Jack
We are making major steps in terms of making a drum beat and keeping it in time! Developing on our beat last week, we added extra hits on the eighth notes off beats. We also explored the three different sounds! Open/close hi hat through pedal, ride cymbal and the bell of a ride cymbal.
We will look to move on from Thriller next week and try a simple rock song to practise playing a regular drum beat!
Aleksander
Living On a Prayer is going so so well! From start to Chorus is now completely solid with excellent time and sense of groove. Please work through Guitar solo section by yourself and identify spots that you find challenging! We will be finishing this one real soon.
Jonah
We worked on double stroke rolls and I wish to bring emphasis on the bounce stroke. Right now there is a tendency to play the second one lighter. Practise playing the initial hit softer and pulling the bounce stroke fast with fingers to create a louder hit. I have assigned Etude number 9 to Jonah and please try to practise this at a comfortable speed WITH metronome. The aim is to play rolls at controlled lengths and not to move time with a longer roll.
Tracie
We started new song Last Nite by The Strokes. Think of the fill as a boomerang! We will work our way up to the speed. The speed we are aiming for is 216bpm. There also seems to be some other material in other sections, so we will identify those next class!
Jared
Great fun continuing with the Hip Hop beats stuff that you worked with Keshav on Tuesday! One big take away is to in general play more sparse until a certain climax in the tune, which is something we can keep in mind for any style of improv going forward. Think of funky syncopation fill and perhaps limit yourself to choice of drums until the climax. We will try to play through Silhouettes from Naruto next week.
Mario
My Friends by RHCP is slowly getting into shape! For that one tricky lick, remember to always start lower than you think as it starts with eighth notes and the second bar is twice as fast in 16th notes subdivision! We read through till Guitar Solo and we see that same rhythmic motif returning again and again. Whenever in doubt, listen to our recording. Give Guitar solo a read, we will work on that next week!