Playing Drums

As I have been posting about drum rudiments I remembered a picture of my son playing drums as he was accompanied by his godfather Ted at church. Here he is at 2 years and 6 months old. I like this picture because it makes it appear that my son has fast strokes but really it was just the camera, the shutter speed was not fast enough to capture the movement of the drumsticks as Jed hit the snare.

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Drum Rudiments: Double Stroke Roll

It has been weeks now since my last post in this series of entries on drum rudiments. I apologize for the delay but I hope that, if anyone has been following this series, they would already have developed 1) the proper way of holding the drum sticks, 2) the proper way of hitting with the drum sticks, 3) the strength of their stroke and 4) playing comfortably at slow and fast tempos with the first three lessons (Lesson 1: Single Stroke Roll, Lesson 2: Single Stroke Four, Lesson 3: Single Stroke Seven).

This next drum rudiment also shares the same objectives as mentioned above with the addition that it will 5) develop control in the hands and wrists as the drummer accomplishes the double stroke roll at higher tempos.

In this drum rudiment, each hand does two strokes alternately. As this is done, the drummer must be conscious about 1) applying the same strength (or sound) on both strokes made by one hand and 2) the spacing of each stroke, making sure that they are all evenly spaced. Using a metronome can help develop the right spacing. It is recommended to start practicing at slow tempos then going faster as one becomes comfortable (remember the fourth objective of the rudiments) at the tempos you are practicing at. Level 1 (44-56 bpm), Level 2 (58-70 bpm), Level 3 (72-84 bpm), Level 4 (86-98 bpm), Level 5 (100-112 bpm).

This lesson is played one time, starting at the slowest tempo. The tempo is then moved up 4 beats per minute - eventually ending at the fastest tempo.

An additional exercise (variation) for this is starting at the slowest then gradually speeding up to the fastest tempo the drummer is comfortable with. This will facilitate in teaching the drummer how to close the roll.

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Opportunity for Bloggers

There are a lot of opportunities to Make Money online. In fact, there are services in the internet that pay bloggers to Blog. One of those services is bloggerwave. It is an advertising media on blogs and aside from advertisers, bloggers can also benefit from their services. So if you want to make extra money while blogging, join Bloggerwave.

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Travel Assistance

One of the things my job requires is traveling. I travel across the city and a lot of times before summer, I travel to the province to make preparations for summer youth camps I help organize. Like this season, I travel a lot to Tarlac as I was appointed camp director for our two-week summer youth camp entitled “Heroes: OrdinaryPeople with an Extraordinary Calling.” With a goal of getting 800 campers for each week of our camp really would require a lot of traveling to and fro because of the many preparations regarding accommodations, food (because we’ll be handling our own food instead of letting the resort or camp site charge us for it), so we can save a lot of funds and allot it for something else, sports facilities preparations and the like.

If your job requires a lot of traveling, even if it requires traveling longer distances and longer periods of time, a site that can assist you in finding suitable Hotels, Resorts or Motels is HotelReservations.com. This web site offers not only the things just mentioned but also vacation rentals, Hotel Discounts, assistance in making Hotel Reservations and they offer this with very competitive rates. They also have group bookings where those traveling as a group can get special group rates if they will be utilizing more than nine rooms a day. In North America or in Europe, they have toll free numbers that can be used to contact them 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Furthermore, they offer a variety of destinations. Whether you are looking for a destination that is just a short drive from where you are, a cruise or hundreds of miles away from your location HotelReservations.com has got it all covered. So for your traveling needs visit their web site or call their toll free number.

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When Emergency Strikes...

Are you ready for an emergency in your family or company? If your house or office building burned down or if it were destroyed by a hurricane and you were not able to salvage important records or documents?

If your answer is no or if you’re not sure, then visit AxcessPoints.com. This site is a secure online planning resource that aid individuals, families or companies in organizing better the very important personal, medical and financial information and minimize the effect of natural disasters. AxcessPoints.com securely organizes those critical information and allows its members to access that information from any location, whether local or foreign, 24 hours a day from any web-enabled device.

