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 - Are You Playing the Drums?
This month’s quote represents a classic sentiment that seasoned drummers often feel necessary to share with younger players. By this stage in my career, I’ve witnessed many occasions when it would have been useful to repeat—at a clinic, for instance,…
Basics - Radio Beats by Rich Redmond
In this month’s article we’ll take a look at some popular grooves on country radio right now. All of them are variations of what I call “money beats,” fundamental drumset rhythms that have been used on countless popular songs. TO…
Concepts - Where's the Art?
I thought I would throw myself right into the fire for the New Year with a heated topic. I’ve experienced a lot of discussion regarding the artistry in music and drumming in recent years. I think every generation goes through…
Strictly Technique - Consecutive Flams
In part two of this series, we’re going to take out the taps between the flams so that the flams are adjacent. When you do that, the challenge becomes playing the consecutive flams with consistent grace-note placement and sound quality.…
Bebop Pioneer Stan Levey
The great bebop trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie affectionately referred to Stan Levey as the “original original.” The two met in Philadelphia in the early 1940s, a time when many jazz musicians called this city home, including Gillespie, John Coltrane, Philly Joe…
Solid Soloing, Part 2: Changing Note Rates
In this miniseries we’re utilizing my “glue” method to gain freedom and flow while soloing. In the first installment we discussed how to connect two ideas without hesitation, using a specific sticking as a transition. In this article we’re going…
Samba Songo
The Afro-Cuban songo rhythm was created in the 1970s by the Cuban band Los Van Van and its drummer/percussionist José Luis Quintana, aka Changuito. After many years of studying and playing Afro-Cuban and Brazilian rhythms myself, and participating in a…
The Commandments of the Half-Time Shuffle by Zoro
Welcome to the final installment of my three-part series on the half-time shuffle. I thought it would be fitting to end with some transcriptions of a handful of popular recordings. Immerse yourself in the music so that the grooves envelop…
Complete Percussionist - Multiple Percussion
Multiple percussion playing has become a very important area of percussion performance. The ability to perform on a multiple percussion set-up is necessary for playing practically anything from solo recitals to a Broadway show. TO READ THE FULL STORY: SUBSCRIBE…
On The Job
Disco style drumming has its own unique sound. To authentically capture that sound and feeling calls for a little preliminary preparation. The pulse is basically a moving eighth note rock feeling complete with a 2 and 4 afterbeat. TO READ…
Drum Soloist - Roy Haynes
Roy Haynes is one of the leading exponents of modern jazz drumming. His influence in the development of the progressive styles of the late forties and fifties was equal to that of Kenny Clarke, Max Roach and Art Blakey. TO…
Creating Opportunity - Five Key Components for the Working Drummer
This month’s column is about creating opportunity for yourself. Our quotation by the American author H. Jackson Brown Jr. describes the idea beautifully. Many drummers ask me about opportunity. Sometimes the question is “How do you get gigs?” Or it’s…
Jazz Drummer's Workshop - Practice Musically
Many serious drummers have at some point in their study, spent a great deal of time on technical exercises of a mechanical nature (rudiments, stick control exercises, reading texts, etc.), all done with only the best intentions and sincere dedication.…
Strictly Technique - Warm-Ups
Almost every drummer has his own special collection of favorite warm-up exercises and hand conditioners. I've found the following assortment of simple yet very effective exercises using sixteenth notes, single sticking and accents to be most helpful. TO READ THE…
