Lessons

Hand Drum Hand Drum - Featured

Brad Dutz: Learning The Art Of Acquisition

Part of a percussionist’s job is creating and collecting instruments, which I think is also very fun. The more instruments you have, the more gigs you can cover. Having unique instruments can also be your calling card for studio work.

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Practice Pad Jazz

Peter Erskine: Playing Around With Velocities

Here’s some cool drum vocabulary that best exists in its own time and space frame; such rhythms shouldn’t be transcribed in measured time.

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Cover Story

Hot Licks: The Birth Of Punk Rock

If you’re familiar only with today’s brand of prefab pop punk, you owe it to yourself to check out the gritty bands that spawned the music, fashions, and attitude that went on to influence several generations of punk rockers. The songs could be political and blunt with lyrics that ranged from confrontational to apathetic or just plain sarcastic. The drumming style was often primal, direct, and without frills. Here are a handful that made it happen.

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Practice Pad Rock

Mike Cosgrove Does Some Tom Bashin’

We're gonna’ beat on the toms! Lots of rock songs use toms to push the groove with a warmer and fatter dynamic.

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Practice Pad Metal

Matt Byrne’s Hand/Foot Independence

This month, we’re going to work on building coordination and endurance between one hand and one foot. All drumming revolves around singles, doubles, and paradiddles.

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Cover Story

Ian Paice: The Origin Of Progressive Metal

Few bands have enjoyed the longevity of Deep Purple or survived the endless lineup and style changes that the group has weathered over the past three-plus decades. Such a healthy lifespan can be easily explained as a byproduct of the masterful musicianship and stylistic diversity found on pop tunes like “Hush,” “Hey Joe,” or “Kentucky Woman,” intermingled with their original metal and keyboard-driven progressive rock styles on “Burn” or classic metal anthems like “Smoke On The Water.”

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Practice Pad Metal

Speed Drumming: Derek Roddy’s Weak Foot Buster

Derek Roddy knows a thing or two about playing fast, having literally written the book on the subject — The Evolution Of Blast Beats. But he didn’t develop his superhuman speed overnight, and in this video lesson he shares his secret for developing your weak foot. Better brace yourself, though — your shins are sure to burn after this weak foot buster.

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Drum Parts

Pedaling Lesson #2: Art Cruz Turns On Overdrive

In second part of Art Cruz’s focus on bass drum technique, the remarkable Winds Of Plague drummer demonstrates how he approaches his fastest bass drum patterns by reverting to an toe-activated style that employs an odd inward angling of his right foot. He then demonstrates the technique on the song “Soldiers Of Doomsday” from the band’s brutal 2009 release The Great Stone War.

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Tiger Bill

Tiger Bill’s Backsticking Tricks Part 2

Check out some neat backsticking tricks of the trade

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Practice Pad Jazz

Peter Erskine: Playing Around With Velocities

Here’s some cool drum vocabulary that best exists in its own time and space frame; such rhythms shouldn’t be transcribed in measured time. Why? Because these are rhythmic expressions more of velocity and emotion rather than technique.

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Cover Story Artist Analysis

Groove Analysis: Thomas Lang’s “Loki”

Nate Brown of Onlinedrummer.com shows you how to master the tricks of Thomas Lang.

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Practice Pad Metal

The Mind Of Matt Byrne: Slamming In Six

I’ve explored some whacky time signatures in past columns, but this month I’m going to take it back a notch with some beats in 6/4.

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