This company can help anyone create an emergency plan, calculate supplies for their emergency kit and get reminders to rotate the supplies available. They offer the first-of-its kind emergency toolkit which is an interactive evaluator and calculator that help create a complete emergency preparedness toolkit.

Their site is very user friendly and easy to navigate with a sitemap at each page, assisting people who are visiting their web site by allowing them to access other services or offers in just one click.

Interested parties may even get a free gift by signing up which is a good strategy to motivate their would be clients.

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Just Taking a Moment to Lift Up a Prayer

I'm glad to have been able to get to Makati early. Today is a Sunday and the reason I went to Makati is because that's where the church my wife and I started almost five years ago is located. I just dropped off my wife at the LRT Katipunan station and went straight here at Bonifacio stopover. Our church service doesn't start until 10:30am so I thought I'd take a moment to check my email and my blogs (yes, because this is just one of 'em) and pray and collect my thoughts as I prepare to preach this morning.

This will be another long day for pastors like me, and I pray that God's Spirit would be upon every preacher preaching His word today. I pray for empowerment for all full time and lay ministers who will be doing their roles in their churches all around the globe. And I pray all these in Jesus' name! :)

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I'm in GQ!

Just having a bit of fun with stuff online. I hope viewers would like this one.

Create Fake Magazine Covers with your own picture at MagMyPic.com

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Have Your Prepared for the Inevitable?

In our everyday lives we make preparations for many things. Those who work prepare for important meetings, students prepare for examinations, a lot of people are right now preparing for their date on Valentine's Day. But sometimes even though we make so much preparations, things don't go as we expect them to. The business meeting we prepared for gets canceled, the exam topics gets changed and the Valentine date backs out.

This past week, I was reminded of something inevitable that comes but a lot of people don't get to prepare for - death and what comes after that. This struck hard on me when one of the attenders in our youth ministry died last January 31 because of a condition called cardiomyopathy. What's shocking is that he died at the age of 16. He was a nice boy, loved his family and was a responsible older brother to his five siblings.

Then came the reminder that death is inevitable and it comes unexpectedly. The question is are we ready to die?

The Bible says that death came to all men through the first man's disobedience. Sin came when Adam disobeyed God and death through sin (Romans 5:12) . Romans 6:23 adds that our being born as sinners (not because we do wrong things but because of our sin nature) separates us from God and has a natural consequence - physical and spiritual death which is eternal separation from God.

The good news is that even though we're all destined for that eternal separation, God made a way for us to escape that. That way is not a religion but a relationship - in the Person of Jesus Christ.

Since we're all sinners, nothing we could do could ever pass as an acceptable sacrifice for sin. Romans 3:23 describes how we all fall short of God's holiness. So, God, knowing this, sent Jesus and He lived as a God-man, experienced what we all experienced (emotions & temptations) but didn't sin. He then became THE ONLY ACCEPTABLE SACRIFICE FOR OUR SINS. His death, the shedding of His blood on the Cross became the payment for our sin and His resurrection demonstrated His power over sin and death - so that when God promises eternal life, he is promising it with the guarantee that He's 'been there, done that'.

So how does this all relate to preparing for death? Only when we individually...

A - Admit we are sinners and that we can't work our way to God and...

B - Believe that Jesus is God's only provision for our sin problem and...

C - Commit our life to Jesus, by making a personal decision that from now on He will be the Boss and Manager (Lord) our lives...

...only then can we be really prepared for death. As John 3:16-18 declares, "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. 18 Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son."

Further more , John 1:12 says that , "to all who received Him (Jesus), to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God. We begin our new relationship with God; He becomes our Father and us His children.

Anyone can make this decision by verbalizing to God the simple steps (A-B-C) above, even right now.

If you made that decision right now I'd be glad to know and even help you grow in the new relationship you have with God.

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Caring for Our Own Folks

Last night I conducted a necrological service for the second time at the same home since we started our church almost five years ago. I remember conducting a similar service a few years ago when the great grandfather of the family passed away. He left an almost 90-year old widow behind. When I visited the same family a few days back before conducting the necrological service at their great grandson’s wake, the old widow expressed how sad she was especially because her great grandson was close to her and sometimes took care of her.

