 4: Six-Note Base Rhythm
Last time (November 2012), we continued our study of two-hand polyrhythmic coordination by playing a five-note base rhythm with one hand while adding one to eight evenly spaced notes over the top with the other hand. This month we’re using…
Timbales: The Roots of the Latin Drumset
The essence of playing the drumset in Latin American music consists of orchestrating the different percussion parts from the original styles. Before the drumset was incorporated into Afro-Cuban music, it was the “pailas,” aka Cuban timbales, that fulfilled that role,…
Dexterity in Odd Rhythms: Quintuplet Variations
In this article we’re going to cover how to feel quintuplets using an Indian counting system. There are many different variations, but the syllables I like to use are ta, ka, din, ah, and gah, which are easy to pronounce…
Physical Hazards Of The Throne
13 Exercises to Minimize the Wear and Tear of Drumming Drummers play thousands—maybe even millions—of strokes throughout the course of their careers. With that amount of repetitive activity, mechanical wear can occur, which can then cause pain or injury. Over…
Inner Drumming
Listening With All Four Limbs, Part 4 If this is the first time you’re reading about Inner Drumming, the diagrams in this article may seem unusual. But rest assured that if you spend a few minutes with them, you’ll begin…
Popular Play-Alongs
Part 3: Synth Medal In the last two play-along articles, we worked on the proper performance technique, groove vocabulary, and sounds of contemporary pop/R&B and punk-pop— two styles of music that you’ll likely be asked to play as a working…
Don't Disturb The Groove!
Part 3: Combination Patterns In this third installment we’ll combine the two techniques that we’ve been working on: broken doubles and hi-hat substitutions. Some of the grooves incorporate the entire drumset rather than only the bass drum, snare, and hi-hat.…
Snare Drum Studies
Lessons In Counting and Stretching Rhythm For drummers, the rudiments are often likened to scales for other instrumentalists, but we have scales too. These “rhythm scales” give us access to new percussive “notes” like the quintuplet. The results we get…
Make A Statement!
Concepts for Drumset Improvisation Improvisation is at the core of every great jazz performance, and as we mature as musicians we become more confident in expressing ourselves on our instrument. The rhythmic or melodic concepts that we play illustrate a…
Fours and Sevens in 7/8
Part 3:Triple Strokes This month we’re going to finish the Fours and Sevens in 7/8 exercise by playing it with triple strokes. As with double strokes, the key to playing high-quality triple strokes is finger control. The challenge is to…
Concepts - Art vs. Money
If you run your own business, at the end of the year you review profits and expenses.
Rock Perspectives - Playing Simple
The following material is a presentation of some simple ideas I've developed for use with my private students.
