Marc Dicciani

• Adjunct Faculty at West Chester University

Through long-standing customs and tradition, both cultural and musical, many drummers have come to believe that the instrument set-up and technique of playing the drum set is, in part, determined alone by the belief that we are right- or left-handed. In this paper, I will summarize some of those persisting opinions and how they’ve come about, and p...

Most of us are familiar with the history and development of the drumset as well as the numerous grip and hand, wrist, and arm movement techniques that have resulted over the years (see my recent article titled "Traditional or Matched Grip, Which is Better?"). In this article I'm going to outline some issues that impact choices that we all make-or t...

As a member of the Modern Drummer Magazine Education Team, I was asked to write an article back in 2012, responding to the question “Is traditional grip a useful technique that drum students should learn?” Now, with an additional 8 years of research, observation, and teaching, here is an updated version of that article. Let me first make a genera...

Learning is, in itself, a skill just like playing the drums, piano, baseball, flying a plane, or almost anything. At the core of teaching and learning to play is the ability to diagnose specific playing issues and goals, create a balanced game plan for improvement and change, and find a distinctive musical voice through creativity and experimentati...

Over the past few decades, cognitive psychologists, neurologists, neuroscientists, and others have begun to build a body of evidence containing the most effective learning strategies. In this article, I apply some of that research into a practice methodology for learning and practicing drums.

This has been one of my primary research and clinic topics for the past 6 years, so I have great interest in learning as much about how our brains and bodies work to develop music and drumming skills and to translate that into creating the most effective and efficient practice sessions possible, both for me and my students.

Do you feel it's important for drummers to learn to play other instruments (piano, bass, guitar, etc.) or should they focus on honing their craft at the kit exclusively? In addition to practicing the drums, almost anything and everything a drummer does, either through learning and studying or just doing, is going to have an effect on their drumming...

Drummers are familiar with many different concepts and methods for understanding, learning, and playing Independence. For countless hours we've practiced independence in the traditional way-playing one rhythm with one hand (for example, jazz time) and another rhythm with the other hand (say, quarter note triplets). We've also read some great articl...

Is it necessary and/or important for drummers/percussionists to learn to read music? Let me begin by saying that I believe the goal of reading is not to teach your eyes and hands what to play, it's to develop your ears, your understanding, and your knowledge of rhythms, drums, and music. I'll also say that the relative importance of reading depends...

Is traditional grip a useful technique that drum students should learn? Let me first make a general statement and say that good drumming is less about the specific technique you use and more about how you use it, and there are examples of great drummers and strong opinions on both sides of this grip issue. I want to address this topic from my persp...

Can feel be taught? Playing with good feel is one of the most critical factors in being a good drummer, and I believe that feel can be taught. More accurately, feel can be learned by a student (by the way, we're all students) who is willing to make some very conscious decisions about how serious they are in wanting to do this, and if they're ready...

As we continue to learn and become better drummers (and people), we must keep an open mind to explore the endless capacity for expression through the drumset.

What follows is a practice method I've developed from work-ing with hundreds of students over the years. It's built on a few simple concepts, the most important of which I call cross-train-ing. This means developing your overall musicianship by rotat-ing your practice topics through several general categories, with each section reinforcing and help...