September 2020 Issue – Volume 44 • Number 9
Articles in September 2020
18 Drummers to Follow on Instagram
Worldwide pandemic or not, we’re all spending more time online nowadays, and there’s plenty of drumming action happening on the social media platform Instagram, which allows users to upload photos and videos. With a video length restriction of sixty seconds,…
Live-Streaming Setups
As much of the world continues to be locked down due to COVID-19, professional educators and performers of all ranks are having to quickly adopt new ways to deliver their instruction and art in high-quality digital form. Here we outline…
Stay Inspired!
It’s a great honor to write my first Overview since becoming CEO and publisher of the world’s longest-standing drum publication—and well beyond that, resource—for drums, drumming, and drummers. I’ve been an ardent reader of Modern Drummer since 1979, two years…
Odd Groupings on the Offbeats
Alternative Rhythmic Placements for More Adventurous Options If you’ve been working through my articles over the past few years, you’ve been exposed to a good number of odd subdivisions, particularly quintuplets. We almost exclusively start those advanced rhythms on the…
What Was Your First Favorite Drum Record?
Vivid by Living Colour. Will Calhoun plays masterfully and with tons of power. It was perfect: playable but loaded with nuance.Scott Sparks Manu Katché on Peter Gabriel’s Secret World Live. I was around five, and it just blew my mind.…
Wood and Weather Drum Shop
Indian Orchard, Massachusetts Joe Barthelette is proof that you don’t need to be in or near a major city to have a successful vintage drum business. Enticed by a drool-inducing Instagram feed and website showcasing the various crown-jewel kits, snares,…
The Classic Recordings of Ginger Baker, Part 2: Tilt-a-Whirl
Like the amusement park ride—whose name was pinched for a song by Masters of Reality, one of the many unique projects Ginger Baker involved himself in the post–classic rock era—the variety and exuberance of Ginger’s later output could make your…
Stick Technique Revisited
Part 3: Downstrokes, Taps, and Upstrokes If we used only free strokes, our playing would become pretty dull, since every note would be played at the same stick height and dynamic level. In order to add accents and dynamic contour…
Arturia - AudioFuse 8Pre
A simple, sleek, and super clean-sounding audio interface with enough channels for eight mics. As if becoming a proficient drummer wasn’t hard enough, in today’s technological landscape being able to record yourself well is arguably of equal importance. Objectively speaking,…
On the Road to Rockford
This month we present Joseph Ciucci’s Ludwig Mod Orange Club Date set and Acrolite snare. Both were manufactured in December of 1967 and purchased from famed Cheap Trick drummer Bun E. Carlos, who is a well-known vintage drum enthusiast. “On…
Beats and Fills
A Smattering of Favorites from a Few Top Pros This month we’ve gathered a collection of favorite beats and fills from some of the top drummers in the world.Each of these transcriptions was pulled from a Modern Drummer exclusive video…
Mike Johnston
Mike Johnston is a trailblazer in online education, having seen the immense potential within the platform when YouTube first launched in 2005. Today his aesthetic and educational delivery is seen as the benchmark. MD: How long have you been involved…
Avenues to Excellence
15 MD Cover Artists Reveal the Big Ideas That Put Them on the Road to Success The abundance of educational material online, as well as great teachers to mold your passion and enthusiasm into technique and musicality, are massively beneficial…
Jay Rudolph
MD contributor Lia Braswell catches up with her old friend, who recently toured with the much-admired folk-rock act Weyes Blood. Weyes Blood, the alias of singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Natalie Mering, has been soaring through the music scene with her…
Paiste - Formula 602
New Additions to a Classic Line In 1959, Paiste debuted the Formula 602 series as its first high-end cymbal line. These models ushered in a level of sonic consistency that has since become a signature of the Swiss company’s engineering.…
Russ Miller
Russ Miller has been a staple of the Los Angeles studio scene for many years, and he’s recorded with everyone from Ray Charles to the Psychedelic Furs and appeared in house bands for television shows. Miller has created his instructional…
Remembering Neil Peart
Part 1: “Malignant Narcissism” When it comes to breaking down the drum parts on the instrumental song “Malignant Narcissism” from Rush’s 2007 studio album, Snakes & Arrows, there’s no better place to go than the man who played it, Neil…
Inspired Instruction
Five Drum Students Celebrate the Teachers that Mentor Them Our online education issue features interviews with several of the top educators working in online drum instruction today. We thought it would be equally interesting to turn the tables and ask…
5 Fun Lessons to Get Today’s Youth into Drumming
If your child is banging his or her dinner utensils around and smacking pillows with plastic lightsabers, it’s likely time to transition your budding rhythmatist to some drum lessons. The challenge is how to maintain the entertainment factor of bashing…
