Hi everyone,
Sorry for the delay in getting the homework posts out this week. ABC’s website was down at the end of last week so I wasn’t able to send them until today.
With the transition to ZOOM video lessons, I am no longer able to write down notes and musical material in the students’ books/binders. Instead, I have created PDF documents for each of you and dropped them into a Google Drive folder. The link to your documents is listed in the What to practice heading under your name below. You should be able to access the documents simply by clicking on the link. Here are your practice assignments for this week:
Will
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes per day
What to practice: Keep working on the hand-to-hand jazz exercises and the comping rhythms I showed you in your lesson: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17pjkCZ1jfMdjwRqFBMaPIG_hKMb3gQGz?usp=sharing
How to practice it most effectively: Practice the hand-to-hand exercises very slowly at first until they start to feel comfortable. Be careful not to add extra notes to the right hand part. It should remain steady and the left hand part should fit together with it. Also, experiment with playing different combinations of quarter note rhythms with the left hand while keeping time with the right hand and feet.
Elliot
Recommended minutes to practice: 10-15 minutes per day
What to practice: Practice the first line of page 4 of “Smoke on the Water” and then try to connect it with the end of page 3: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/10YGpSqgr9Z2SExyhXz7k1evG3C0t2VEc?usp=sharing
How to practice it most effectively: Focus on keeping a steady quarter note pulse on the ride cymbal when you play the top line on page 4. Carefully read each note on the page as you play it to ensure that you are not adding any extra notes or leaving any out. Count the rhythms in your head or out loud as you play. This will help with accuracy and consistency. Go over each bar individually, then start adding them together.
Aidan
Recommended minutes to practice: 20-30 minutes per day
What to practice: Practice the last 6 lines of “Drum Corps on Parade”: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1yJPRmQn7QZuvnmvhe8ji-CCGmJPGLDZi?usp=sharing
How to practice it most effectively: This is the hardest section of this piece. Focus on the bars/sections that are most challenging for you, especially the parts with lots of flams. Go back to your rudiments page and practice the flam accent, the flam tap, the flam paradiddle, and the flamacue. These will all be helpful in learning this passage of the music.
Noah
Recommended minutes to practice: 10-15 minutes per day
What to practice: Practice moving the accent patterns around on the drums and also start to review “Smoke on the Water”: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Dga1ZBRWaN_Ka4O1G009w-74c4VaZCj7?usp=sharing
How to practice it most effectively: With the accent patterns, begin at the bottom of the page and work backwards. This will allow you to spend more time on the ones that are least familiar. Play them first just on the snare drum, and then try putting the accented notes on the toms. Left hand accents should always be played on either the snare or the high tom, but right hand accents can be played on any drum.
Nate M.
Recommended minutes to practice: 20-30 minutes per day
What to practice: Focus on the 7/4 section “Red Barchetta” by Rush: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1UJYz7hx_AeAM7Std0aj1Y1IyVd-8f86S?usp=sharing
How to practice it most effectively: Print off the sheet music that I have provided in the link above. You can spend some time reviewing the sections of the song that we have worked on previously, but I want you to focus on the 7/4 section that begins at letter E near the bottom of page 3. Remember to count this section in seven and to closely observe the rhythm between the bass drum and snare drum. Also, watch out for where the crash cymbal is played; sometimes it is at the beginning of the bar, but sometimes it is played ini other places.
Nate O.
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes per day
What to practice: Review pages 1 and 2 of “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” and then practice putting them together with pages 3 and 4: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1lsS6FvGAobS96Y5mFUDE_7L1HGfAK0_s?usp=sharing
How to practice it most effectively: Review all the parts of the song that we have learned. Be sure to read the rhythms carefully and count them in order to make sure you are playing everything accurately. Practice playing through each page slowly and without breaks or pauses. Once you can do that, then work on transitioning from one page to the next.