Hi everyone! It was lovely to meet you all on Tuesday.

I forgot to mention that if you regularly play an acoustic drum kit, you should be wearing ear protection when you play. Regular exposure to harsh noises from drums or other loud music can damage your hearing (https://www.noisyplanet.nidcd.nih.gov/have-you-heard/musicians-face-higher-risk-of-hearing-loss).

Lots of our practicing will be playing along to recordings or to a metronome. There are a few ways of doing this while still protecting your ears:

*If you practice on an acoustic drum kit at home*: If you have electronic headphones that cover your whole ear and fit snuggly on your head, plug them into your device and you’re good to go. If you don’t have protective headphones and don’t want to buy expensive electronic ones, I would like you to buy “isolation headphones” and earbuds. After putting in your earbuds, put the isolation headphones over them. This double-layering creates the same effect as electronic headphones. Note: Rubber-/silicone-tipped earbuds fit better in headphones. Isolation headphones can be bought at most instrument stores.

*If you practice on an electric drum kit at home*: Plug your device into your kit using an auxiliary audio cable and your headphones should play back the drum sounds and the music. The auxiliary cable can be bought at Walmart, Best Buy, music stores, electronics stores and elsewhere.

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~Kaden~

  1. No matter whose drum kit you’re playing, make sure that the height of your seat and the rest of the kit are at a comfortable level. You’ll know your seat is at the right height if your thighs are angled down at the bass drum and hi hat pedals. Your snare drum is at the right height if, while relaxing your shoulders, your forearms are parallel to the ground and the tips of your sticks are just above the drum. Your hi hat needs to be high enough so that your sticks aren’t hitting each other when you’re playing a hi hat – snare beat.

  2. When playing Seven Nation Army, practice catching yourself when you accidentally “flip” the beat (playing the snare drum on beats 1 and 3 instead of 2 and 4). Do this by playing along to the recording and listening to when the sections of the song change (for example, the change from verse to chorus). Since beat 1 of every new section has a bass drum hit, that will tell you whether or not you’ve flipped the beat. To clarify: if you catch yourself playing the snare drum on beat 1 of a new section (instead of the bass drum), that means you’ve flipped the beat. Uh oh! Play along to the song at least 3 times in a row each time you practice.

  3. Continue practicing the 3/2 polyrhythm and 16th-note funk beats.

45 minutes of practicing / day

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**Mateo**

  1. Do what ever you want on the drums for 5 minutes. Play along to music if you’d like.

  2. Practice the “1, 2” beat where “1” is when you hit the hi hat and bass drum at the same time, and “2” is when you hit the hi hat and snare drum at the same time. Practice for 5 minutes, take a break, then practice for another 5 minutes.

  3. Practice the “1-and-2-and” beat, which is the same as the beat above but you’re also adding the hi hat on the “and’s”. Practice for 5 minutes, take a break, then practice for another 5 minutes.

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}{Ella}{

  1. Do what ever you want on the drums for 5 minutes. Play along to music if you’d like.

  2. We learned a method for learning drum beats that are too hard to play all the parts at once right away. It was:

    • Play the hi hat part only. Once you’re comfortable, look away from the music.

    • Play the hi hat part AND the bass drum part. Once you’re comfortable, look away from the music.

    • Play the hi hat part, the bass drum part AND the snare drum part. Once you’re comfortable, look away from the music.

I want you to use the same method to learn this drum beat: https://www.dropbox.com/s/e4fb8ikal8ecxkm/Hard%20beat.jpeg?dl=0

3. Continue working on Hotel California. Try to play the chorus.

30 minutes of practicing / day