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.
45 Years of a Vibrant Community
It’s just unbelievable how quickly 45 years can go by. It was 1977, when founder Ron Spagnardi launched what the world would come to know, love, and behold as Modern Drummer magazine. Modern Drummer is much more than a magazine.…
Remembering Ron Spagnardi
Quotes from the Original Fearless Leader No plan. No staff. Just a grand passion, the personal savings of Ron Spagnardi and his wife Isabel, and the sweat entity of his dad and their daughter. There was little hope that a…
November 2021 - Volume 45 • Number 11
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Clem Burke
February 1983 “In rock and roll, the idea and the attitude are more important than the actual playing. If you don’t have ideas, you’re not going to achieve anything worthwhile. I mean, if you can learn to play Beethoven’s Fifth,…
Graeme Edge
March 30, 1941 – November 11, 2021 All the greatest bands have memorable drummers: Charlie Watts, Ringo Starr, John Bonham, Keith Moon. They are the furnace that powers a band’s engine. We have to add Graeme Edge to that list,…
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…
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…
Sonor
Perfect Balance Jojo Mayer Signature and Standard Pedals When the futurist, educator, and genre-bending drummer Jojo Mayer turned his agile brain to designing a kick pedal, he distilled his concept into a single sentence: “The Perfect Balance pedal was designed…
New Gear for the New Year
Wouldn’t it be marvelous if 2022 offered drummers new opportunities, savvy ways to improve their technique, and just tons more fun? Cross those fingers, gang. If you’re up for some cool tools to help bring on that brighter, happier new…
Tré Cool
Green Day’s Gear Geek Tré Cool has a drum warehouse. Few people outside of the Green Day family likely know exactly how many drums are in there, but after talking to Cool about his collection, I’m kind of thinking it…
Donn Bennett’s Drum Vault
Tré Cool’s Burnt Slingerland Kit Tré Cool is one of my favorite drummers. He is also one of the most interesting people I’ve worked with. He’s certainly one of few drummers who can ride the razor-thin line between control and…
Andy Hurley
Fall Out Boy’s Disciple of Discipline Andy Hurley is ripped and super healthy. He committed to self-care early in life, becoming straight edge when he was 15 years old (no drugs, alcohol, tobacco, or any other such poisons), and going…
Patrick Wilson
Weezer’s Commander of Feel The waiting must have been brutal on the ferociously industrious Weezer camp. Two albums done, dusted, and ready to go—the orchestral OK Human and the hard-rocking Van Weezer—and an epic Hella Mega Tour looming, and then…
Jesse Bivona
The Interrupters’ Family Affair It’s clear that Sly Stone is a musical genius, but is he clairvoyant, as well? When he sang the chorus to “It’s a Family Affair,” could he have been beaming from the ‘70s into the late…
