Drum History

Rob Birenbaum is the founder of Drum Headquarters in St. Louis, MO and HQ Percussion, which famously produced the iconic RealFeel practice pads and Sound Off drum mute pads. This is a great story of how Rob started as a salesman/drum teacher at a local Missouri drum shop and took that knowledge and created his own shop which became a dominate force in his area, and became the top Tama dealer in th...

(Part 2) Paul Wells is a Professor of Jazz Drums at Juilliard and he is also a fanatical fan of Neil Peart and his drum sets. This is part 2 of a 3 part series that covers all of the drums, cymbals, hardware, heads, and percussion that helped Neil Peart be one of the best drummers in history. This episode covers Neil's introduction to electronic drums that he used with the Tama Candy Apple Red Kit...

Paul Wells is a Professor of Jazz Drums at Juilliard and he is also a fanatical fan of Neil Peart and his drum sets. This is part 1 of a 3 part series that covers all of the drums, cymbals, hardware, heads, and percussion that helped Neil Peart be one of the best drummers in history. This episode covers Neil's very first drum set as a child, up through his iconic Candy Apple Red Tama kit that beca...

The list of legendary drummers that played with the late Wayne Shorter is absolutely incredible. Mark Griffith takes us through each album and stage in Waynes career and which iconic drummer was involved at any given time. Just to name a few, he played with people such as Art Blakey, Tony Williams, Jack DeJohnette, Elvin Jones, Ndugu Chancler, Peter Erskine, Bryan Blade, Jeff Porcaro and that is j...

(This is EP49 from May, 2020) We learn the role of drummers in the Military and the purpose they served as a form of communication and a way to keep the troops unified during battle starting with the US Colonies through to the Revolutionary War. Then we take a deep dive into the Civil War and learn all about the importance of the Fife and Drum Corp on both sides in the extremely bloody war that di...

Bob Cianci, the author of "The Great Rock Drummers of the Sixties," takes us on a trip down memory lane to explore the iconic drummers who revolutionized the sound of rock music in the 1960s. Through fascinating anecdotes and historical insights, Cianci shares his personal experiences and extensive research on drumming legends such as Ringo Starr, Keith Moon, Charlie Watts, and many others. I gain...

Bruce Becker has written a brand new book that takes the iconic "Progressive Steps to Syncopation for the Modern Drummer" by Ted Reed to the next level and gives Bruce's signature teaching approach to one of the top selling drum books of all time. Bruce's new book is called "The Ultimate Guide to Syncopation: Concepts for the Development of Motion, Melody, and Independence. Bruce starts the conver...

Jared Falk is the founder of Drumeo which has grown to be one of the top platforms for online education in the world. Drumeo is not only a great source of online education on drumeo.com, but the brand is also a giant across social media and YouTube as with millions of subscribers and followers. Drumeo has changed the way online lessons are presented and is responsible for creating countless new dr...

Rob Leytham uses Neuro-Rhythmic Trauma Therapy to help children regulate their emotions with the power of drumming. He uses brain science and his 35 years of drum teaching skills to help kids avoid the normal punishments and suspensions that they would normally face. Not only is his classroom full of Djembes and percussion instruments, but Rob's passion has spread to the entire faculty at Ridgevie...

ASBA Drums is an iconic French drum brand that dates back to 1927 with a very interesting history. Damo and Saúl share the full story of this brand which began as just an accessory company, and grew to be a fully formed drum brand that made literally everything in house. They created drum heads, they had a foundry and made all the hardware and metal drum shells and the wood shells and everything e...

Sahir aka Sai teaches us the process of building drum shells from foraging for the perfect tree in the forest all the way to processing the ply's to create beautiful drum shells. We talk about the modern technology that is used to create sturdy and dependable shells that our drum building ancestors only dreamed about and much much more. Not only does Sai create beautiful drums for some of the bigg...

JP Bouvet takes us on a deep dive into the concept of improvising on the drum kit. We discuss things like how to practice improvisation, the misconceptions that come with it, how you can break out of your "go-to beats" and much more! JP is a monster player very well respected teacher who has built his brand around the importance of improvising on the drum kit and entering the flow mode. Check out...

