June 2021 – Volume 45 • Number 6
On 18th Jun 2021
Articles in June 2021
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…
Nandi Bushell
Pre-Teen Drumming Evangelist Spreads the Joy of Playing Across the Planet It’s an unrelenting bombardment of music and joyfulness that makes Beatlemania, T-Rextasy, and the Kardashian phenomenon seem like underachieving, ho-hum non-happenings. It’s almost unfathomable how many times each day…
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…
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,…
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…
Developing a Musical Concept
One of the key aspects in developing a musical concept for show and studio performance—or any other area of performance for that matter—is the tuning of your drums. Too many players overlook this elementary consideration. When your drum set is…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
