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.
The Five-Note Fill/Solo Concept
Here is an idea for use in either fills or soloing. The study is based on the following five-note pattern: The five-note pattern, when played as consecutive triplets or 16th notes in 4/4 time, comes back to where it began…
Drumming And Sitting In
A young friend of mine from Massachusetts recently told me the following story. He was working in a club with the group he usually plays with. A man came up to him and asked if he could sit in. My…
Bon Jovi’s Tico Torres
Bon Jovi already had on board keyboardist David Bryan and bassist Alec John Such, veterans of the fertile New Jersey music scene. When Such told him that he knew “the baddest-ass drummer in the land,” it didn’t take long for…
Kendrick Lamar’s Tony “Rico” Nichols
For most musicians, the idea of playing with Pulitzer- and Grammy Award-winning superstar Kendrick Lamar would be a lesson in surviving the hot seat: an endless tour of stadium concerts and television shows, and globe-trotting, sleep-deprived, eye-of-the-hurricane schedules. Talk about…
Lamb of God’s Chris Adler
On the touring front, the modern metal titan and his bandmates are spanning the globe on Slayer’s final world tour. Meanwhile, on the new Legion: XX album, released under their original moniker, Burn the Priest, Adler and company have rekindled…
Damian Marley‘s Courtney “Bam“ Diedrick
It might have been a chance encounter that led to his working with one of reggae’s biggest stars. But his skills are no accident—a highly developed musical sensitivity and copious practice time made him the drummer he is today. TO…
From the Track to the Stage: Breathing Life into a Recording
On tour with the indie/alternative/pop act Børns, Kristen Gleeson-Prata translates heavily produced and electronics-infused recorded drum parts onto the live stage. Here the drummer explains her approach and invites a few drumming colleagues to weigh in with their own perspectives…
U2's Larry Mullen, Jr.
Since ancient times, the sound of drums has prevailed at human rites of passage: war drums, funeral drums, marching drums, drums of life, and drums of death. It was the call of a “different drummer” that guided Henry David Thoreau.…
