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.
Out Now May 2024
This month’s Modern Drummer Out Now is special. We are spotlighting some outstanding new and reissue LPs in honor of April’s National Record Store Day 2024. All of you drumming “vinyl heads” pay attention! We are featuring new, reissued, and…
Out Now April 2024
Modern Drummer is spotlighting new recordings that have the drums at the center of their sound. These recordings might be drummer-led, or just include a high-quality, special, or unique drumming and musical performance from the drummer and/or musicians in the…
Joel Selvin - Drums & Demons, The Tragic Journey of Jim Gordon
Jim Gordon is so much more than the drummer in Eric Clapton’s band, Derek and the Dominos. Jim played drums on the soundtrack to many people’s lives. He had a remarkable studio drumming career that was unfortunately eclipsed by the…
Out Now June 2024
Modern Drummer is spotlighting new recordings that have the drums at the center of their sound. These recordings might be drummer-led, or just include a high-quality, special, or unique drumming and musical performance from the drummer and/or musicians in the…
Lenny Kravitz Talks Drums
Lenny Kravitz has played drums, programmed the drum parts, or created the loops on all of his songs for the last 35 years with only two exceptions. He is a multi-instrumentalist songwriter walking in the tradition of Stevie Wonder and…
The Bobby Rock Peavey “Renaissance” aka. “Sistine Chapel” Kit
Derl Maxwell is a lifelong drummer who has earned the reputation around the Southeast as the “hat drummer.” While he has a love/hate relationship with his reputation of entertaining people with drum tricks, faces, antics, and unique hats while he’s…
Understanding the Language of Music - Diatonic Harmony
This month we will be building upon the subjects of the last three articles: 6th and 7th Chords, Form and Structure, and Roman Numerals and the Circle of Fifths. Diatonic Harmony is based around the chords that fall within the…
The Bass Drum Owners Manual: Mastering the Art of Weight Distribution
Has this ever happened to you? You are listening back to the audio of a track or video you just recorded. You are sure that the performance is clean and exactly what you intended to play. But as you listen,…
Triplets with Accents
This section of triplets with accents is similar to last month’s lesson of accent studies of eighth notes with accents. Both come from Joe Morello’s outstanding book Master Studies. Again, strive for evenness of sound, paying particular attention to the…
Duet 8
Ron Spagnardi wrote a terrific book called Snare Drum Duets: 25 Duets for Two Snare Drummers. It offers a selection of 25 challenging duets that range in difficulty from relatively simple to more complex. A wide assortment of time signatures…
Accent Studies with Eighth Notes
This section combines alternate stickings with one handed stickings, while stressing accents. It is essential to maintain only two dynamic levels in each exercise: the accented level and the unaccented level. Also be sure to keep an even sound when…
The Bass Drum Owners Manual: Mastering the Art of Weight Distribution Part Two: Springless Practice
Welcome to the second installment on the topic of Mastering Weight Distribution, The Power of Springless Practice. What if I told you that you could enhance your bass drum technique by practicing without the spring on your pedal, or what…
Understanding the Language of Music - Roman Numerals and the Circle of 5ths
Modern Drummer founder Ron Spagnardi wrote an excellent book called Understanding the Language of Music, a Drummer’s Guide to Theory and Harmony. This book spells out the basics of theory and harmony in a very easy to understand way. It…
The Encyclopedia of Double Bass Drumming: 32nd Notes and 32nd Note Triplets
In the new and revised edition of the Encyclopedia of Double Bass Drumming, Bobby includes nine new double bass drumming chapters. The new and expanded edition covers contemporary techniques such as bass drum double strokes, feet-only exercises, binary and ternary…