I felt sad for her situation because here in our country, the Philippines, finding someone to care for our old loved ones is not given much funding unlike in first world countries. I even came across a website called bettercaring.com which is a comprehensive care home search engine, providing answers to crucial questions about care for loved ones and arranging the right kind of care or searching for care homes that fit special requirement.

But even though caring for old loved ones is different here I’m glad that there are Filipinos who do their best to care for their old folks without necessarily hiring professional help or sending them to care homes. At least relatives still take the responsibility of caring for their old ones.

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Protect Your Good Name

LifeLock is the number one identity theft protection program in the United States. In LifeLock Reviews, it says that their services are the most advanced, safest and easisest to use. Read the Life Lock Review and find out how it guarantees your identity up to $1,000,000. Their services have been featured on CNN, CNBC and The Wall Street Journal as mentioned in a LifeLock Review.

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This Blog is a Blessing!

I never thought I’d realize the dream of monetizing this blog. I praise God for the opportunities being made available online. I believe it wasn’t an accident it happened. Deuteronomy 8:18 says, “But remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth…” When I first started this my other blog I never thought it would make it but was surprised that it even got a Pagr rank of 1. For this blog, I’m still waiting for updates but it’s really been a blessing that there are opportunities even for this blog.

An online service that connected a blogger like me with advertisers is Smorty. The control panel they have for bloggers is very user friendly and the instructions given to bloggers on the assigned opportunity are very clear. I’m glad that I could get paid for blogging. Advertisers can avail of their services, too. Smorty assists advertisers and connects them with bloggers so they can advertise on blogs like this one.

So if you’re blogging and you’re not yet monetizing your blog, try Smorty and they will help you get paid to blog even if you don’t intentionally want to blog for money. I’m sure the extra income will be a blessing to you, too.

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Drum Rudiments: Single Stroke Seven

Here is the third among the drum rudiments posted in this blog. This would enhance the single stroke roll at a more advanced level. In the single stroke four, one hand plays triplets (three evenly spaced strokes) before or after a single stroke is made with the other hand. In this rudiment the triplet is doubled but both hands are used alternately, similar to a single stroke roll, but is done faster before or after a single stroke is made.

Below is the application exercise for the single stroke seven. It is recommended that you start at slower tempos then work on speeding up when you are comfortable at the lower tempos.

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Getting Quality Training

In the Philippines more and more people are seeking opportunities abroad. The demand for teachers and health professionals continue to cause brain drain in our mother land and has caused the rise of many educational institutions providing short term courses that can give interested students their ticket outside the republic.

Those finding opportunities abroad are not to blame. They actually have every reason to go especially with the dirty politics, corruption and struggling economy of our nation. But it is important to select the proper training schools to go to especially when it comes to medically related professions like nurses, physicians, ultrasound tech and many others; and not just choose a school that suddenly sprung out of the blue claiming authority on training health professionals but really just riding with the wave and the demand for medical training schools and making money out of it.

Medical-Career-Training.com is a good option to consider for receiving quality training. Their web site provides lists for people finding the school that fits their needs best. People finding the right ultrasound technician school, nursing school or medical school can find it here in this site. To help you find the right nursing school, ultrasound tech school or medical school, visit Medical-Career-Training.com.

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Struggling With Words?

As a student, I have always struggled when it comes to writing papers. Having a major in mechanical engineering, I was more efficient in solving mathematical problems than coming up with a paper.

For students who have the same struggle or for those who are just too tied up with so many school requirements, you can check out Custom-essay.org. This site is a unique online custom writing service. This is where students in need can meet professional writers with MBA and PhD and buy essays or avail of essay services. All their written assignments are guaranteed plagiarism free. For your custom research paper needs visit Custom-essay.org.

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Engagement Rings, Perfect for Your Valentine

Valentine’s day is fast approaching and for those who are planning to propose, this is the perfect season to do so. The season when romance and love fills the air. Finding the perfect gift need not be difficult.


