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 is a fantastic book for drummers looking to learn about the language of music beyond drumming. We are honored to reprint the parts of Ron’s book here in Modern Drummer for everyone to read and learn. This month we will be building on last month’s discussion of Chord Voicings by talking about Chord Extensions. Chord Extensions are notes that are stacked about the 7th of the chord to add variety and create different colors of the chords being used.

October 2024 Issue