Godsmack drummer Mike Mangini answers questions on double-bass technique, stamina and setup in a new 22-minute video.
Mike Mangini has shared a 22-minute video answering questions sent in by other drummers, covering technique, ergonomics, speed, stamina, kit setup, soloing and how he commits complicated material to memory. The Godsmack drummer, who spent 13 years in Dream Theater and taught at Berklee College Of Music, walks through the training methods behind his playing, including the work that produced his World’s Fastest Drummer records.
One question asked how he achieves what the sender called quantized precision with his double-bass work. Mangini started with the principle before getting to the mechanics.
“Simply put, you have to do a lot of experimentation with a method that’s proven, a method that others say works, a method that when you sit down and try it, it doesn’t take all that long for you to feel some progress,” he replied (as transcribed by Blabbermouth).
He continued: “Now, the whole thing about the precision that you’re asking about is it’s a combination of staring at your beaters, at your knees, your feet, your heels, the way you’re moving back and forth, because your eyes can sense what your body’s trying to tell you. In other words, by looking at your knees, your body kind of talks to you, and it’s a strange language. Not words, but it’s trying to tell you what muscles you need, and that’s how I end up getting the precision, is I know what muscles to adjust. So if you keep the foot technique simple, keep the heels off the ground… I’m not talking about not playing with the heels down, like it’s some kind of abomination or anything, and it’s wrong. I’m not saying that. I’m saying training, follow the protocol. Get those heels up, engage your calf muscles, and let the heels moving back and forth, and the flexing of the calves generate the beater striking the drum and not a leg lift. And so by experimenting with that, keeping your eyes, paying attention, while you do a few different moves, like bursts, and you can find that in my lab, or triple strokes, and again, you can find the examples in my lab or the video. So, that’s what you gotta do. The way you get the precision is by paying attention and making adjustments.”
Mangini played his first show with Godsmack on 12 June at Morton Amphitheater in Riverside, Missouri, part of “The Rise Of Rock” tour alongside Stone Temple Pilots and Dorothy. He went on without a rehearsal, and said afterwards that he was grateful to the band for trusting him to do it on that basis. He joined Sully Erna, bassist Robbie Merrill and guitarist Sam Koltun, who became a full member earlier this year. Erna and Mangini are both from Massachusetts.
The seat had changed hands twice in quick succession. Wade Murff came in this spring, debuting on 8 May at Welcome To Rockville in Daytona Beach and playing his last Godsmack show on 30 May in Houston, more than a dozen dates in all. On 6 June it emerged that Murff would cover for Black Veil Brides drummer Christian “CC” Coma, who stepped away from that band’s European tour over what was described as a personal and private matter. Murff‘s first show with them was on 10 June in Munich. Neither Godsmack nor Murff has explained the timing.
Both openings trace back to late 2024, when longtime drummer Shannon Larkin and guitarist Tony Rombola announced they were stepping away, with Erna attributing the decision to their not wanting to tour any longer.
Mangini first drew attention in hard rock circles playing with Extreme in the mid-1990s, then joined Steve Vai‘s band in 1996. He later took a full-time teaching post at Berklee.
He won the Dream Theater job in late 2010 through an audition process that was filmed and released as the documentary series The Spirit Carries On, coming out ahead of Marco Minnemann, Virgil Donati, Aquiles Priester, Thomas Lang, Peter Wildoer and Derek Roddy across three days. The vacancy had opened when Mike Portnoy, who co-founded the band in 1985, left. Mangini recorded five albums with them before Portnoy returned in October 2023.
Mangini released his first solo album, Invisible Signs, in November 2023, with Tony Dickinson on bass, Ivan Keller on guitar, Gus G. of Firewind on lead guitar and former Evanescence guitarist Jen Majura on vocals. In February 2025 he started a band called Monolith with Hernán “Motley” Rodríguez on bass and vocals and Andy Barrow on guitar.
