Sometimes I forget that some of you literally have no idea who I am and know nothing about what I do. You might have watched a lesson of mine, or download a transcription from my site, but you don’t really know who I am and what I’m about. If you don’t care, honestly – that’s totally fine. This post isn’t just about me and what I do, it is about dreaming something, and then achieving it.

I started learning to play drums when I was about 10. My parents gave me a terrible electronic drum pad (a Yamaha DD-55 to be exact). For the first few months I didn’t play it once, it just collected dust. But over time, I walked by it enough that I started messing around with it for 10 minutes here, 15 minutes there. Gradually – this little drum pad started to consume all my time.

Eventually, I convinced my parents to buy me a real acoustic drum set. The first day I got that drum set I played it for 6 straight hours. Practice was a daily activity for me, and everything I was learning was listening to records by ear and a few sites on the internet. Now, this was back before YouTube had taken off, so finding resources to learn from that were reliable and easy to navigate was a challenge. There were only two sites that I bookmarked and visited every day of my life – vicfirth.com and drummerworld.com.

Up until the age of 14 those two sites were the only resource I had, and I cannot begin to describe how fundamental they were in my genetic “drum makeup”. I finally did go on to get private drum lessons, study at a performance art high school, and get a Bachelor’s Degree in Drum Set Performance. But those early years of spending hours and hours on Drummerworld and Vic Firth’s site molded the drummer I would become.

If you fast forward 16 years from when I started:

• I am now an official Vic Firth artist (as of 2015)
• I recently had the honor of having a few of my transcriptions featured on Drummerworld.com (don’t worry there are links below)

Some of you might already know those facts. Some of you might not. I don’t talk about stuff like that much, because I don’t want to come across as “bragging” or “look at how cool I am” (although I’m sure I do come across that way at other times that I’m just oblivious to). But, I wanted to share those facts with you because they are actually a dream come true. I am actually “living the dream”.

As a 10 year old, ‘living the dream’ meant playing a few Drum festivals a year and being the best drummer on planet Earth. What does it look like in reality? Thousands of miles in 15 passenger vans, sessions for artists who have the worst music ever, terrible shows and terrible clubs, long months of being away from home, bus breakdowns, festivals where thousands of people abandon the stage you are playing because of rain, and waking up at 6 am and working until 6 pm to publish some videos to YouTube that only get 73 views in 2 weeks.

It isn’t all glamour. It is a lot of work. From the time I was 10 until now I’ve practiced more at drums than most people have practiced anything in their lives. And I’m still not Vinnie Colaiuta. Or Dennis Chambers. Or Dave Weckl. Or Chris Coleman. But you know who I am? Tim. And I’m happier than I’ve ever been. My wife is healthy, my parents and sister are (mostly) healthy, my in-laws are healthy, and every day I get to play drums and make drum-related content for random people on the internet.

Every day I get to be a link in the chain of drum education. That is an honor and a privilege that I don’t take lightly and I’m so glad 10-year-old Tim stuck with it. Vic Firth told me no several times before they said “yes”. Bernhard from Drummerworld didn’t respond to the first 3 emails I sent him. There were so many times where I wanted to stop doing what I always felt I should be doing. But I didn’t. And I’m thankful for the people in my life that kept pushing me and made sure that I didn’t give up just because of a road block here and there.

And I’m thankful for you. You allow me to do what I do. If you didn’t visit my website, or watch my YouTube videos, or download my transcriptions, none of this would’ve happened. You have made my dream possible and I’m so grateful for that. Thank you. Seriously. Thank you.

Download the two transcriptions (of Chris Coleman and Vinnie Colaiuta) below. I hope you enjoy those transcriptions, and I hope you are encouraged to pursue whatever dream you have, big or small. It isn’t easy, but it is worth it. I promise.