August 2021 – Volume 45 • Number 8
On 31st Aug 2021
Articles in August 2021
Low Boy
Custom Lightweight Bass Drum Beater Customizing stuff is one of my guilty pleasures—I’m always “building” cars on manufacturer websites that I have no intention of actually buying—so the opportunity to design my own beater was what initially attracted me to…
Earl Young
Legendary Timekeeper for The Sound of Philadelphia Earl Donald Young, bassist Ronnie Baker, and guitarist Norman Harris formed the Philadelphia-based rhythm section known as Baker Harris Young. That the trio helped change the music world is not an understatement. In…
Funky Shuffles
Music has changed a lot, but it’s important to see where the shuffle evolved from, because it really has a lot to do with all of the other rhythms that you play. For example, when I was playing “Kissing my…
Yamaha Super Rack System, April 1990
When SimCity—a video game that allowed players to conceptualize and build simulated metropolises—debuted to the public in 1989, it became a phenomenon. Given the massive architecture of the 1990 Super Rack System, it appears a few folks in the Yamaha…
16th-Note Accents
Excepted from Accent Control Accents add color and dynamic variation to our drumming, and they’re an extremely essential aspect of every drummer’s technique. The 16th-note accent patterns that follow should be practiced using the four stickings shown: (a) alternate sticking…
Roger Hawkins October 16, 1945 – May 20, 2021
Roger Hawkins—one of music history’s most recorded drummers—died peacefully at his home in Sheffield, Alabama, after a few years of declining health. He was 75 years old. Hawkins has been called an architect of the Muscle Shoals sound. He was…
Terry Bozzio
Modern Drummer, July 1994 “Even though I’ve got that humongous drum kit sitting there, I’ve learned I don’t have to use it all at once. Igor Stravinsky thought nothing of having five solo cellos play a section in the middle…
Eric Kretz
Stone Temple Pilots Celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Tiny Music…Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop with a Deluxe Box Set If one were to characterize Stone Temple Pilots, you might say melodic songs, killer riffs, dynamic delivery, and deep grooves.…
Bobby Bond
The Beat Goes On As time marches on, and we lose more and more of the rock-and-roll hitmakers of the 1960s, those stars still soldiering on via ‘60 rock cruises and package tours have become living embodiments of the era…
Dynamics Mechanics
Excerpted from Rhythm & Chops Builders I believe that a drummer should be able to pick up sticks and make music on any sound source. The two biggest keys to doing this are having extensive rhythmic and rudimental vocabulary and…
Eric Boudreault’s Treetop Percussion
Just about every pit gig and live-performance for a multimedia theatrical production can be tough. Negotiating myriad cues, charts, conductors, actors, and other elements can stress out even the most skilled professional. But is your gig, 23-feet-in-the-air-atop-a-tree tough? That is…
Burn, Baby, Burn!
Hello, everyone. I hope your summer has been going as well as it can be. Welcome to another special issue of Modern Drummer. Come on, you have to admit the last few issues have been pretty amazing. (Thank you, MD…
The Healing Power of Silence
The center of a musician’s world is often thought to be within their love for sound, melody, and rhythm. Most of you reading this article will be big fans of sound in general—creating sound, appreciating sound, and listening to sound.…
Justice James on Swingin’ Surf
It seemed like a pretty normal surf show until it wasn’t. The Young Barons were onstage performing their edgy, modern-primitive style of surf music. Suddenly, the drums exploded like Buddy Rich torturing the squares at a 1940s swing dance with…
Peter Criss
Excerpted from the February 1999 Cover Story Peter Criss—born Peter George Criscuola—is a true rock ‘n’ roll survivor. The Brooklyn-bred drummer, whose affinity for jazz prompted him to seek out Gene Krupa as a youth, ran an ad in Rolling…
Get Into the Groove
To further celebrate the soulful, timekeeping majesty of this month’s cover artist Earl Young, we dove into the Modern Drummer archives to find ten other groove masters talking about how they make the music move. Greg Errico, October 2011 “Sly…
Mike Reid
Taking it to In the Heights, Janet Jackson, Alicia Keys, and Beyond. Mike Reid started playing drums at the age of three and never looked back. The Baltimore, Maryland, native joined his school and church bands to begin his first…
The Pocket Queen
The Viral Drummer’s Brand-Building Strategies Like a superhero with an alter ego, Taylor Gordon’s transformation into The Pocket Queen had a seismic effect on not just her own career, but also upon legions of music fans and aspiring drummers. With…
EAROS
EAROS ONE Decades of standing in front of guitar amps, drums, and mixing consoles has “rewarded” me with tinnitus, difficulty hearing some frequencies clearly, and if you’re sitting a few chairs away from me in a loud, ambient restaurant, you’ll…
