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 Gumbo Groove Herlin Riley: Playin’ the Street He’s On!
A few months ago, Modern Drummer started a series of feature interviews called the Gumbo Groove with Mark Griffith’s interview with Johnny Vidacovich. For this next part in the series, we feature a conversation between drummer and Professor of Percussion…
Don Grolnick's "Nothing Personal," from Michael Brecker S/T, Jack DeJohnette drums.
The first transcription of 2025 highlights the legendary Jack DeJohnette, taken from Michael Brecker’s debut solo album. The track, “Nothing Personal,” exemplifies DeJohnette’s status as one of the greatest jazz drummers of all time. Jack’s drumming is both innovative and…
Master Studies II: Warm-Up Exercises
As a follow-up to Joe Morello’s legendary Master Studies book, he released Master Studies II in 2006. Joe was a masterful teacher and helped many great drummers with their musicality, technique, and touch. He was also masterful at creating exercises,…
Have Fun Not Knowing…
Not knowing something hurts. Who actually wants to sound bad on the drums? When our identity gets wrapped up in our endeavours, missing the mark makes us feel worthless. This is because when going into new territory, we go through…
Encyclopedia of Double Bass Drumming: Seven Note Linear Cross Rhythms
In the new and revised edition of the Encyclopedia of Double Bass Drumming, Bobby Rondinelli 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…
Vocabulary Development Essentials Part 5 -Putting it All Together!
Welcome to the final installment of our “Vocabulary Development Essentials” series, where we’ve explored adding embellishments to hand and foot combinations to expand your rhythmic language. In this part, we focus on integrating all the embellishments you’ve learned into a…
Duet 18
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…
The Rikki Rockett Poison Drum Collection
Rikki Rockett co-founded Poison in 1983 with his longtime pal Bret Michaels. The band slugged it out for years in their hometown of Mechanicsburg, PA before heading to west to CA. Their debut 1986 album Look What the Cat Dragged…
Out Now January 2025
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 high-quality, special, or unique drumming and musical performances from the drummer and/or musicians in the band. This…
Hand-Picked Vinyl January 2025
As the music world continues to see a resurgence in Vinyl (LP’s,) Vinyl Me Please (VMP) is curating and producing some of the best vinyl remasters and pressings around. They are scouring the history of recorded music for forgotten gems…
ddrum DDTi Trigger Interface
Originally heralded for their innovative drum triggers back in the 1980s, ddrum has since evolved into a widely respected name in both acoustic and electronic percussion. The ddrum DDTi trigger interface is a testament to the brand’s efforts to bridge…
The History, Evolution, and Continuum of Important Drumming
After I talked to the three punk rock drummers for this month’s Punk Rock Drumming Roundtable, I was amazed at how great drummers know their drumming history. A while back I interviewed drummer Gene Hoglan and he gave me a…
Our Favorite quotes from 2024
Every month we get to go through all the words in Modern Drummer and pull out our favorite drummer quotes. The musicians say it best, here are our favorite quotes from 2024. Jeff Porcaro explained it to me, saying, “Look,…
