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.
Vinnie Colaiuta - Just Being Himself
Heroes are hard to find. And they're often tougher to pin down. Vinnie Colaiuta, for one, refuses to bend to expectations—and he doesn't think you should either. TO READ THE FULL STORY: SUBSCRIBE TO ACCESS LOG IN
Justin Brown
By immersing himself in the music, history, and lifestyle associated with multiple genres—and leaning hard on good-ol’ values like shedding rudiments and improving reading skills—the drummer with Thundercat, Ambrose Akinmusire, and his own band of modern greats, Nyeusi, has become…
The Evolution of the Drumset
The drumset is unique among contemporary instruments. It’s a truly global invention, with most of its individual parts originating many thousands of years ago, in the far corners of the globe.Yet its current familiar form didn’t really exist until well…
Daniel Glass: Examining the Drumset’s Century-Long Tale of Change
Across two ambitious DVD sets, the performer and educator captures the fascinating development of our beloved “contraption,” providing historical and practical knowledge that every modern drummer can apply. Will Romano reports. Just prior to the dawn of the…
Mike Porcaro
August 5, 2012, was the twentieth anniversary of revered studio and stage drummer Jeff Porcaro’s untimely passing.
Fours and Sevens in 7/8
Part 3:Triple Strokes This month we’re going to finish the Fours and Sevens in 7/8 exercise by playing it with triple strokes. As with double strokes, the key to playing high-quality triple strokes is finger control. The challenge is to…
Make A Statement!
Concepts for Drumset Improvisation Improvisation is at the core of every great jazz performance, and as we mature as musicians we become more confident in expressing ourselves on our instrument. The rhythmic or melodic concepts that we play illustrate a…
Snare Drum Studies
Lessons In Counting and Stretching Rhythm For drummers, the rudiments are often likened to scales for other instrumentalists, but we have scales too. These “rhythm scales” give us access to new percussive “notes” like the quintuplet. The results we get…
Popular Play-Alongs
Part 3: Synth Medal In the last two play-along articles, we worked on the proper performance technique, groove vocabulary, and sounds of contemporary pop/R&B and punk-pop— two styles of music that you’ll likely be asked to play as a working…
Inner Drumming
Listening With All Four Limbs, Part 4 If this is the first time you’re reading about Inner Drumming, the diagrams in this article may seem unusual. But rest assured that if you spend a few minutes with them, you’ll begin…
Eli Keszler
The multidisciplinary artist has dedicated much of his career to exploring the solo drumset’s expressionistic capabilities. That pursuit has led him to the fringes of the visual art and music scenes. But it’s also helped him discover venues where he…
Dennis Bryon
You’ve listened to his grooves a thousand times—perhaps even more than those of some of the drummers on your own personal top-ten list. But you might not have known his name, or his backstory, before now. Drummer, educator, and writer…
John Blackwell Jr.
A tribute to the longtime Prince drummer, who left us far too early. TO READ THE FULL STORY: SUBSCRIBE TO ACCESS LOG IN
12 Heartland Prog Albums
Once the original progressive British bands, like Jethro Tull, ELP, and Genesis, blew open the gates of rhythmic delirium, a crop of wild-eyed Americans charged through with some daring ideas of their own. TO READ THE FULL STORY: SUBSCRIBE TO…
