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.
Buddy Rich Elected to Hall of Fame in 1980
Excerpted from the January 1977 issue When it comes to interviewing Buddy, one must learn to expect the unexpected. You can end up with a first rate story, or no story at all. He’s a very intense human being, with…
Choosing The Correct Job
Some readers might look at this heading and think, “What? It’s hard enough to find any job!” But I’m quite serious about the ramifications—musical, emotional, and financial—of knowing where to put yourself. Of course, we all know there are monetary…
12 Iconic Punk-Rock Drummers Sound Off
We spun through the MD archives to collect some brash, aggro wisdom from punk-rock, punk-pop, or post-punk drummers who have shared their musical insights in these pages. Punk isn’t always about diving blindly into intensity with limited technique, and some…
Toppermost of the Poppermost
Pop-Culture Triumphs, 1977-2021 Modern Drummer has reported on a colossal number of drummers in its 45-year history, but pop-culture doesn’t revolve solely around drums and drumming. (Drats!) Creativity does not exist in a vacuum. Other events tend to inspire, inform,…
Todd Sucherman's New Styx Album, First Solo Release
Longevity and relevance are key components to any successful career. The Beatles were together only eight years, but the group’s prolific music catalog still stands the test of time. Formed in 1972, Chicago-based, progressive pop-rock group Styx is closing in…
By the Numbers MD Covers Reveal Drum-Culture Stats
Forty-five years provides a lot of perspective on the artists, styles, and techniques Modern Drummer has covered, as well as how those subjects informed the drum community from year to year. Any magazine editor will tell you that choosing cover…
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…
