January 2016 Issue – Volume 40 • Number 1

Kosa 2015

The innovative drum camp and festival celebrates its twentieth anniversary with a genre-bending lineup featuring heavyweights Dennis Chambers, John Blackwell, and many more.   The KoSA 2015 Grand Finale   KoSA’s annual International Percussion Workshop, Drum Camp, and Festival took place in…

It's Questionable - I Want My Old Drums Back

I recently received a promotion at my day job, so I decided to treat myself to a new set of drums. My old kit had big, deep power toms with a 24" bass drum, and they had started to look…

Catching Up With...Travis Orbin

The greatest session drummers of yesteryear would dart from one legendary L.A. or New York studio to the next, where they’d crank out smash hits that the world would be singing along to a few short weeks later. Today’s busiest…

News

Out Now   Converge Thousands of Miles Between Us Metalcore pioneer Converge is dropping the multi-format audio/video release Thousands of Miles Between Us, the centerpiece of which is a full twenty-song show filmed in HD on the All We Love…

Eddie Knight: A Living Legend of Leedy Lore

Eddie Knight with his ’30s Broadway Standard in rainbow pearl finish by Harry Cangney When I walked into the South Bend, Indiana, drum studio of veteran drummer/teacher/collector Eddie Knight, I picked up more sensory input than I could process. On the…

Flam It Up: Add Some Meat to Your Fills

  by Rich Redmond Flams are fun! A flam is defined as a soft stroke, or grace note, and a louder main stroke played closely together to sound like one. Flams can be closed (less space between strokes) or open…

The War on Drugs’ Charlie Hall

The War on Drugs hit the ground running after Lost in the Dream was released in March 2014, and never slowed down in 2015. MD caught up with drummer Charlie Hall while the band was performing in Miami. “On this…

January 2016 Issue – Volume 40 • Number 1

World Groove Independence Mash-Up

  Improving Facility With Afro-Cuban Inspiration by Mike Johnston When I began writing my latest book, Groove Freedom, the goal was to gain flexibility both within my students’ grooves and my own. As I practiced the book’s systems, I realized…

Tycoon - Triple Play Cajon

Tycoon Triple-Play Cajon Three distinct playing surfaces for ultimate tonal variety. For thirty-plus years, Tycoon has been manufacturing top-quality hand percussion instruments at its own factory in Thailand. The company’s expansive catalog includes authentic representations of Latin American congas, bongos,…

Critique

Frank Zappa Roxy: The Movie Fans of Zappa and the Mothers’ seminal double-drum-powered live album Roxy & Elsewhere, rejoice! Recorded over three nights in December 1973, Roxy: The Movie is the visual companion to the classic live Frank Zappa album…

Modern Drummer: The First Decade

In the mid-’70s, a relatively unknown drummer named Ron Spagnardi had a big idea: to create the first independent magazine for and about drummers. He had no funds to speak of, and even less experience in publishing. He did, however,…

Provenance - 4x14 VW Snare

Provenance 4x14 VW Snare From the scraps of a funky old work van to one of the funkiest-sounding snares around. by Michael Dawson The U.K.-based Provenance Drums specializes in repurposing materials from specialty vehicles like Jaguar sports cars, racing yachts,…

How to Practice: Get the Most Out of Whatever Time You Have

by Gary Williams Enthusiasm is your fuel to improve your drumming. You probably spend time working on grooves and fills, playing along to recordings, searching YouTube for videos, attending concerts, practicing from method books, and jamming with other musicians. These…

40 Years of Innovation - A look at Drum Gear Then...and Now

Drums are as old as history, and possibly older—there’s probably a cave drawing somewhere depicting a guy happily jamming away. Cymbals, too, are so ancient that they figure prominently in the Old Testament. The drumset, on the other hand, was…

New and Notable

Zildjian Premium Cymbal Bags and Cases The Zildjian 24" rolling cymbal vault, which features a molded polyethylene shell that holds five to ten cymbals, provides protection and durability. For lightweight yet sturdy transport, the 22" and 24" premium cymbal bags…

Progressive Drumming Essentials

  Part 6: Syncopated Double Bass...the Easy Way by Aaron Edgar When I began working on double bass, I was inspired by drummers like Gene Hoglan, Raymond Herrera, and Thomas Lang, all of whom seemed to have a never-ending supply…

This is 40

by Adam Budofsky There are forty-year periods…and there are forty-year periods. Back in the Paleolithic era, all we managed to accomplish in a few million years was figuring out how to knock out some basic stone tools. The big headline…

Quintuplets Part 2: Polyrhythms With Fives

by Bill Bachman Last month we got acquainted with quintuplets by using accent patterns and transitions with familiar rhythms. In this lesson we’ll superimpose quintuplets across two beats using a five-over-two polyrhythm and across three beats using a five-over-three polyrhythm.…