Hi everyone,
Just a reminder that I will be away next Thursday, Oct 27. I have arranged a substitute teacher and I will fill them in on what each of you is working on.
Here are your assignments for this week:
Will
Recommended minutes to practice: 20-30 minutes per day
What to practice: Review the beginning of Tom Sawyer (up to the second last line of page two) and the ending (from the last line of page three until the end).
How to practice it most effectively: You’re almost there with most of this song now! Just practice playing through these sections of the song without stopping. Focus on the fills and the transitions and make sure you can play everything consistently. This will help when we go through it with the music.
Elliot
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes per day
What to practice: Practice playing through the first minute and 30 seconds of “Black Dog” by Led Zeppelin.
How to practice it most effectively: Focus on the new parts we learned this week, especially the syncopation on the snare drum and bass drum in the new beat. Start by practicing each part on your own slowly, then put on the music and see if you can play along. It is important that you can get through this part of the song without stopping or pausing.
Jared
Recommended minutes to practice: 10-15 minutes per day
What to practice: Review the coordination exercises we worked on this week that use the bass drum, snare drum, and hi-hat.
How to practice it most effectively: Remember that the bass drum is played with your right foot, the snare is played with you left hand, and the hi-hat (or other cymbal) is played with your right hand. Practice each of the coordination exercises slowly and play them several times in a row without stopping. When you get to #7 and #8, focus on keeping the speed really steady so that each note is the same duration.
Noah
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes per day
What to practice: Practice Arabella a few more times this week and take a look at the first two lines of rhythm from the new page I have sent here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Dga1ZBRWaN_Ka4O1G009w-74c4VaZCj7?usp=sharing
How to practice it most effectively: The only things left to work on with Arabella are tighten up the drum fills a little bit. Focus on keeping the rhythms steady and not speeding up or slowing down too much as you are playing. Remember that the fills always sound better when you use both hands rather than trying to play too much with your right hand. With the new page I sent, focus on matching the volume of your left hand to that of your right hand. Look at your hands as you practice and make sure that both hands are doing the same things: holding your the sticks the same, bending the wrist the same amount, and lifting the sticks to the same heights.
Koel
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes per day
What to practice: Practice the second page of “Say It Ain’t So” by Weezer.
How to practice it most effectively: Review all of the new sections that we worked on in your lesson this week. Practice playing all the beats and fills on their own first, then try playing them together. If you feel comfortable playing the Bridge and the Guitar Solo sections by themselves, then try playing all the way through both without stopping. Next week we will try playing through all of this with the recording of the song.
Caroline
Recommended minutes to practice: 10-15 minutes per day
What to practice: Review the accent patterns and practice playing them as drum fills in combination with a drum beat.
How to practice it most effectively: Practice each of the accent patterns in three different way: with the accents on the snare drum, with the accents on the toms, and with the accents on the cymbals played together with the bass drum. Once you feel comfortable playing each of these ways separately, then practice combining them in different ways. Practice going back and forth between the accent patterns and your basic drum beat (two times in a row each).