Eric Sooy founded Black Swamp Percussion nearly 30 years ago and has built the brand from the ground up by creating extremely high quality orchestral and band percussion instruments. Eric teaches me the nuance that goes into creating tambourines for orchestras and the differences between that and a traditional drum set tambourine, plus we also discuss what makes an orchestral snare special for tha...

David Frangioni, CEO of Modern Drummer, makes an exclusive announcement about the future of Modern Drummer right here on Drum History! Not only do we learn about the exciting news, we also get an update on what has been happening with the magazine since the Frangioni family took things over in February 2020, just weeks before the pandemic changed the world forever, and how this has shaped the exci...

Earl Bennett has been a collector and enthusiast of US drum magazines for the last 40+ years and he shares his vast knowledge of known magazines like Modern Drummer, Drum!, and Rhythm plus other lesser known ones like Traps, Classic Drummer, and Talking Drum. We discuss the many different styles and variations of magazines through the years and how they had to pivot in the digital age to stay aliv...

Eric Leiderman is a producer of NBC's Late Night with Seth Meyers and is the man behind the rotating drummer program which has given drummers of all styles the chance to perform with the 8G band on national American television. The 8G Band is the house band for Late Night with Seth Meyers and the band is led by Fred Armisen (Saturday Night Live, Portlandia, Wednesday). Due to Fred Armisens extreme...

This weeks episode is a classic episode from 2020 featuring Jerry Granelli, who was the drummer for the iconic "A Charlie Brown Christmas" soundtrack. Jerry passed away in July, 2021 so I am very grateful to have spent this time with him. He shares the story of the writing and recording of the album and great info on the creation of the TV special. He tells us about how he wanted nothing to do wit...

Howie Stulberg worked for Buddy Rich as his roadie/assistant when he was 21 years old in 1978 and had the time of his life for 2 years. He shares great stories of how some days he and Buddy would be drinking malts and going to baseball games, but and other days if you caught Buddy in the wrong mood - he would give you a piece of his mind and fire you on the spot. Howie discusses a day in the life...

Brandon teaches us the importance of using ergonomics to set up your drum set and perform in a correct way that allows you to drum for the rest of your life without any pain. He uses many great scientific examples of ways to improve upon the common mistakes that drummers make which leads to pain in our necks, backs, shoulders, and wrists. We also discuss how some of the greats like Phil Collins an...

Jeremy and Max discuss cutting their teeth with OCDP, the origins of Q Drum Co., and also Jeremy's recent heroic battle with stomach cancer that has brought his career as a successful drum tech to a halt while he recovers. The silver lining is that this has brought the drum community together to rally around Jeremy like never before to get him back on his feet. Jeremy Berman and Max Cuzor have bui...

Was there anything cooler than a brand new gigantic Power Tom Drum Set in the 1980's? The answer is a no! Kyle Schneider is a power tom enthusiast who has put together a great history of this iconic type of drum set that has got a large and passionate following. Kyle is a listener of the podcast who took it upon himself to do the research and put together an episode that would explain the origin s...

This episode is an in-depth look at John Bonham's drum kits, cymbals, heads, and sticks through his prolific career with Led Zeppelin. Terry Keating (Bonzoleum) and George Fludas (Bonhamology) are experts on all things Bonzo and made this episode a ton of fun and very informative. We start with his rusty old Premier kit, then go through his Trixon and Slingerland sets, then go into extreme detail...

Barry James has just released a book that he co-wrote with Joe Morello all about how to count the famous "Stick Control" book from 1935. This book is the top selling drum lesson book of all time, and majority of the teachers throughout history haven't known how to properly count this book of R's and L's. Joe Morello and Barry were both students of George Lawrence Stone and they were working hard t...

This is a great classic episode from Dec 2019 - Bernie purchased the original Slingerland radio frequency drum shell making machinery on an Ebay auction in 2001, and that began his decade long quest to figure out how they work. He went through hundreds of attempts to figure out how these incredibly complex machines created drum shells before he got help from from Jack Moritz, a former Slingerland...

Orange County was one of the most popular drum brands in the world in the early 2000's, and I am joined today by Corey Manske and Nick Turner who were some of the original builders during the heyday. Jarrod Fallon is a restorer and buff on all things OCDP and he co-hosts the episode with me. This is a follow up to the first Orange County episode with Jarrod and Michael Kelley and we answer tons of...