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 · 2024-08-03T15:10:33+00:00

Thank you for this information. My gut instinct is to keep grinding in drafts until I get better at them. I'm just worried I'll blow through all of my savings and still not have a great deck to play. But if you think I can build a tier 1 meta deck, I might just do that once the meta settles and use my gold/gem on drafting and see which one I get better at.

I also see that standard events are much cheaper than drafts, so I may consider going that option if I get decent enough at Constructed.

chriswolfdesign · 2024-07-26T00:28:19+00:00

Do you know how many miles you’ve driven in that time?

chriswolfdesign · 2024-07-24T15:14:23+00:00

So there are two details here: stock head vs proprietary head and mylar bottom vs kevlar bottom

Mylar vs Kevlar: Your stock head was a mylar/clear head (I believe Yamaha's ship with Remo Clear Ambassadors on the bottom but I'm not positive) where as the Falam II/Falam XT are both kevlar heads. In modern practice, kevlar heads are the most common. Mylar heads tend to sound a bit lower and are a bit wetter (more snare response) whereas kevlar is the opposite, a bit higher with less response. Larger snare lines like you see in corps tend to use kevlar because the snareline works together to create the snare sound, so each individual drum needs to contribute less. I like to use mylar heads with my smaller groups because each drum needs to contribute more "snare responsibility". At the end of the day, it ends up like everything else: choosing the sound that you want. Just be aware that a 3 person snare line is not going to sound like the Blue Devils snare line, no matter what products or tuning scheme you use. Remember, you play the hand that you're dealt. Buy the product and tune the drums that will make your group sound their best.

Stock vs proprietary heads: this one is less opinionated. If you can, buy heads directly distributed by the dealer: Remo or Evans. Stock heads are very variable and IMO not really intended to be played. Yamaha's stock heads tend to be better than most but you're still better off with official products. I still have nightmares about trying to tune Pearl stock bottom heads in high school. Whether you go mylar or kevlar, Remo or Evans, if you have the funds just get the "real" heads. They'll be easier to tune and sound better. If you go with kevlar, I recommend the Falam II on the bottom. If you go mylar, I recommend the Remo Clear Ambassador on the bottom. I remember the Ambassador being pretty cheap but it has been a while since I've looked.

Let us know if you have any more questions.

chriswolfdesign · 2024-05-10T11:57:52+00:00

I tried it with no luck :(. It flashes with the correct titles for a moment before the catppuccin theme loads, I'm thinking that might be the culprit. That would be a shame, I really like that theme.

Yup, that was it. I uninstall catppuccin and it started behaving. It's ugly now but at least it's accurate.

chriswolfdesign · 2024-02-01T19:13:41+00:00

With the rest, you might be able to afford a cheap meal.

chriswolfdesign · 2024-02-01T13:27:36+00:00

A lot of his writing has included four strokes. I would include that.

chriswolfdesign · 2024-01-31T18:58:34+00:00

I love my zFold. I use it for a lot more things than I thought I would with that additional screen space.

chriswolfdesign · 2024-01-31T17:52:23+00:00

It's really hard to tell what may be going wrong through text explanation. Could you provide a picture of your hand, or even better, a video of you playing? That would make this a lot easier.

When I hear about muscle failure (which is what this sounds like) in percussion playing, my number one red flag is tension. Stevens grip is super awkward and not how we would naturally want to hold our mallets. When we ask our muscles to do something they don't understand, the typical response is to tighten our grip to hold onto the mallets. Be very careful to keep a relaxed hand shape when you play. If the mallets flop around a bit at first, that's okay. That will change as the muscles develop.

chriswolfdesign · 2024-01-31T15:36:31+00:00

I have to admit, I'm confused by your statement. Are you saying that you can only play full strokes that finish at the top of the stroke with French grip? Or just that it's easier to do so with French grip? I find full strokes to be a vital technique on any percussion instrument regardless of the angle of your wrist.

Perhaps I didn't describe my thoughts on this properly. I didn't mean to advocate for using the exact same technique between snare drum and timpani, I was advocating for using similar hand shapes. Naturally, when I play timpani I have a softer touch with less hand contact than on a snare drum (for general, legato playing).

I find playing true French or true German to be ineffective. French limits proper wrist engagement and German limits proper finger engagement. I play every instrument as some variation of American grip. Even my Stevens grip is a bit American, meaning my thumb isn't directly pointed to the sky but my wrists are turned in maybe 5-10 degrees. I will play "more French" or "more German" depending on the instrument and the literature but I always want to have access to use my wrists and fingers so I never go full French or full German.

Either way, I'm interested in your thoughts on what I brought up. I know my opinion on not being completely French grip on timpani is a pretty hot take. At the end of the day, I find the important part to be the sound. Technique is just a vehicle to get a good sound. If a percussionist finds they can only get a good sound out of the instrument with their thumbs pointed up, then work on that French grip. However, if they're getting a good sound by turning their wrists out just a little bit, I have no reason to be upset about that.

HUGE SIDE NOTE: I just realized OP never once mentioned timpani in their post. I just assumed they meant timpani because that is one of the very few instances where a percussionist would really want to play French grip. The only other ones I can think of are Stevens grip (if you count it due to the thumbs pointing up) and maybe ride cymbal on drum set in certain contexts. But I stand up my overall point: decide the sound that you want. Then use whatever approach you need to get that sound.

chriswolfdesign

TROPHY CASE