June 2021 – Volume 45 • Number 6

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.…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

Dream Cymbals – Dark Matter Bliss and Vintage Bliss

Canadian company Dream introduced the drumming world to its dry, raw, twice-torched Dark Matter cymbals in 2010, and they’ve remained top-sellers ever since. Meanwhile, the Bliss series—one of Dream’s original lines—continues to motor on, providing players with warm, dark, and…

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…

The Frankie Banali Collection

In the early 2000s, I received a call regarding some Elvin Jones items I was selling. It was quickly apparent the person I was speaking to had studied Elvin’s playing intensely and had been deeply influenced by him. Our conversation…

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.)…

Marco Minnemann

Composition Takes Center Stage Germany’s Marco Minnemann exploded onto the drumming scene in the late 1990s with his extreme interdependence innovations and advanced technique that quickly earned him international super-drummer status. His fearless, dynamic, and entertaining approach to soloing includes…

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,…

A Wealth of Options

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…

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…

Evelyn Glennie

The Rhythm of Resonance and Feel Dame Evelyn Glennie is a world-class musician, a master listener, and an extraordinary human who is perhaps the first person to make a life-long career strictly as a solo percussionist. You cannot categorize her…

June 2021 - Volume 45 • Number 6

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…

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…

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…

Experiential Healing and Drumming

Experiential healing is a therapeutic technique for consciously participating in our own physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual healing processes. It is healing with awareness and purpose to unlock feelings, thoughts, and pain that may be keeping us in patterns of…