You can check out JamesAllen.com, a site that offers a wide range of anniversary rings, engagement rings, wedding rings, and diamonds. As a professional jeweler, JamesAllen.com uses only the highest quality materials to design their products. You also have the option online to design your own ring either by choosing the diamond or the setting of your choice. Visit the site now for additional information.

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Researching for Plans to Put Up an Online Store

Lately, because of the different opportunities being presented by the world wide web, I’ve been having thoughts about doing some research about what items are on high demand on the internet and am planning to make an online store that sells those products. I’m considering items like jewelry, i-pods and other technology items and books but I have not really made up my mind yet. I think I still need to do further research and identify specific items.

Another thing I need to research on is how to optimize the online store I’m going to create. I know that there are many SEO tools available in the internet so I think I would not have a problem with this one.

One more thing I need to research about is the shopping cart software I’m going to use. But, I don’t think that will be a problem because I think I’ve found what I will need. Ashop Commerce is what I may use. Their software is award winning and is web based, so I won’t need to install anything. It is very affordable and I will be able to accept credit card payments online. This part of my research is already covered. Nice, huh?

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Europe’s Premier International Rugby Tournament

I have always loved sports. I think if I was taught every sport in the world I would have readily taken the challenge of learning them. There are sport events that are not popular in the Philippines but are very famous in other countries. Some of those are soccer, American football, polo and rugby. I have never tried watching live rugby games.

RBS 6 Nations Website is the official website for Europe’s premier international rugby tournament – the six nations championship. It’s probably like the World Cup to soccer and the Super Bowl for American football. Their site provides many information about that major sporting event. Available in their site are a comprehensive list of tournament news, highlights, updates, fixtures and results. They also provide interactive games and podcasts section for six nations fans and curious observers. Although the six nations involved are England, France, Ireland, Italy Scotland and Wales, their site is available to anyone in any part of the world anytime.

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Creating an Online Store?

Are you thinking of creating an online store? Do you need help selling online?

Here is an award winning shopping cart software, Ashop Commerce! They provide an online store building software which is web based, meaning, there are no installations required. This allows merchants or wannabe-merchants to build an online store which is at par with the world wide web’s powerful sites. The software advantage they claim is world class and easy to set up. It’s got web based administration and free technical support by phoe, email or thru chatting online. There is no need for the user to have a knowledge on HTML to use their shopping cart software. And this advantage can be availed for a simple, low monthly fee. Ashop also offers a variety of pricing packages that will surely apply to you business’s need. Visit their site now and you can start with a 10-day free trial!

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Drum Rudiments: The Single Stroke Four

Here is another drum rudiment which would enhance the single stroke roll. In that first lesson, the strokes were struck evenly spaced. In this rudiment one hand plays triplets (three evenly spaced strokes) before or after a single stroke is made with the other hand.

Below is the application exercise for the single stroke four. it is again recommended that you start at slower tempos then work on speeding up when you are comfortable at the lower tempos.

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Professional Help in Writing Could Have Made a Difference

One of the things I did regret in my life was not being able to graduate in the university that I first went to. It was the year 1992 when I passed the only two college entrance examinations that I took: BS Electrical Engineering at UP and BS Mathematics at ADMU. Because of the full scholarship plus allowance granted, I decided to go to Ateneo, although I really wanted to take an engineering degree at Mapua. I wasn’t able to take an entrance exam because I had to decide immediately between ADMU and UP to avail of the DOST scholarship I had then.

I only spent a year in ADMU because during my first semester their I wasn’t responsible enough to attend the ROTC. During the next semester that followed I had difficulty with my English subject’s professor. The problems I had with her left me uninspired and unmotivated to do a Marketing term paper. This caused me to fail the subject ( I didn’t submit the required term paper) and lose the two scholarships I enjoyed.

As I think about it now and after coming across this website that provides custom writing services I started to wish that I had this kind of help. Research papers, business term papers or any other type of term paper is no problem for i-termpaper.com. Students can just give them the basic requirements for the required paper and they can deliver the paper needed on time and with excellent quality.

I’ve gone over that regret now and am positive that everything worked together for good in spite of what happened. I’m happy where I am now.

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