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.
Product Close-Up - Index Drums
If you’re looking for new percussive sounds for low-volume gigs, then you might appreciate what the Forest King line of wooden drumheads from Index Drums has to offer. TO READ THE FULL STORY: SUBSCRIBE TO ACCESS LOG IN
"The Brain Dance" - Matt Garstka's Quintuplet Groove
Few drummers generate the sheer amount of excitement and enthusiasm within the drum community as Matt Garstka. Whether it’s through his incredible display of solo chops or his mind-bending compositions with Animals as Leaders, Garstka continues to push the edge…
Jazz Drummer's Workshop - The Music of the Drums - Part 1
Most of the questions I get from drummers concern "technical" problems. How to develop quicker hands; more independence and/or coordination. Technique is important, but it is not the most important part of playing music. Having a concept, playing with feeling,…
Stickings That Rock - Part2: Exploring an Additional Hand Pattern
In this lesson we’ll focus on another sticking that I acquired while working through George Lawrence Stone’s classic book Stick Control. The rhythm in the right hand is rooted in the first part of a 3:2 clave rhythm. (Think of…
Groove Construction - Part 11: Perceiving the Click as Triplets
In this ear-training workshop, we’ll work on hearing a metronome on different partials of 8th-note triplets. Working on these exercises will improve your ability to internalize different rhythms before you start playing them. Plus, these exercises will definitely improve your…
1,000 Ways to Practice a Single Page - Part 2: More Rhythmic Interpretations
In Part 1 of this series, we began exploring different approaches to utilize and practice a single page of rhythm. We started on the snare with 16th-note subdivisions while accenting the rhythms on the page. In this lesson we’ll take…
Testament's Gene Hoglan
At the top of the list of famed metal drummer Gene Hoglan’s latest projects is Testament’s Brotherhood of the Snake, the legendary thrash band’s first studio album since 2012’s Dark Roots of Earth. When the players entered the studio, some…
Ween's Claude Coleman Jr.
Times have changed, and so has his address. For the longtime member of one of America’s most beloved left-of-center rock bands—reunited after several years apart—it’s all for the better. TO READ THE FULL STORY: SUBSCRIBE TO ACCESS LOG IN
Catching Up With…Jason Bittner
In 2007, at the Sounds of the Underground festival in Phoenix, Arizona, where Shadows Fall was on the bill, Jason Bittner heard that Kelly Smith, drummer for the thrash veterans Flotsam and Jetsam, was in attendance. Bittner first met Smith…
Bebop Syncopation - Part 1: Max Roach and Art Blakey
Ted Reed’s Progressive Steps to Syncopation for the Modern Drummer is considered a timeless book by many leading drummers and educators. One page alone can inspire a lifetime’s worth of practice material. In this series of articles we’ll explore new…
A New Perspective - Part 2: Three-Over-Two Linear Polyrhythms
The three-over-two polyrhythm is made up of two contrasting rhythms (three equally spaced notes over two equally spaced notes) that are played simultaneously. We can build this polyrhythm by choosing one subdivision to act as a common denominator between the…
Do I Need an Attorney? Part 1: When to Expand Your Team
I was recently in a difficult situation with a business I was doing work for on a weekly basis. They owed me a considerable amount of money but had no intention of paying me for my services. After failing to convince…
Catching Up With… Good Tiger’s Alex Rüdinger
Since kicking down the door to the metal world with his jaw-dropping YouTube play-along videos more than six years ago, twenty-four-year-old journeyman Alex Rüdinger has filled in on tours with Monuments and Revocation and recorded and toured with his still-breathing…
Steven Tyler’s Sarah Tomek
I was first convinced of Sarah Tomek’s eminent skills on a night when our bands were both on the bill at Asbury Lanes, a bowling alley turned rock club in Tomek’s hometown. Yup, the same one immortalized in the title…
