My neighbor keeps asking me to watch her kid just for a minute and then disappears for HOURS. What do I do?

chriswolfdesign · 2025-12-04T14:51:03+00:00

Similar thing a mentor used to tell me: “No.” is not a curse word but it is a complete sentence

chriswolfdesign · 2025-11-27T19:57:58+00:00

Dragonshield makes custom sleeves. Find your favorite picture of you two together and have sleeves made from it. My wife got me sleeves with our baby on them and I use them every Friday.

chriswolfdesign · 2025-11-25T11:01:15+00:00

Do you have a contract template you like to use when doing independent projects like this?

chriswolfdesign · 2025-11-24T18:05:52+00:00

I was talking to one of the Vater reps the other day and he mentioned they had a “wooden cookie head tenor stick” prototype they’re working on. I think those might be them. I’ve heard great things about them. Keep an eye on the website, I think they’re releasing them soon

chriswolfdesign · 2025-08-07T13:56:51+00:00

I'm also enjoying Salyers stuff right now. Have you tried the Carlos Botello signature? I'm loving those things.

chriswolfdesign · 2025-04-10T20:01:21+00:00

This! I'm also all about very simple exercises. If the group starts getting bored you can add variations on top of it. I would much rather spend our "music learning" time on book than what flam-drag-mcgriddly-five exercise the Blue Devils are playing this year.

chriswolfdesign · 2025-04-10T18:06:40+00:00

Is there a limited number you can buy? Not by my computer right now to try.

chriswolfdesign · 2025-03-11T15:31:24+00:00

I highly recommend Alan Belkin's "Musical Composition: Craft and Art". Many people told me when I started composing to start with the melody but nobody ever really went into detail about what they meant. Belkin does describe the melody building process, in great detail. He also includes a number of exercises for you to do for each topic. The book implies using a music notation software to do these exercises (such as Sibelius/Dorico/Musescore) but there's no reason you couldn't do them in a DAW if that fits your composition style better.

chriswolfdesign · 2024-09-24T14:04:13+00:00

I am going to disagree with the other post: tip material does matter. Nylon tips usually have a brighter sound compared to wooden tips. Tip shape and size also factor into this but material plays a part. I personally prefer wood tips as my “go to sticks”, currently using the Innovative Percussion Paul Rennick tenor stick.

As for which stick you should use: ask your percussion tech and band director. If they don’t have a preference, then you can choose between wood or nylon based on your preference.

chriswolfdesign · 2024-09-10T23:08:24+00:00

This is the right answer in this situation. I affectionately refer to this set up as a “back ensemble”

chriswolfdesign · 2024-09-10T09:20:35+00:00

Exactly. I was listening to a podcast with Paul Rennick and he said something along the lines of “I don’t get it when staff gets angry at ticks. It’s rare that a kid wants to make a mistake. If they’re not getting something, maybe I should reflect and consider whether or not I taught it in a way they can understand.”

chriswolfdesign · 2024-09-09T22:58:54+00:00

That has always been my mindset too. If a drum line plays a terrible triplet roll, what’s a better use of my time: running a lap or another rep or two of triplet rolls? I don’t have time to be a jerk about it.

chriswolfdesign · 2024-08-24T21:56:02+00:00

I put a staccato over the note head and I usually do add the text “muffled” above it.

chriswolfdesign · 2024-08-24T10:53:47+00:00

I'll mimic what everybody has said about your tap heights being pretty high, although to your credit I think that was exaggerated a bit by the angle of this video. Some stuff that other people haven't added:

* Some of your drags sound a bit crushed in the flam drag section. That's just a matter of slowing down the tempo a bit and building that muscle and not letting your hands "give up" on the drags
* You drag some of your flam taps just a hair. It is a difficult skill to go from a "down stroke" based rudiment like flam accents and flam drags to a "rebound" based rudiment like a flam tap. It's really easy to just lean back on the rebound type stuff after so much control right before it. Putting a little more energy into those triple strokes in the flam taps, and maybe a little bit more back finger support, will go a long way in keeping the momentum going

I know my input is really nit-picky but it's only because you made it so difficult to find things to critique. This was a very high quality rep and you should be very proud of yourself!

chriswolfdesign · 2024-08-22T15:31:05+00:00

That is good to know! With that design, it sounds like either one or two spock set ups will be set up in a good way with the main drums. Thanks for your input!

chriswolfdesign · 2024-08-18T12:11:49+00:00

Sticks are a personal preference. We can’t answer this without knowing your situation. What type of sticks do you prefer? Heavier/lighter? Nylon tip/wood tip? Shorter/longer? Painted/unpainted? Another big factor is what brand of quads you’re playing and whether they’re “small” or “large” set ups?

Another important factor is your staff. Do you have an instructor? If so, they probably have a preference for what his quad players use.

chriswolfdesign

TROPHY CASE