Relax. Don't use any more muscles than necessary. Maintain a strong fulcrum. Hands, when not playing, should be at rest in the set position in order to look confident and professional. Chops are the key to playing great burning muscle pain is your friend. When playing a marching bass drum, play in the center of the head. Have the mallet striking at a right angle (check this by practicing in a mirror). The mallet must always contact the head with its full velocity, especially when playing low. Play through the drum; when playing an orchestral bass drum, strike a bit off centerthis will produce fuller overtones. Be able to play the whole part with proper mallet heights before attempting to split it up with the bassline. Make sure it is always hitting the drum in the center of the head, this may be harder if you have a smaller drum. This will get a fuller sound. If you have rolls, make sure your pinkies don't fly out! Practice with a metronome or electronically quantized music. Know where the downbeats are and be able to count all of the rhythms while marking time with your feet. When playing splits, always stay with the full ensemble, don't adjust your timing to a previous error within the bassline. Play aggressively. Take one step at a time (especially with tempos). However, get to know the whole part and not just yours. Knowing how the split flows will help you with your own part. Once you rehearse with the drumline, you will see how your parts fit in with the snares and tenors. This will help with cues and timing. Get your charts. When you set them up, make sure you know where your music starts and stops and how it fits in with the charts. Make sure your spacing in the bassline is even, as this will be very noticeable. Make sure the drumline's arcs and lines are smooth (because you are probably on the end and you can tell if it is smooth, more than the snares). Playing split sextuplets can look really hard but just know where you come in and it should be fine. Also, don't crush them down. They should sound smooth and not choppy. The same rules apply to 32nd note splits, if they are at fast tempos they probably won't sound choppy. Just make sure you are hitting all four notes and not just three. If you are used to playing sextuplet runs and then you have a 16th note run, make the switch in your head and play them smooth and even.

Summary: Get the correct posture: Play the bass drum. Hit the drum correctly. Get the rhythm right. Don't practice "above your head". Memorize your music. Practice with the bassline to get your parts solid before going into a rehearsal with the rest of the drumline. On the practice field: Playing long splits:

Often, when something is wrong in a relationship, one or both partners can just "feel" that they are growing distant emotionally. Where two people once felt close and connected, they now feel like they hardly know each other. Where it was once easy to share emotions, cuddle, and talk about nothing, such interactions now feel forced and "cold". This sort of emotional distance can be a sign of a host of relationship problems, including infidelity. If your girlfriend seems cold and distant, press the issue with her immediately talking with her to learn the root cause is better than languishing in unhappiness. Note, however, that prolonged emotional distance can be a sign of many relationship problems besides infidelity. The National Healthy Marriage Resource Center pinpoints family and cultural differences, situational conflict, and stress as just a few of many alternate causes. Sometimes, people who know they're doing something wrong can become super-sensitive to any sort of criticism or accusation. Because their misdeeds are fresh in their memory, any sort of innocent teasing or nit-picking can seem like a personal attack. If your girlfriend has surprised you recently with unnecessarily hostile responses to seemingly innocent questions, you may have a serious problem on your hands. Below are a few innocent sample questions that can spell trouble if they're met with anger or frustration: "Hey, who was that you were talking to on the phone?" "So, what did you do last weekend? "What are your plans for next Friday?" "How are your friends?" "Who have you seen recently?" In one of the absolute worst-case scenarios for any relationship, one partner may become so enamored with someone else that she actively tries to sabotage the relationship she's already in. This can take the form of aggression, rudeness, frustration, insults, and more. In this case, your girlfriend is most likely trying to get you to break up with her so that she can pursue her new relationship free from guilt. If your relationship gets to this point, sadly, it may be best to give your girlfriend what she wants. The pain of a quick breakup is usually much less than the pain of staying in an unhappy relationship with someone who actively wants to ruin it. Normally, random acts of kindness can provide a spontaneous "spark" for a relationship. However, if one partner has been having serious thoughts about someone else, this sort of kindness may simply make her guilty. Almost no one likes receiving appreciation from someone they know they've wronged, so if your girlfriend seems unhappy to receive a gift or some other sort of show of kindness from you, be on the lookout for other warning signs. Below are a few of the sorts of things that normally go over well, but may not if your girlfriend is seriously thinking about someone else: Gifts for any occasion (especially "just because") Fancy nights out Gourmet meals Surprise appearances at work Clearing your schedule "just for her" Paradoxically, while having feelings for another guy can cause your girlfriend to be unusually defensive or aggressive, it can sometimes cause her to be extremely "nice" or affectionate. If your girlfriend is worried that you may discover her secret, she may temporarily try to woo you by showering you with kisses, hugs, compliments, cuddling, and more. A girlfriend who suddenly seems intent on keeping you dizzy with constant positive attention for no discernible reason may be up to no good, so be wary especially if the affection seems to increase whenever you question her activities or whereabouts. Of course, affection is usually a good thing within the context of a relationship, so don't be suspicious of ordinary, reasonable affection. Getting lots of kisses and a fancy dinner after getting graduating or getting promoted is fantastic, but receiving the same outcome after asking where your girlfriend has been for the past week should be troubling.

Summary: Feel for emotional distance. Look for extreme defensiveness. Watch out for sudden aggression. See whether she's uncomfortable receiving your kindness. Watch out for unprompted affection.

Garnish the top with a little extra fresh cilantro and serve the dish with basmati rice or naan. To store leftover chicken tikka masala, put it in an airtight container and refrigerate it for up to 3 days.

Summary: Serve the chicken tikka masala with rice or naan.

pply any needed joint compound, if necessary. At this point, you will probably see that your ceiling has only been "fired taped," meaning that the drywall installer only did a very crude job with the drywall tape, putting up only one coat of mud. So be prepared to have to put on a couple of coats of drywall mud. A skim coat involves topping compound applied to the entire ceiling with a 12" or 14" drywall knife. Sand this skim coat for a flawless finish before you apply the primer and paint. It may be helpful to have a professional do this step. . So the popcorn finish didn't work out for you in the end. So what? There are plenty of other texture finishes that you can try out on your ceiling to make it pop and better stand out. . Once you've mudded, sanded, and textured, you prime and paint. This is the fun part, giving you a beautiful new ceiling. The amount of work involved was definitely worth it.
Summary: . For the best finish of all, do a "skim coat." Add more texture to your ceiling, if desired Prime and paint your ceiling