May 2012
1 post
5 tags
May 3rd
April 2012
1 post
Apr 30th
March 2012
2 posts
Mar 10th
7 tags
Mar 4th
February 2012
2 posts
7 tags
Feb 27th
7 tags
Feb 27th
January 2012
1 post
Jan 26th
December 2011
2 posts
5 tags
Dec 31st
10 notes
6 tags
Dec 7th
1 note
May 2011
1 post
12 tags
WatchWatch
This is just a quickie video I’m throwing together to help out my students who have been asking about this fantastic groove all week! I hope the information presented here helps anyone who is curious about it. Thanks so much for watching!  John Bonham:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohlFjyCE0gA  Jeff Porcaro:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MwFdExvCxM4  Bernard Purdie:  ...
May 24th
19 notes
October 2010
2 posts
“If you stuff yourself full of poems, essays, plays, stories, novels, films,...”
– Ray Bradbury (via wordpainting) (via distantheartbeats) (via suzywire) (via baringmysoul)
Oct 21st
525 notes
10 tags
WatchWatch
Here I am playing with The Grand Scam at the Green Door in Lansing.
Oct 13th
March 2010
8 posts
5 tags
“Teachers are expected to reach unattainable goals with inadequate tools. The...”
–  Dr. Haim Ginott 
Mar 22nd
2 notes
8 tags
WatchWatch
This is a short video of me playing the five stroke roll from slow to fast. Feel free to play along! Enjoy, and thanks for watching!
Mar 12th
4 tags
“There are three things to remember when teaching: know your stuff; know whom you...”
– Lola May
Mar 11th
4 notes
4 tags
How to Practice: Save Your Minutes
There is a quote about money I have always liked: “Save you pennies, and the dollars will take care of themselves”. I like this quote a lot for two reasons; 1. I have pennies. Lots of them. I’m also pretty sure I can get more. This leads me to believe I’ll be rich some day. 2. It helps to illustrate a very basic aspect of  practicing the drums. We’ll leave my future billions out of this article...
Mar 10th
4 tags
“One mark of a great educator is the ability to lead students out to new places...”
– Thomas Groome
Mar 9th
1 note
7 tags
WatchWatch
This is a video of me using a double stroke check pattern from the vic firth website as a warm up. Feel free to play along! Enjoy!
Mar 4th
6 tags
How to Practice: Setting Goals
In order to be able to acquire, polish, or even master any techniques on the drum set, you must begin with practice. This is a pretty obvious, if not totally obvious statement. How do you get to Carnegie Hall? I’ll give you a hint, it is not a plane and then a taxi. There is however one exception that I take with the above statement, and that is that you must BEGIN with practice. Practice is a...
Mar 2nd
8 tags
WatchWatch
Here is a video of me using a warm up for Single Strokes from Vicfirth . com. 16ths, 16th Note Triplets, then 32nd notes. Silver to Platinum level. Feel free to play along! Thanks for viewing!
Mar 1st
February 2010
7 posts
“Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and...”
– Chinese Proverb
Feb 15th
8 tags
Teaching: How do I get my students to practice?
No matter what instrument you teach, finding ways to motivate your students to practice is probably one of the biggest issues for private instructors. Many instructors can get frustrated, or even personally offended when their students don’t practice. It seems like a waste of time for everyone involved. What’s more, you can feel a lot of pressure from parents who don’t see their child putting in a...
Feb 11th
“Be an opener of doors for such as come after thee.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
Feb 9th
7 tags
Teaching: Patience in Teaching
I want to talk about a basic quality that I think all drum instructors should have. While this is a quality I think everyone should have anyway, it certainly applies to teaching drums, and other instruments in a very practical way. This also applies to teaching styles. Some people are better suited to learn from certain types of instructors,  but everyone who teaches should have certain traits in...
Feb 8th
Feb 8th
Feb 8th
“I never teach my pupils. I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they...”
– Albert Einstein
Feb 8th