When Greyson Nekrutman was ten years old, his mother decided it would be fun to put videos of him playing the drums on Instagram. From these humble beginnings Nekrutman has built a global profile, attracting endorsements from Pearl, Meinl, Vic Firth

Some of the UK’s top drummers joined forces to tip a hat to the NHS, raise awareness for mental health issues and make a whole lot of noise as part of Drumathon 2021. The event originated after Imagination drummer Errol Kennedy began quite literally

“The first time I met Steve was when we were both playing with Chuck Mangione at a club in Rochester. Gee, he was playing great, but he was playing kind of an old style. I thought, ‘I wonder if has ever heard Tony Williams play?’ So we got together o

Here we are going to continue this issue’s theme of stepped hi-hat ideas but in a swing or shuffle context. The basic patterns entail splitting the shuffle rhythm between the right hand and left foot, so the left foot plays the swung upbeat, or ‘skip

Welcome to Beats Working, the part of the magazine aimed at helping drummers of all abilities to develop and progress. Kicking things off in this issue is the familiar trio of Colin Woolway, Erik Stams and myself, and we’re looking at ways of incorpo

Oh! There are a s**t-tonne of songs I wish I had played on. There’s a Toto song called ‘Dave’s Gone Skiing’ with Simon Phillips on drums. It is this long, instrumental song. Simon Phillips just rips on this song in all of these strange time signature

How have the last 18 months been? If I had to use one word to sum it up, it would be ‘challenging’. My business suffered financially as did a lot of others, but my friends in the industry all tried to stay as positive as they could. I did enjoy the

The 1970s was an era of big changes and experiments in the drum world. Ludwig had great success with its Vistalite acrylic shell drums and followed it up with this striking series in stainless steel. The brand had for long led the pack with its metal

“We were formed, basically, by Joe [Meek, producer] as a session band. The stuff I did with Joe! He recorded the bass drum case, not the bass drum. It was a bit awkward because the pedal used to move around. Joe did lots of different things to get so

“The six-stroke is one of my favourite rudiments and these variations work equally on pad, snare drum or developing onto the drum set.” “These are lovely to play and, as with so much of this book, I started with the pad and practiced diligently. The

“It was a total out-of-body experience headlining Download. Although it strangely seemed like we had never been away, the show felt unreal – mainly because we thought festivals were dead and buried for this year and we didn’t see the opportunity comi

Throughout this introduction to hybrid drumming we’ve worked on assigning samples to external pads and triggers, applying effects, layering samples and much more. By now you’ve likely built several sample banks to cater for different musical styles o

“ I want to do everything. I’m quite greedy. I just want to play,” says Simone Odaranile. Turning words into deeds, Odaranile’s career spans being a member of The Go! Team alongside session work including The X Factor and playing with Rina Sawayama o

This is actionable with both hands but for these articles I will only use the right hand for the low tone. Check out the ‘O’ outline on the palm in Fig 8 below. The objective is to place this directly over the hole, palm down, and leave it there. You

“When his signature kit was being developed, Steve spent a lot of time with Yamaha’s then chief designer, Takashi Hagiwara, aka Hagi, and they were able to achieve exactly what suited Steve and his ideals. Nothing in his setup has really changed in 3

At the age of 11, Joe Wong sat down at a drum kit and knew instantly that he’d found his home. He became a touring musician in his teens, attended Berklee, moved to Los Angeles, and now hosts The Trap Set podcast, talking to drummers about the life e

Hello everyone, welcome back to my drum lesson and to the wacky world of stepped hi-hat notes. I often think that the hi-hat is the most underrated element of the drum set, and the art of playing it with the foot is largely ignored by a lot of drumme

The drum can be played in many positions – in your lap, in a ring on the floor or on a table or even in a ring fixed into a snare drum stand. Some drumset players have it to the left of the hi-hat on top of a drum case. Anything can work as long as i

It’s happening! The world is slowly opening up and that means getting back to live music – and I’m excited. Although I have to admit that riding shotgun to my enthusiasm is the stark realisation that my live chops are definitely not where I left them

PRICE £1,029 In 2018, Zildjian released the K Sweet line, which capitalised on the original popularity of the 23" A Sweet ride, introducing an entire set, only this time under the K Zildjian moniker. The full range includes 16", 17", 18", 19" and 20"

Having enjoyed a career so far that has incorporated styles as varied as jazz gigs, rock anthems with The Darkness and prog rock with Frost*, Darby Todd is now stepping into the spotlight with his ferocious new fusion album, The Reality Of Zeros And

We all know what a dark time the last 18 months have been for the music world with events canned left, right and centre, but finally, shows have begun to return and perhaps none is more welcome than Simon John’s Vintage Drum Show. An always-anticipat

After spending some time in the Big Apple, we now head east to somewhere that I’ve always wanted to visit and has been on my travel list for many years. Where is that? I hear you ask.... Japan! It’s just a shame that these are virtual visits as this