Lessons
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.
Keeping Time and Creating Fills Around the Kit
Time is what we are about as drummers. If it weren’t for time, there would be no drummers. We are communicators. We use time to create grooves and melodies. Everybody has different time. I could preach about time for a…
Creating Hooks
How should drums fit into a song, and how can you make the drums become another hook within a song? When you think about the word “hook,” it’s something you get hooked on that you want to have over and…
Six Standout Grooves from Dookie
Tré Cool’s Explosive Drumming One day back in 1994, I went to the music store to pick up this album hilariously titled Dookie. I went home as fast as I could, put it in my CD player, and my life…
What Was That?
Five Genius Charlie Watts Fills You hardly ever see “Charlie Watts” and “Drum Fills” in the same sentence. Discussions around him usually involve his groove, his feel, and the way he never plays his hi-hat with his backbeat. Rightfully so—as…
Charlie Watts in 1967: The Year of Experimentation
For decades, the Rolling Stones have served up their brand of raunchy, bluesy rock and roll to millions of fans around the globe. They’ve outlasted trends, age restrictions, and most of their ’60s contemporaries. To drummers, Charlie Watts represents a…
Snare Drum Independence
Editor’s Note: It’s no secret that Charlie Watts loved jazz, so if you want to put a dollop of “Charlie Vibe” into your playing, consider jumping into some jazz exercises. This book excerpt by Modern Drummer founder Ron Spagnardi is…
Authentic Latin Rhythms
Listening implants music in a person at a very early age. Listening is accepting all different genres of music—from ethnic to jazz, rock, classical, Latin, African, and everything else. This is when we really begin to understand the different essences…
Rock Pattern Exercises
Excepted from Rudiments to Rock Carmine Appice designed Rudiments to Rock specifically to provide beginning drum students with fresh ideas and procedures. Through the book’s exercises and explanations, Appice takes novice percussionists from basic fundamentals to the more difficult, modern…
16th-Note-Triplet Hand and Foot Patterns
Excepted from Building Bass Drum Technique The patterns on the following four pages are built around hand and foot coordination with 16th-note triplets. The exercises become increasingly difficult as you work your way through. A slower tempo at the onset…
16th-Note Accents
Excepted from Accent Control Accents add color and dynamic variation to our drumming, and they’re an extremely essential aspect of every drummer’s technique. The 16th-note accent patterns that follow should be practiced using the four stickings shown: (a) alternate sticking…
Dynamics Mechanics
Excerpted from Rhythm & Chops Builders 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 having extensive rhythmic and rudimental vocabulary and…
Funky Shuffles
Music has changed a lot, but it’s important to see where the shuffle evolved from, because it really has a lot to do with all of the other rhythms that you play. For example, when I was playing “Kissing my…
Introduction to Jazz
Here are a couple of exercises from my Drum Channel course, Introduction to Jazz. There are many different ways to play jazz, just as there are for playing rock, Dixieland, songo, samba, or reggae. One of the things I built…
Rock/Funk Patterns with Single Paradiddles
Excerpted from Paradiddle Power The following exercises are a study in the use of single paradiddles as rock or funk patterns. Note that the right hand is played on closed hi-hat, while the left hand moves from the hi-hat to…
