Billy Ashbaugh
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.
Practice Outside of the Box
For this month’s article, I’d like to discuss the concept of practicing creatively or “outside of the box”. I’ll agree there’s certainly nothing wrong with playing through a drum method book as written. However, I’ve discovered that there are many…
The Business Side of Drumming
For this month’s article, I’m going to share some of my personal insights for dealing with the business side of drumming. If you’re lucky enough to be making a living playing drums, then you are already aware of the importance…
The Game Changers Part 2
Welcome back for part two! Last month we discussed several important topics that I felt were monumental in my growth as a player. Those were: understanding subdivision, learning to read music, developing your ears, and learning to write charts/roadmaps. Once…
The Game Changers Part 1
For this month’s article I’d like to share several different topics that I feel were monumental for my growth as a drummer. I call these “The Game Changers”. There are several topics so this article will be split into two parts.…
Touring Life and Lessons
For this month’s article, I’m going to share some of my experiences from over the years while on tour with various artists. I’ve been fortunate enough to have done many different “levels” of tours, everything from stadiums to smaller 200-300…
Recording from Home and Wearing Three Hats
Last month we talked about the challenges of picking up the drumsticks for the first time, studying, and the process of learning to become a good drummer. This month we take a big jump forward in your drumming journey. My…
Introducing...
My name is Mark Griffith, I am a professional musician who happens to play drums. I tour, play locally, record, do clinics, masterclasses, teach, and I write. I started writing for Modern Drummer under Ron Spagnardi’s leadership 25 years ago,…
Concepts for Beginners
This month’s article will focus on some monumental ideas that will help you quicken your growth as a drummer when first starting out. Some of these concepts were taught to me by my drum instructors when I was younger, and…
The Empty Canvas
Accepting Creative Input For this article I’d like to talk about a luxury that we don’t always get to experience as a professional drummer, I call it “The Empty Canvas.” This simply refers to the amount of creative input that…
Balancing Grunt Work and Creativity
This is a follow up to the March 2021 article I did for MD entitled “Practice Like a Pro.” (You can find it at moderndrummer.com.) In that piece, I shared techniques that can be used to effectively learn songs. Muscle…
The Importance of Writing Notation
We have all heard that it’s very beneficial for drummers to learn how to read music. I completely agree. For me, it was one of the many game changers for my drumming. Learning to understand basic notation gave me the…
Practice Like a Pro
How to Maximize Your Time Behind the Kit The purpose of the article is to share some helpful practice tips that I’ve picked up over the years. These ideas work amazingly well when you’re learning new material for a gig.…
March 2002 - Volume 26 • Number 3
Scott Phillips, Virgil Donati, Simon Phillips, Leon Parker, Danny Carey, Ryan Vikedal, Billy Ashbaugh, Dave Dunseath, Brian Tichy, Adam Pedretti, Matt Abts, Karsh Kale, Jon Wysocki, Gary Novak, John Blackwell, Bobby Rondinelli TO READ THE FULL STORY: LOG IN Digital…
June 2000 - Volume 24 • Number 6
Akira Jimbo, Simon Phillips, Airto, Mark Schulman, Billy Ashbaugh, William Bryant, Ivan Hampden, Marvin Hammett, Frank Beard, Joel Rosenblatt, Barry “Frosty” Smith, Bill Stevenson, Dmitri Tsvetkov, Steve Alexander, Russ McKinnon, Mark Zonder TO READ THE FULL STORY: LOG IN Digital…
