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.
Louie Bellson
October-November 1980 At the root of Louie Bellson’s talent lies a wealth of knowledge, perseverance and the hunger for constant improvement. His consistent quest to remain abreast of the times and changes is rewarding to him and his audiences all…
Modern Drummer 2021 Readers Poll Winners
Celebrate Your Choices for the Extraordinary Drummers of the Past Year It’s that time again for the Modern Drummer staff to thank the community for making possible our annual Readers Poll. Your enthusiasm for all things drumming, your knowledge of…
Jules Radino
Born in New York City and raised on Long Island, Jules Radino grew up taking lessons and hanging out at the Long Island Drum Center. I remember it was owned by the Ricci brothers—Dennis and Jerry—and it was a groundbreaking…
Jimmy Paxson
The Soul of a Side Musician Point Jimmy Paxson in the direction of a gig, and he’s there taking care of business. Paxson is a fearless player with mega chops who is not afraid to take on any kind of…
The Appice Brothers Take to the Airwaves
In one of those sci-fi-esque synergies of parallel dimensions, interviewing Carmine and Vinny Appice about their Hangin’ & Bangin’ livestream show is practically like being in an episode. Carmine’s enthusiastic rat-a-tat delivery is often gleefully interrupted with punctuations and elaborations…
8 Tips for Mixing Drums with Maximum Impact
While the pre-vaccination era of COVID annihilated any chance for musicians to earn revenue from live shows, it also boosted collaborative, home-recording projects by insane degrees. Everyone was quarantined for a time, so anyone with an idea for a tune…
Multisensory Perception and Drummers
We have been taught the five basic senses are sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. Eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and skin. Anything perceived as outside of these basic receptors has been considered “extra sensory”—falling under E.S.P. or psychic guidelines of…
Crowded House
Markus Gerhard Branches Out Lake Ridge, Virginia-based drummer Markus Gerhard plays with the band Given Eye, which just dropped its first release, “Soops Hoots,” in May 2021. The band sounds a bit like a ‘90s-indie-rock recast of 10cc—which is pretty…
Celebrating Drummers and the MD Community
This month’s issue represents another milestone in Modern Drummer’s storied history: Sheila E. is the Modern Drummer Readers Poll 2021 Hall Of Fame inductee! It’s hard to believe that Sheila is the first woman to be recognized by our readers…
Bobby Morris 1928 – 2021
When Bobby Morris first reached out to see if Hudson Music would be interested in publishing his autobiography, My Las Vegas, I had two concerns. First, “Do enough people in the Hudson Music audience know who he is?” And second,…
John Densmore
Modern Drummer, December 1982 “On the Doors albums, I always went for the drums to have real personality. I always had the bottom heads off all of my drums, and I hated new skins and new drums. I liked to…
Double-Bass Eighth Notes with Foot Two
Realistic Double Feet can be performed on a double-bass drum set or a regular drum set with foot one playing the bass drum and foot two playing the hi-hat. For this exercise, dive into the rhythmic concept first, and then…
Developing a Musical Concept
One of the key aspects in developing a musical concept for show and studio performance—or any other area of performance for that matter—is the tuning of your drums. Too many players overlook this elementary consideration. When your drum set is…
