June 2021 – Volume 45 • Number 6
On 18th Jun 2021
Christian Morissette’s Rig is Ready for Any Style
Christian Morissette is a psychologist in Quebec, Canada, who somehow finds the time to not only pursue his passion for drumming, but also to do session work, run a home studio, teach drum clinics, and even offer group drum lessons for children’s birthday parties.
“Active drummers must master all musical styles, and always have the right tones for the job,” he says. “My DW kit and Meinl cymbals offer me an incredible choice of sounds.”
Morissette’s main tonal palette is comprised of a DW Collector Series kit with three bass drums (20", 22", and 26"), 10" and 12" rack toms, and 14" and 16" (not pictured) floor toms. Depending on the gig, he can switch between a 5.5x13 DW Aluminum Snare and a 4x13 PDP Eric Hernandez “Panda” Signature Model. His pedal is a DW Double MCD. Drumheads are Evans EC2 and UV1, and his drumsticks are ProMark 747B Super Rock Hickory with nylon tips (for rock and pop) and ProMark 7A Long Maple (for jazz). He obviously has a thing for Meinl Byzance cymbals, as he has bonded with the model line for his 10" Dark Splash; 10" Dual Splash; 16", 17", and 18" Jazz Medium Crashes; 20" Dark Ride; 21" Jazz Nuance Ride; 22" Jazz China Ride; and 13" Dark Hi-Hats. Everything is moved and stored in Protection Racket cases.
Articles in June 2021
Sandy Ficca
Igniting Firefall for 36 Years It’s a blisterin’, burnin’, and blazin’ hot day in the summer of 1970, and 18-year-old Sandy Ficca is more than a little nervous. In fact, he’s flat-out scared. Running one hand through his shoulder-length hair…
Gruv Gear – VELOC Drum Transport
Gruv Gear is a lifestyle-accessories brand that provides musicians with thoughtful and innovative products that help keep things organized, efficient, and stylish. We reviewed the company’s stick and accessory bags in the November 2020 issue, and we were blown away…
Terry Keating
Spreading the Gospel of Bonzo Terry Keating’s Bonzoleum channel has been a fixture on YouTube for the wide community of John Bonham devotees since 2008. Keating is prolific, with hundreds of videos ranging from play-throughs of songs, a wealth of…
Syndrum, January 1978
It started out with baseball bats. Well, actually, the whole thing was inspired by session drummer Joe Pollard’s frustration over hitting his drums with “sticks the size of baseball bats” to combat the colossal volume levels unleashed by amped-up, wattage-crazed…
Six-Way Independence
In my “Six-Way Independence” master class on Drum Channel, I wanted to give my students the opportunity to learn the way I learned, and how I came up with my concepts. I started thinking about all of the combinations I…
Three-Against-Four Polyrhythm
These exercises will guide you through a fusion of African and American elements. On the American side, we have shuffle and shuffle-funk. On the African side, we have the rhythms from Cameroon known as mangambe and bikutsi. Playing these exercises…
Session Thoughts
From the MD Archives Modern Drummer has assembled tons of wisdom from incredible players throughout its 45 years, so it’s no surprise we have exhaustive data on how drummers approach their art in the recording studio. Here are ten quick…
Hearts, Minds, and Eyeballs
Three Drummers Reveal Their Paths to Social Stardom It’s no secret that the new normal for developing a music career—or almost any business for that matter—is being discovered via an online video that goes viral. Of course, generating massive audience…
John Densmore
Modern Drummer, December 1982 “On the Doors albums, I always went for the drums to have real personality. I always had the bottom heads off all of my drums, and I hated new skins and new drums. I liked to…
YOYOKA
How An 11-Year-Old Drummed Her Way to International Stardom Warning: Do not pit your productivity and public standing against that of 11-year-old YOYOKA, because unless you happen to be Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Richard Branson all rolled into one…
Sean J. Kennedy Salutes Ray Deeley
I studied drums and percussion with Ray Deeley while I was a high-school student back in the mid 1980s. Ironically, so did my wife, Heather, who went to a different high school about an hour away from where I lived.…
Roland – VAD306 Compact Electronic Drumset
This past year, Roland unveiled the new VAD (V-Drums Acoustic Design) series. These innovative drums provide a familiar acoustic drumset look and playing experience, but with all the technological advantages of their electronic mod-ules, mesh pads, and rubber cymbals. We…
Balancing Grunt Work and Creativity
This is a follow up to the March 2021 article I did for MD entitled “Practice Like a Pro.” (You can find it at moderndrummer.com.) In that piece, I shared techniques that can be used to effectively learn songs. Muscle…
ProMark, Low Boy Custom Beaters and Vic Firth
ProMark Carter McLean Signature Drumsticks The Carter McLean signature stick is made from hickory with a custom wood tip. It measures .571” in diameter and 16 1/8” in length with a lacquered finish. The custom tip shape provides a range…
The Modern Drummer Product Guide
11 Snare Drums You Must Try There are drummers who remain loyal to one brand or configuration of snare drum throughout their careers. But there are also players such as Todd Sucherman, who has walls of shelving packed ever-so-neatly with…
The Power of Exciting an Audience
Forgive me for pointing out the obvious, but Nandi Bushell is the youngest drummer ever to grace the cover of this magazine. (Honorable mention to 16-year-old Tony Royster Jr., who appeared on the January 2000 cover along with Dennis Chambers.)…
Double-Bass Eighth Notes with Foot Two
Realistic Double Feet can be performed on a double-bass drum set or a regular drum set with foot one playing the bass drum and foot two playing the hi-hat. For this exercise, dive into the rhythmic concept first, and then…
Bobby Morris 1928 – 2021
When Bobby Morris first reached out to see if Hudson Music would be interested in publishing his autobiography, My Las Vegas, I had two concerns. First, “Do enough people in the Hudson Music audience know who he is?” And second,…
Drum Miking on the Cheap
Many of us have read about the stellar, well-populated microphone cabinets of famous big studios that were used to record famous big albums. Fabulous luxury-mic manufacturers such as Neumann, Telefunken, Earthworks, and Coles get tossed around in these articles, and,…
