The BEST Online Teaching Resource for Drummers

I play drums, and I've been frustrated over the years by the lack of good lesson instruction available to me here in rural Colorado. Sure, we have drummers in town--good ones--but I have never been able to envision myself having lessons with any of them. I'm not quite sure why. Call me lesson anti-social, though I give drum lessons, myself. I know, it's weird.

I stumbled upon Drumeo.com in March, and I have to say, my whole motivation for drumming has changed. "Drumeo" stands for "Drum Education Online," and that's exactly what it is. Through Railroad Media, this site boasts several amazing resources to members, among them:

• Streaming live lessons 
• Knowledgeable, friendly instructors
• Training packs
• Archived lessons for streaming (about 75 hours as of this post)
• An extensive forum section
• Built-in Chat and Q&A features
• A positive, affirming attitude for drummers of all levels
• Awesome, responsive Web and customer support teams

I can't say enough about this site.

The streaming live lessons are generally one-hour long with accompanying sheet music and mp3s--all downloadable--for most lessons. The instructors take the time to explain what they're doing, how and why they're doing it, and how you can best integrate the instruction into your practical drumming.

Just one viewing of any of the instructor's lessons will show you that these guys are competent and eager to share what they know with each person--even individually as the lessons progress through a pop-up Chat box and question submit area. There do not appear to be huge egos among the bunch, something drumming seems to engender sometimes. It's all about encouraging and sharing knowledge.

Drumeo has assembled various high-quality Training Packs" that you may purchase, either in physical or online format. These include important areas like drum rudiments (which I'm working through now, having NEVER had a lesson on these my entire 30-ish years of playing), Latin and Jazz Drumming, the Cobus Method, Bass Drum secrets, etc. Each pack comes with extensive videos or DVDs, workbooks, sheet music, mp3s or play-along CD's, and even an interactive place for you to ask questions about the materials in the online versions. Purchasing one Pack gets you access to all of the site's resources mentioned above in various quantities. Any way you cut it, it's the best deal around for value-added drum instruction.

There's also an extensive and growing database of archived online lessons (in case you miss a live lesson that your membership allows you to view). These, at just about 1 hour each, also have an interactive dialog box for you to ask questions.

Want to talk about drumming with others just like you? There are many forums to do just that covering everything from drum gear to "who's the best drummer" to "show us pics of your drum kit." The forums provide a place for the creation of a vibrant and truly global drumming community. It's unlike anything I've ever seen. I've never been a fan of so-called "social" media, but this is actually USEFUL.

The Built-in Chat and Q&A features allow contact during and after lessons with the instructor, as well as notices about frequent contests and give-aways. You're only a click or two away from help with any content or from winning something really cool, like a Training Pack or trial live lesson membership.

One of the best things about Drumeo.com is the positive, affirming attitude displayed by the instructors and the drumming community alike. A novice drummer doesn't need to feel self-conscious asking questions about rudiments or basic drum beats, how to set up the kit, etc. Sure, there are those on the site who are advanced in all these things and more, but rather than use the site to boost one's ego at the expense of others, Drumeo is committed to enhancing and promoting "your drumming success" no matter your level of learning.

Lastly, this incredible site has an on-the-spot Web and customer support team. You need not worry about purchasing an online product that does not stream well, for instance. The staff there can either help you troubleshoot those problems or set you up with an account upgrade that allows you to purchase Training Packs in physical format, which they can then ship to you nearly anywhere. And best of all, they're friendly AND knowledgeable about what they do.

So, if you play drums--or have ever wanted to--check out Drumeo.com. It's sure to become on of the Web's best sites, and with good reasons.

Still Shocking . . . Almost 70 Years Later

I have written about my reading of the atomic bomb and its destruction of Nagasaki and Hiroshima here back in June and August, 2009. This week, Time has released 14 unpublished photos from their vast archives. The stark black-and-white images convey anew and fresh the horror and utter devastation we unleashed on a people we considered our enemies all those decades ago. And there is copy on the Web page, too, that reiterates among the photographers, military men, and others that we did not know the monster we let loose in the world. Now, as many had warned, we are forced to live with its barely-caged existence forever.

I cannot imagine that civilized humanity would ever deliberately obliterate each other in this manner again. And yet, we will not disarm. We will not back down. We will not "un-know" what we do. It is impossible. And when we look at the news headlines that speak of a nuclear-armed and ready North Korea or Iran (or any other number of nations), well, we're forced on some level to see those leaders with blood in their eyes as less than human because they, now knowing, seek to do the world great harm.

While doing research for the textbook I am currently working on with my colleague Ken Haley, I came across this passage, which I included in the text's section on Narrative Non-fiction, from E=mc2, by David Bodanis:

"The unearthly object burns at full power for about one-half of a second, then begins to fade away, taking two or three seconds to empty itself out. This “emptying” is accomplished, in large part, by spraying heat energy outward. Fires begin, seemingly instantaneously; skin explodes off, hanging in great sheets from the bodies of everyone below. The first of tens of thousands of deaths in Hiroshima begin.

