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.
Jazz Drummer's Workshop - Unison Exercises
Unison practice is an excellent way to determine the rhythmic precision of the four appendages. The weaker the particular hand or foot, the less precision. Right-handed drummers will find that unison practice will help overcome the dependency of right hand…
Rock Perspectives: A Practical Application of Flams
The exercises that follow will utilize two snare drum rudiments. TO READ THE FULL STORY: SUBSCRIBE TO ACCESS LOG IN
Basics: Master Time
When I was a college student in Madison, Wisconsin, in the ’80s, I encountered the funk drumming legend Clyde Stubblefield. At that time, Stubblefield himself was not as well known as the classic grooves he played with James Brown, and…
Strictly Technique: Top 10 Rudiments
The drag is the tenth and final rudiment in our series. If you’ve been practicing these rudiments and exercises correctly, at a wide variety of tempos, then your hands are now trained with all of the necessary motions required to…
Rock Perspectives: Polyrhythms
In the third part of this series (November ’09), we applied a four-against-three polyrhythm to either the ride cymbal or the bass drum, while the snare drum played the backbeats on 2 and 4. Now let’s take things a step…
Off The Record: LIFEHOUSE’S Rick Woolstenhulme Jr.
Rick Woolstenhulme Jr. has been the drummer for Lifehouse since 2000. In the ’90s, after high school, he moved to California from his home state of Arizona and attended the Los Angeles Music Academy, where he spent most of his…
Concepts: When To Lead And When To Follow
There are three ways to keep time when you play with an ensemble. One is to lead, another to follow, and the third is something often referred to as “band time.??? Let’s take a look at each of these and…
Focus on Elimination - The Key to Success
Concepts Focus on Elimination The Key to Success by Russ Miller Here’s one of the topics I get asked about frequently by other players. It probably stems from my work in pressure situations. From sight-reading live on TV on American…
A John Bonham Foot Pattern
Rock Perspectives A John Bonham Foot Pattern Creative Ideas Based on the “Four Sticks” Ostinato by Powell Randolph Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham is considered by many to be rock’s greatest drummer of all time. He’s definitely one of my favorites,…
Traditional Percussion on Drumset
Around The World Traditional Percussion on Drumset Part 3: Timbales by Arturo Stable In a previous article (February 2013) I shared some of the history of the timbales and a few of the main rhythms of the instrument, and I…
Dynamics Mechanics - Loud, Soft, and Everything in Between
Strictly Technique Dynamics Mechanics Loud, Soft, and Everything in Between by Bill Bachman I believe that a drummer should be able to pick up sticks and make music on any sound source. The two biggest keys to doing this are…
The Drumset Drag - Orchestration Options for Powerful and Melodic Textures
Rock ‘N’ Jazz Clinic The Drumset Drag Orchestration Options for Powerful and Melodic Textures by Powell Randolph In this lesson we’re focusing on orchestrating the drag rudiment, which is traditionally played on the snare, by moving the two grace notes…
Elvin Jones–Style Triplet Fills
Jazz Drummer’s Workshop Elvin Jones–Style Triplet Fills Part 2: Orchestrating Accent Patterns by John Xepoleas Welcome to our second lesson covering triplet fills based on the playing of jazz great Elvin Jones, who made a huge impact on drumming as…
Strictly Technique: Triplet Gear-Shifter
This month we’re going to apply two alternate stickings to the triplet gear-shifter exercise. To review, 12th notes are 8th-note triplets (twelve notes to a bar of 4/4). In the exercise, a bar of 12th notes is followed by a…
