April 2024 – Volume 48 • Number 04

Accent Studies with Eighth Notes

This section combines alternate stickings with one handed stickings, while stressing accents. It is essential to maintain only two dynamic levels in each exercise: the accented level and the unaccented level. Also be sure to keep an even sound when…

Custom RCI Starlite Moondust Acrylic Kit

This month’s Modern Drummer Kit of the Month comes to us from drummer Lou Caldarola. Lou’s kit was created by Romano Cotone of RCI Starlite Company in CT. Moondust shells were a limited run consisting of clear acrylic shell with…

Understanding the Language of Music - Roman Numerals and the Circle of 5ths

Modern Drummer founder Ron Spagnardi wrote an excellent book called Understanding the Language of Music, a Drummer’s Guide to Theory and Harmony. This book spells out the basics of theory and harmony in a very easy to understand way. It…

April 2024 – Volume 48 • Number 04

Out Now April 2024

Modern Drummer is spotlighting new recordings that have the drums at the center of their sound. These recordings might be drummer-led, or just include a high-quality, special, or unique drumming and musical performance from the drummer and/or musicians in the…

Shelly Manne: “You Can’t Have 2 and 4 Without…”

What is the essence of a musician? How do we quantify their achievements, their history, their sound, and their very being? For many of us, such revelations came by way of LPs — oftentimes not-to-secret communications from the past, but…

Mike Reid - Playing the Patterns with Justin Timberlake

In today’s pop music world, why does it seem that there are only a handful of drummers who are doing all of the top gigs? Why do pop stars like Janet Jackson, Rihanna, Charlie Puth, Alicia Keys, Demi Lovato, and…

The Bass Drum Owners Manual: More Hand and Foot Combinations and Etude #3

This month Modern Drummer will continue to include excerpts from Michael Packer’s essential book on bass drum control and technique The Bass Drum Owners Manual: Applying the Moeller Technique to the Bass Drum. As you will see, this is a…

The Encyclopedia of Double Bass Drumming: 16th Note Triplets

In the new and revised edition of the Encyclopedia of Double Bass Drumming, Bobby Rondinelli includes nine new double bass drumming chapters. The new and expanded edition covers contemporary techniques such as bass drum double strokes, feet-only exercises, binary and…

New and Notable April 2024

BFD Player 1.2 Update Offers More Drum Kits, Mix Presets and Grooves Pioneering drum software company BFD, announces BFD Player 1.2 - now available for purchase at bfddrums.com. The latest update in the BFD Player platform, originally launched in October…

“Two Bass Hit” Transcription by Marc Atkinson

This month’s transcription delves into the timeless classic “Two Bass Hit” from the brilliant Miles Davis album, Milestones. Tony Williams once called Milestones, “The perfect jazz record.”  With each instrument brimming with musicality, it’s no surprise that icons like Miles,…

Listen to What the Music is Telling You to Play!

In this month’s Modern Drummer, legendary songwriter Lenny Kravitz, Justin Timberlake’s Mike Reid, and Chic’s Ralph Rolle all allude to the phrase, “Listen to what the music is telling you to play” in their interviews regarding the subject of how…

Enrique Iglesias and The Steve Morse Band’s Van Romaine

A synthesizer chord hits, as the stage lights blast through the smoke-filled arena. Recognizing the tune, the sold-out crowd leaps to their feet, just in time for the drum groove to kick in. It’s a powerful four-on-the-floor groove with sloshy…

Bruno Esrubilsky - Mitski Tour Set

DRUMS: GRETSCH Late 50’s /early 60’s Round Badge, 3ply maple/gum in White Marine Pearl Finish: 8x12 Rack Tom, 14x14 and 16x16 Floor Toms, 14x20 Bass Drum, Main Snare: 6.5x14 Pearl Sensitone Alloy with Puresound Snare Wires, Side Snare: Vintage 5.5x14…

Lenny Kravitz Talks Drums

Lenny Kravitz has played drums, programmed the drum parts, or created the loops on all of his songs for the last 35 years with only two exceptions. He is a multi-instrumentalist songwriter walking in the tradition of Stevie Wonder and…

Mapex 600 Series Drum Thrones - Comfort Meets Endurance

Ask any seasoned drummer or percussionist what is the most important piece of equipment that you own, and most will resoundingly say that’s it’s the seat that they sit on. Why? Because sitting while drumming is a four-limb exercise in…