2025 has been an interesting year for me, with a lot of different things going on. Below are some highlights:

• I started graduate school at Fort Lewis College and I’m just about 25% done (its finals week and I am currently passing all my classes)! I should have a Master of Arts in Education by spring of 2027… if all goes well.
• I became an educational endorser of Vater Percussion this year. Since I’ve personally used Vater sticks for over 10 years now, I was happy to accept their offer for an endorsement deal and extend that out to my marching band drumline and front ensemble.
• A Field Guide to 50 Drum Rudiments was released in September in collaboration with Los Angeles-based multi-instrument teacher James Musser. This book adds a very practical rudimental manual to my catalog to go along with my impractically large and diverse collections of rudiments that I published previously.
• The Los Alamos High School Topper Marching Band won the NMAA State Marching Band Championship this year in class A-4A! My drumline did great job and their Vater sticks and mallets sounded fantastic.
• My band Bloodstrike released an EP Weapons of Steel recently that marks the 10th anniversary of our debut album! This really was a huge undertaking to get a relatively small number of songs out since I live about 7 hours away from the rest of the band members and we brought in a session bassist and multiple guest vocalists for the recording. There were various injuries, surgeries, and other medical issues that tried to prevent some band members from completing it, but we all pushed through.
• Percussive Notes saw fit to run an article of mine in the December issue. “A History of the Flam Accent No. 2” traces the rise and fall of the non-standard rudiment from its British origins to its current American status as… almost relevant enough to talk about. Thanks to Dr. James Strain for his editorial assistance.
• I started learning to play the euphonium, french horn, flute, trombone, and mandolin this year (in descending order of competence) in addition to the tuba, and obviously drums and percussion. I don’t really want to even list guitar and bass because I cannot read a lick for them… though neither can basically any guitar player I have ever played with in any band, so maybe that’s ok?

As for next year, I am starting my student teaching in January to become a licensed educator in the State of New Mexico. That will take up a massive portion of my time. I am also continuing to teach some private lessons and work with the percussionists at Los Alamos High School. I’ll also be taking graduate classes after school and continuing to raise my own children. If I don’t post any YT videos or anything on social media or any content here on my website, that will be why. Too busy. Hoping for a reasonable 2026, but I think unreasonable is the name of the game.