June 2024 – Volume 48 • Number 06

James Brown: The Funky Drummer, Clyde Stubblefield Transcription by Marc Atkinson

When Tower of Power asked, “What is Hip?” Clyde Stubblefield answered! Grooves don’t get much hipper than this. Recorded in 1969, released in 1970, and again on CD in 1986, “The Funky Drummer” from the album In The Jungle Groove…

Patrick Wilson - Ergo Fuego, I Just Want to Play!

Weezer’s Patrick Wilson is a drummer just like many of us reading this article right now. He loves Rush and Van Halen. He says things like, “I buy so much gear based on demos that I see online, and then…

The Bass Drum Owners Manual: Mastering the Art of Weight Distribution Part Two: Springless Practice

Welcome to the second installment on the topic of Mastering Weight Distribution, The Power of Springless Practice. What if I told you that you could enhance your bass drum technique by practicing without the spring on your pedal, or what…

Buzz Roll Studies: 8th Notes with Buzz Rolls

In Joe Morello’s book Master Studies, he details different techniques to develop control on the drums. These exercises develop technique, control, and will help you develop different vocabulary from the different sounds we can produce with our hands. This chapter…

The Bobby Rock Peavey “Renaissance” aka. “Sistine Chapel” Kit

Derl Maxwell is a lifelong drummer who has earned the reputation around the Southeast as the “hat drummer.” While he has a love/hate relationship with his reputation of entertaining people with drum tricks, faces, antics, and unique hats while he’s…

The Encyclopedia of Double Bass Drumming: Eighth-Note Double Bass Drum Beats

In the new and revised edition of the Encyclopedia of Double Bass Drumming, Bobby 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 ternary…

Marcelo Novati’s Juanes Touring Kit

Drums: DW Collectors (Maple SSC) in broken glass finish - 18x22 Bass Drum, 10x13 rack tom, 16x16 floor tom, 6 1/2x14 brass snare, 6x12 maple snare in tiger oyster finish (side snare.) Heads: Evans drumheads - Bass Drums: 22 HEAVYWEIGHT clear with DW muffling…

Matchbox Twenty and Liz Phair’s Neal Daniels

You may or may not have heard of pop/rock drummer Neal Daniels, but there’s a good chance you’ll be seeing a lot more of him in the future. He’s been providing the rhythmic foundation for touring artists like Rachel Platten,…

Out Now June 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…

Community, Scene

It’s a subject that comes up often in my interviews— Being part of a community or a scene, and I can’t stress its importance enough! All drummers (should) know about how supportive the drum community is for one another. It’s…

Trinity 18” Heavy Holey Crash

Trinity Cymbals are HEAVY Trinity Cymbals have been around for several years. However, the cymbals themselves seem much older than the U.S. distribution that brings them to us today. Trinity Cymbals was officially founded in 2019 in Weaverville, CA, in…

Whom Gods Destroy’s Bruno Valverde

From Maracatu to Metal Brazil is known for its rhythmic contributions to the music world. In music you can’t ignore the Brazilian styles of Samba, Bossa Nova, and Maracatu. But recently Brazil’s contribution to Heavy Metal drumming has been overwhelming…

Understanding the Language of Music - Diatonic Harmony

This month we will be building upon the subjects of the last three articles: 6th and 7th Chords, Form and Structure, and Roman Numerals and the Circle of Fifths. Diatonic Harmony is based around the chords that fall within the…

Tina Raymond - Musical Divinations and Educational Heritage

Tina Raymond is a musical force of nature. With over 20 records (as a leader and a side person) to her credit, she can play anything. Her newest record called Divinations is one of the best drummer-led records I’ve heard…

Dialtune Snare Drums

Premium Snare, New Lower Price If you haven’t seen or heard about Dialtune by now, you must’ve been living under a rock. Dialtune is an innovative drum company that has made headlines over the past few years for their patented…

New and Notable June 2024

Latin Percussion’s 60th Anniversary Cowbell, Jam Block, Cabasa, and Vibra-Slap III To commemorate sixty amazing years Latin Percussion (LP) has expanded its much-loved percussion range with the addition of the 60th Anniversary Ridge Rider Cowbell, Jam Block, Afuche / Cabasa…

Shelly and his Mannerisms

This month’s column is written by Kevin van den Elzen who hails from the Netherlands and now makes his home in Los Angeles. Kevin received his master’s degree at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California…

Let the “Good Times Roll”

This month’s Modern Drummer Kit of the Month comes to us from Bryan Beyer. He built this 70s Slingerland kit for his Cars tribute band called Moving in Stereo. The drums are 14x24, 10x14, 14x14, 14x16, and 16x16 shells that…

June 2024 – Volume 48 • Number 06