January 2013 Issue – Volume 38 • Number 1

Popular Play-Alongs

Part 3: Synth Medal In the last two play-along articles, we worked on the proper performance technique, groove vocabulary, and sounds of contemporary pop/R&B and punk-pop— two styles of music that you’ll likely be asked to play as a working…

The Evolution of the Drumset

The drumset is unique among contemporary instruments. It’s a truly global invention, with most of its individual parts originating many thousands of years ago, in the far corners of the globe.Yet its current familiar form didn’t really exist until well…

Don't Disturb The Groove!

Part 3: Combination Patterns In this third installment we’ll combine the two techniques that we’ve been working on: broken doubles and hi-hat substitutions. Some of the grooves incorporate the entire drumset rather than only the bass drum, snare, and hi-hat.…

Vinnie Colaiuta - Just Being Himself

Heroes are hard to find. And they’re often tougher to pin down. Vinnie Colaiuta, for one, refuses to bend to expectations—and he doesn’t think you should either.   It might be different on some other life-sustaining planet, light-years away. But…

Snare Drum Studies

Lessons In Counting and Stretching Rhythm For drummers, the rudiments are often likened to scales for other instrumentalists, but we have scales too. These “rhythm scales” give us access to new percussive “notes” like the quintuplet. The results we get…

Inner Drumming

Listening With All Four Limbs, Part 4 If this is the first time you’re reading about Inner Drumming, the diagrams in this article may seem unusual. But rest assured that if you spend a few minutes with them, you’ll begin…

Daniel Glass: Examining the Drumset’s Century-Long Tale of Change

  Across two ambitious DVD sets, the performer and educator captures the fascinating development of our beloved “contraption,” providing historical and practical knowledge that every modern drummer can apply. Will Romano reports.   Just prior to the dawn of the…

Mike Porcaro

August 5, 2012, was the twentieth anniversary of revered studio and stage drummer Jeff Porcaro’s untimely passing.

Make A Statement!

Concepts for Drumset Improvisation Improvisation is at the core of every great jazz performance, and as we mature as musicians we become more confident in expressing ourselves on our instrument. The rhythmic or melodic concepts that we play illustrate a…

January 2013 Issue – Volume 38 • Number 1