January 2010 – Volume 34 • Number 1

Gov't Mule's Matt Abts - On Tour & On Stage Making It Work On The Road

by Jeff Perlah The live arena is where drummers sink or swim. There’s no “fixing it in the mix” if you flub a fill, no second take if you stray too far off the click, no starting over if you…

TLC's Tom Knight - On Tour & On Stage Making It Work On The Road

TLC's Tom Knight On Tour & On Stage Making It Work On The Road by Mike Haid The live arena is where drummers sink or swim. There’s no “fixing it in the mix” if you flub a fill, no second…

Basics: Master Time

Basics Master Time Part 3: The Stubble-Stroke Roll by David Stanock When I was a college student in Madison, Wisconsin, in the ’80s, I encountered the funk drumming legend Clyde Stubblefield. At that time, Stubblefield himself was not as well…

Incubus's Jose Pasillas - On Tour & On Stage Making It Work On The Road

Incubus's Jose Pasillas On Tour & On Stage Making It Work On The Road by "Pistol" Pete Kaufmann The live arena is where drummers sink or swim. There’s no “fixing it in the mix” if you flub a fill, no…

Rock Perspectives: Polyrhythms

Rock Perspectives Polyrhythms Part 4: Two-Limb Four-Against-Three Patterns by Rod Morgenstein In the third part of this series (November ’09), we applied a four-against-three polyrhythm to either the ride cymbal or the bass drum, while the snare drum played the…

Rodney Howard - On Tour & On Stage Making It Work

Rodney Howard On Tour & On Stage Making It Work On The Road   The live arena is where drummers sink or swim. There’s no “fixing it in the mix” if you flub a fill, no second take if you…

Muse's Dominic Howard - On Tour & On Stage Making It Work On The Road

story by Ilya Stemkovsky photos by Rahav Segev The live arena is where drummers sink or swim. There’s no “fixing it in the mix” if you flub a fill, no second take if you stray too far off the click,…

Strictly Technique: Top 10 Rudiments

Strictly Technique Top 10 Rudiments The Drag by Bill Bachman The drag is the tenth and final rudiment in our series. If you’ve been practicing these rudiments and exercises correctly, at a wide variety of tempos, then your hands are…

14 Reasons To Love The Doors' John Densmore

by Michael Parillo The original four-piece lineup of the Doors was together for around six years, from its formation in mid-1965 until the death of frontman Jim Morrison in July 1971 at age twenty-seven. Over that span, the band—Morrison, keyboardist…

Backbeats: Ari Gold's Adventures Of Power

by Billy Amendola Actor/musician/writer/director Ari Gold (yes, that’s his real name) has had an obsession with air drumming since he was a kid listening to his sister’s Rush records. In the new comedy feature film Adventures Of Power, which he…

Gimmie 10! Brad Mehldua/Chick Corea Regular Jeff Ballard

Gimmie 10! Brad Mehldua/Chick Corea Regular Jeff Ballard Big-picture tips from the drummer who’s an integral part of Chick Corea, Joshua Redman, and Brad Mehldau’s trailblazing ensembles. 1. THINK ABOUT DYNAMICS AS SIZE OF SOUND RATHER THAN LEVEL OF VOLUME.…

Branford Marsalis's Justin Faulkner On Tour & On Stage Making It Work On The Road

by Ken Micallef photo courtesy of Zildjian The live arena is where drummers sink or swim. There’s no “fixing it in the mix” if you flub a fill, no second take if you stray too far off the click, no…

January 2010 – Volume 34 • Number 1

Concepts: When To Lead And When To Follow

Concepts When To Lead And When To Follow The Inner Workings Of Group Timekeeping by Jeremy Hummel There are three ways to keep time when you play with an ensemble. One is to lead, another to follow, and the third…

Off The Record: LIFEHOUSE’S Rick Woolstenhulme Jr.

Off The Record LIFEHOUSE’S Rick Woolstenhulme Jr. "Disarray" by Mike Malinin Rick Woolstenhulme Jr. has been the drummer for Lifehouse since 2000. In the ’90s, after high school, he moved to California from his home state of Arizona and attended…