At least a third of the energy from the chain reactions [of nuclear materials] comes out in this flash. The rest now follows soon behind. The strange object’s heat pushes on ordinary air, accelerating it to speeds that have never occurred here before, unless at some time in the distant past a large meteor or comet arrived. It travels several times faster than any hurricane could achieve--so fast, in fact, that it’s silent--for it outruns any sound its immense force might make. After it there’s a second air pulse, a little slower; after that the atmosphere sloshes backward, to fill up the gap pushed out. This briefly lowers the air density to virtually zero. Far enough from the blast, life-forms that have survived will begin to explode outward, having been exposed--briefly--to the vacuum of outer space. (167-169)[i] 

What I was attempting to show my students here is that Bodanis, by way of non-fiction writing, narrates for us a chain of events that no human could have been there inside the bomb to witness. Bodanis doesn't even comment here (or elsewhere) about the bomb's horrific effects. He simply and methodically discusses in this book's chapter first Einstein's equation as it relates to the bomb's working out of its colossal power and then, in this passage, the natural results of that unstoppable and unknowable chain reaction in a reportorial-style voice. It is as if we were inside the bomb and then hovering above Hiroshima. 

And for those who were below, those mercurial moments are forever unspeakable, though Time's newly-published photos attempt again to do just that through these voices and images. Just knowing what we do of the survivors' awful outcomes is about enough for crush our collective psyches.

And very soon, every single person who lived through the dark dawning of the atomic age will die, and so will the gut-wrenching reflections of which we continually need to be reminded.  

In this sometimes-heartless world, the Internet is a useful and powerful tool in the right hands, a place worth visiting. May this planet remain such a place.

---

[i] Bodanis, David. E=mc²: A Biography of the World’s Most Famous Equation. New York: Walker and Co. 167-69. Print. 

Too Big for their Chemical Britches

FROM THE WEB SITE Food Democracy NOW:

On January 31, family farmers will take part in the first phase of a court case filed to protect farmers from genetic trespass by Monsanto’s GMO seed, which contaminates organic and non-GMO farmer’s crops and opens them up to abusive lawsuits. In the past two decades, Monsanto’s seed monopoly has grown so powerful that they control the genetics of nearly 90% of five major commodity crops including corn, soybeans, cotton, canola and sugar beets.

 

In many cases farmers are forced to stop growing certain crops to avoid genetic contamination and potential lawsuits. Between 1997 and 2010, Monsanto admits to filing 144 lawsuits against America’s family farmers, while settling another 700 out of court for undisclosed amounts. Due to these aggressive lawsuits, Monsanto has created an atmosphere of fear in rural America and driven dozens of farmers into bankruptcy. Please join us in standing up for family farmers everywhere against Monsanto's abusive seed monopoly.

I did just that a few days ago. I know it's only the end of January, but I'm already thinking about gardening. Robin, my housemate, and I have been planting only heirloom seeds now for several years. And with every year that passes, in the back of my mind I'm thinking of how much tougher it gets for farmers every year. The LAST thing we need is to have 2 or 3 companies like Monsanto feeding this country. Oh, they're feeding us something, alright. 

Please click on the title of this blog post to add your voice to over 55,000 others across the country who have decided enough is enough. Let's put Monsanto and companies like it in their places. 

New Year, New Poems, Old Themes

My last post was in August 2011. Sometimes I wonder why I am keeping this blog. I suppose it's just a fancy place to write, sort of a glorified journal. (God forbid anyone find my real one before I'm dead.)

I feel, at times, like Stephen King's character Alfie, the frozen-food salesman who has decided to off himself in the middle of the bleak Nebraska winter but who can't actually perform the act because he's worried about his notebook full of collected graffiti--what on earth will his family think when they find it?--and so he delays, which, of course, saves his life, though King never gives us that nice, tidy ending we Americans love--well, some of folks do. I can and do live with plenty of unsolved stuff.

No, I'm not thinking of offing myself (I have too much work to do), but rather than collect graffiti in a spiral notebook and sit on the hotel bed reading it and alternatively putting a loaded pistol in my mouth, I choose to write my way out of darkness, or at least into the gray of a cloudy morning. So, here goes--a new poem (one of 3 already) for 2012.

So Much of Relationships is Unseen

So much of relationships is unseen:

The careful placement or concealment of words

articulated beforehand in the silent, mysterious,

compliant mind, calmly assuring a solution to

this two-piece, heart-shaped indelible puzzle;

The sweet, intense, then angry soliloquies

(What a piece of work is man!) we rehearse

until the words lose their meaning and time,

brought at last to its knees, collapses on itself;   

The earnest hopes etched in silicone tablets,

imaginary, shifting ones and zeros that, though

they are arranged with mathematical precision,

forever do not total a sum worth knowing;

The pale, white light illuminating naked fantasies

whose gauzy existences depend on withholding

the shroud of reality--far too constricting a covering,

for fostering festering wayward, juvenile schemes;

The slow but sure erasure of what is and was

and could have been (the bigger loss)--once again:

So much data corrupted by invisible forces--

Real identity theft, right before our eyes.

But so much of relationships is unseen.

__________

Daylight, where the hell are you?