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.
Playing Melodically - Part 1: “Billie’s Bounce”
In this new series I hope to present my thoughts and pass along some experience and insights on playing jazz. These lessons will largely deal with the symbiotic relationship between playing what the mind hears versus what the hands and…
Septuplet Permutations - Diving Deep Into an Odd Subdivision
I find that the best way to become proficient with a new subdivision is to isolate each partial within the grouping and then combine the partial with all of the other available notes in the subdivision. Using triplets as an…
Hone Your Human GPS - Setting Goals, Defining Problems, and Devising Solutions
I’ve researched how people define GPS as it relates to the human condition, and I think best-selling author Jim Samuels’ philosophy is the simplest and most effective take. Samuels’ formula involves goals, problems, and solutions. We set goals and then…
Jazz Drummer's Workshop - The Music of the Drums - Part 3
This article will cover two related ideas: How to make the study of drum method books musically more useful, and some technical exercises that can he used to aid this development.
Hybrid Setups: Pros? Cons?
In recent years, electronic/acoustic hybrid setups have seen a relatively rapid rise in popularity. And it's easy to see why, considering the dominance of produced sounds and tones in modern popular music and the need to reproduce those sounds live.…
Steve Smith: Journeyman
Although Journey has been around for eight years, tremendous public acclaim has come for the band only recently, particularly gaining momentum within the last three years of existence.
Rock Perspectives - Concept for Two Drum Sets
The year following my high school graduation, one of the big favorites was James Brown and the Famous Flames. At least once a year he came to the San Francisco Bay Area and played all the big auditoriums.
Jazz Drummers Workshop - The Music of the Drums, Pt. 2
Today's music has developed to the degree that anything conceived can be used if it's done musically. The basic drum has changed considerably since the days of the stamped pit and the slit log drums of Africa.
Master Percussionist: Oregon's Collin Walcott
It was really one of the major lessons of my life when I first started to study Indian music with a guy from Pakistan who was studying psychology at Indiana. TO READ THE FULL STORY: SUBSCRIBE TO ACCESS LOG IN
Portraits - Carmine Appice
The first time I met Carmine Appice was back in 1978 at a drum clinic on Long Island. That was the day we taped the interview that appeared in the April 1978 issue of Modern Drummer.
Marcus Baylor takes the reins, Bowie memoir, and more
Marcus Baylor takes the reins, Bowie memoir, and more TO READ THE FULL STORY: SUBSCRIBE TO ACCESS LOG IN
Chicago II
Dismiss Chicago as lite-rock mom-core at your own peril. Discerning mothers, fans of deep classic rock, and Rob Thomas all know that long before singer/bassist Peter Cetera and producer David Foster steered the band toward dullsville in the ’80s with…
Stanton Moore Drum Academy
For years Moore has also been a sought-out educator. This past December he hosted his fourth-annual Spirit of New Orleans Drum Camp, and now he’s launched stantonmooredrumacademy.com, which is designed to provide educational content for players of all skill levels,…
Alphonse Mouzon
At the very end of last year the drumming world said its final goodbyes to the influential jazz-rock drummer Alphonse Mouzon. Although he was not quite as recognizable among the wider drumming audience as pioneering players such as Billy Cobham…
