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.
Necessary Ruffness - Make Your Grooves Percolate With Subtle Doubles
Basics Necessary Ruffness Make Your Grooves Percolate With Subtle Doubles by Rich Redmond The ruff is an essential rudiment that’s directly related to the double-stroke roll, or buzz roll. The ruff can be played open, as we have it here,…
Build a More Balanced Double-Stroke Roll
Strictly Technique Build a More Balanced Double-Stroke Roll Inverting the Diddles to Increase Strength and Precision by Jeff W. Johnson This month we’ll examine a technique used to balance out the double-stroke roll. A double-stroke roll should have a machine-gun-type…
The Flexible Five - Exploring the Five-Stroke Roll on the Drumset
Rock ‘N’ Jazz Clinic The Flexible Five Exploring the Five-Stroke Roll on the Drumset by Mike Johnston One of the most common questions I get from students is about applying rudiments on the kit. They want to know how to…
Swing Style 101, Part 2: The Other Half
Jazz Drummer’s Workshop Swing Style 101 Part 2: The Other Half by Justin Varnes One of the main reasons why it can be so hard to make jazz sound and feel right is that here the basic timekeeping elements of…
Starting (or Advancing) at Any Age
I have the privilege of meeting players from all over the world. I also meet many people who are interested in taking up the drums but are torn about it. Many of the excuses for not starting to play are…
BASICS - Five-Stroke Glue
The world’s greatest drummers have often laid the foundation of their grooves and fills with the five-stroke roll. It can act as a connective tissue that binds musical ideas together. Think about Steve Gadd’s hypnotic marching rhythms, Carter Beauford’s slick…
Swing Style 101 - Part 3: The Most Common Song Forms
To finish out the series, we’re going to prepare you for when it comes time to play some jazz tunes on the bandstand, by discussing the most standard forms used in this style. Understanding these forms is the key to…
IN THE POCKET - The Collapsing Concept in 6/8
The legendary drummer and long-time member of Tower of Power, David Garibaldi, emailed me last year with variations on a lesson I wrote for Modern Drummer’s March 2015 issue. TO READ THE FULL STORY: SUBSCRIBE TO ACCESS LOG IN
CONCEPTS - Drum Clinics
I had a conversation with an employee of one of the drum companies the other day. In this conversation, he said, “Drum clinics are a waste of time and money, and they don’t work anymore.” This struck me as very…
TEACHER’S FORUM - Those Who Can, Teach
Drummers today face increasingly difficult circumstances trying to earn a full-time living playing music. To make ends meet, many turn to instruction. I’ve outlined here some of the things I’ve learned over decades of teaching to help you if and…
BASICS - Six-Stroke Success
The six-stroke roll is easily one of my favorite rudiments. I was hooked on it after hearing the first few bars of the Temptations’ “My Girl.” This popular lick has crept its way into all types of music—from big band…
STRICTLY TECHNIQUE - Nine Over Two
The simplest way to think about a nine-over-two polyrhythm is by dividing each partial of a quarter-note triplet into another triplet. In this lesson, we’re adding accent patterns to this polyrhythm. TO READ THE FULL STORY: SUBSCRIBE TO ACCESS LOG…
ROCK ’N’ JAZZ CLINIC - Groove Construction
In the second part of this series, we’ll continue to create new grooves by displacing the snare drum. We’ll start with a basic pattern that consists of 8th notes on the hi-hat, snare hits on beats 2 and 4, and…
CONCEPTS - Organize Your Gear
I’ve had many requests to discuss selecting, organizing, and maintaining equipment, so this is the first part in a short series on those subjects. I’m starting with the organization of gear and how to take it to jobs so that…