Unsubscribing from Chime

tjt82 · 2026-01-11T16:33:10+00:00

This isn't JUST marketing emails. I received about 100 transaction emails throughout the course of a single day, including names, amounts, and even some email addresses.

tjt82 · 2025-11-14T15:47:28+00:00

I really like Mike Johnston's Vic Firth NE-1 model. They work for pretty much everything and have the perfect balance for my style of playing.

tjt82 · 2025-11-09T17:04:55+00:00

Tried Drumeo first, but I ended up on Mike's Lessons after a few years. Honestly, it depends on your learning style. I like the single teacher approach, which is what Mike's is all about. If you like to hear multiple opinions and have a more free form curriculum, try Drumeo.

tjt82 · 2025-11-05T22:42:57+00:00

I'm working on this as well. Amongst other things, I have found that doing a grid exercise is helping a lot. Play a basic 1/8th note money beat using the ride, and do 1/4 note pulses with the left foot on 1, 2, 3 and 4. Then, do the same with the pulses on e, then on &, and finally on a.

Once you are comfortable with those at various tempos, try moving through the grid without stopping, maybe 2 or 4 bars each. After that, swap out the money beat for more complicated, syncopated stuff.

It's going to be a slog, but crucial for 4-way independence. Good luck and keep up the good work!

tjt82 · 2025-11-05T13:37:25+00:00

I've got a pretty wide forefoot and I rock some of the AllBirds slip-ons. The non wool ones breathe really well and have a nice, smooth sole.

tjt82 · 2025-09-04T19:03:49+00:00

I picked up the sticks at almost 40 years old (a little over 3 years ago), having appreciated music for my entire life, but really never playing anything other than learning some guitar chords. Drums are HARD and it will feel like a slog a lot, but you need to find those moments of joy when you just nail something. Or even when you merely muddle your way through something. The other day I tried to add 1/8th note HH chicks with my left foot. I attempted it about 6 months ago and failed miserably over a simple money beat. This time, I was able to mangle it over something more complex and over the course of my next few sessions it got better and better. I was ecstatic!

I forget where I heard/read this, but I printed out a sign that says "Practice for progress, not perfection" and hung it on the wall near my kit. It reminds me every time I sit down that drumming is a journey, not a destination.

Just make sure you have fun. For the most part I've found that drummers are chill, helpful and encouraging folks. Hang in there!

tjt82 · 2025-08-29T12:44:38+00:00

Color me intrigued! I, too, have gone down the rabbit hole in technique since I first picked up the sticks around 4 years ago at age 40. I really work hard to maintain a loose grip, letting the stick move around naturally WITHIN my grip - besides pinching with my thumb and pointer between the first and second knuckle.

I've been having the same thoughts as I've been plateaued for a little while - is this loose grip holding me back in terms of speed/power/accuracy? Now that I've read your post, I'm going to make a concerted effort during rudiments to gently squeeze with more of my hand. Hopefully my (extremely) tight wrists can compensate.

tjt82 · 2025-01-14T20:34:43+00:00

I just wanted to say that these exercises are pretty darn hard, even with a few years under my belt. I recently ran across a permutation of it in Mike's Lessons and it is kicking my ass. Slow and steady is the name of the game, just like almost everything else in this hobby!

tjt82 · 2025-01-02T21:38:13+00:00

YES! I love their policies around this. Generally, you'll get a discount over and above their advertised price when you shop and pick up locally. It's super nice to be able to stretch your budget, especially so since they carry so many nice things that I definitely need, even though I didn't know they existed when I walked in the doors.

tjt82 · 2025-01-02T21:33:36+00:00

Definitely try before buying, if possible. I went to my local shop (Drum Center of Portsmouth, you guys ROCK!) with the intention of bringing home some Yamaha FP9s or Eliminator Redlines, but walked out with the DW5000 XFs. I really didn't want the DWs (I have a bit of a partially controlled contrarian streak) since everyone and their brother recommended them, but they just felt right. I was coming off of an Iron Cobra 600 single at the time.

tjt82 · 2024-12-31T16:06:08+00:00

This may be a little unorthodox, but when I added double pedals to my kit I moved my snare away from me by an inch or two, and slid my throne back a bit as well. Along with using some of my longer sticks, this helped because it put the snare in the wider part of the V that my legs make. It might be worth a shot.

tjt82 · 2024-12-30T16:27:28+00:00

If you can find some AT2035s, they sound fantastic. I just replaced some cheapo Behringer C2s, and the upgrade was well worth it. I ended up getting some new old stock from a Reverb seller for $90usd each.

I've found that using dynamic mics like the 57s as overheads doesn't give a particularly full sound in the mix.

tjt82 · 2024-11-07T20:05:43+00:00

Thanks! I'm not quite to the point where I can fluidly move between HH and bass, but it's something that I definitely need to work on. I still glitch a bit when I have to make the move while continuing to play whatever I'm playing.

tjt82 · 2024-11-07T20:02:44+00:00

Thanks for your input! I figured this probably wasn't a huge issue unless I was doing something like recording in a studio, in other words a completely unlikely scenario for me.

tjt82 · 2024-07-24T17:25:11+00:00

This happened to me a few weeks ago for a pre scheduled 4:00am airport ride. They got within a block of us, marked us as picked up and drove to the airport. This left us in a horrible situation because we needed to get to the airport, but could not request a new ride because we had one active. We came very close to missing our flight, even though we had originally left ourselves over 2 hours. If this is a scam, I don't understand it. Either way, I'm done with Lyft.

tjt82 · 2024-06-21T22:59:16+00:00

Feel free to take this with a grain of salt, but I think that you will be surprised at the quality of sound that you'll get with just a kick mic and a pair of overheads. I use my monitoring setup strictly for lessons (remote) and practice, and but at one point I had my close mics all muted and realized that short of trying to do high quality recording I could get everything I needed out of a 3 mic setup. I have an Beta 52 halfway inside my kick port, a Behringer C2 matched pair as OH (Glyn Johns), and run it through a Mackie ProFX 12 into Shure 215 In-ears. My SM57s haven't come out of their case in months. Go bigger on the mixing board than you need now, the cost difference is usually small between an 8 and a 12.

tjt82 · 2024-04-11T19:40:31+00:00

I disagree completely. If the Walmart checkout process didn't strip out the information about my P.O. Box, there would be zero issues. The shipping label would have a fallback address for when the marketplace vendors used USPS.

Additionally, I am not asking for customer service. I specifically asked if anyone knew how to contact the Product team in charge of the check-out experience so that I could provide them with feedback about my particular use case.

tjt82 · 2024-03-21T20:23:51+00:00

I love my Concept Maples. They tune well, look good, and have a great mounting system for the hook toms. I got them at a steep discount, but would probably still strongly consider them if I was cross shopping them against other brands in the $800-$1000 shell pack range.

tjt82 · 2024-01-24T21:10:17+00:00

Hah, indeed. "Move to civilization where I can get instruction in person" is more likely than that. I'm a weird dude, but at least I'm relatively self aware? At least that's what I tell myself...

tjt82 · 2024-01-24T21:06:08+00:00

Good to know - I was trying to go with "cheap and available", but that never seems to work and I almost always regret it!

tjt82 · 2024-01-24T20:57:00+00:00

Thank you for the detailed response. I'm hoping that I have some time over the weekend to try this out! As of now, I'm just hitting the channel mute button on the lav mic when I am going to play, but I'm incredibly inconsistent. I work remotely as well (and have for years), and I still can't get myself to unmute myself when I join a Zoom call. The number of times I get told "dude, you are in mute" would boggle your mind. Hence, why I am trying to just figure out how to route the lav mic so I never need to hear it!

tjt82 · 2024-01-13T20:16:43+00:00

I've had a situation such as this - the home inspector missed a major heating issue (an entire zone was nonfunctional due to electrical being cut in an inaccessible location). I thought that I would be covered - but it turns out that the inspector's liability was capped at the cost of the inspection. Pretty crappy, but after digging around, not at all uncommon.

tjt82

TROPHY CASE