Hi everyone,
Here are your assignments for this week:
Will
Recommended minutes to practice: 20-30 minutes per day
What to practice: Practice the two-bar snare rhythms together with the ride cymbal pattern and foot pattern and work on adding in fills.
How to practice it most effectively: Follow the same process that we did in your lesson: first play the snare rhythm by itself while counting out loud. This will help you hear and understand how the snare rhythm relates to the pulse. Then play the snare rhythm together with the ride cymbal pattern to work out the coordination between the hands. Finally, add in the foot pattern and practice all the parts together. When you feel comfortable with a particular pattern, try adding in a short fill at the end of the second bar. This can be something as simple as a triplet on the snare drum.
Elliot
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes per day
What to practice: Review section 2 and work on the new beat from section 3 of Watermelon Man. Also, review Can’t Stop if you think you might like to play it at the recital in May.
How to practice it most effectively: Practice playing section 2 all the way through. If you can’t quite make it all the way to the end, then try building it one bar at a time starting with the last bar: play just the last bar, then the last two bars together, then the last three bars, etc. This will help you to get better at playing the end of the section, which is the hardest part. With section 3, just practice looping the new beat several times in a row until it becomes comfortable.
Jared
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes per day
What to practice: Practice bouncing your sticks to begin developing a drum roll and review the shuffle beat from the last page of Bohemian Rhapsody.
How to practice it most effectively: To bounce your sticks, you need to grip them with just the right amount of pressure. You should have them pinched between your thumb and index finger, but not too tightly, and then use your other fingers (especially the middle finger) to control the bounce of the stick. The moment that the stick first hits the drum is when you need to apply the most pressure to the stick, and then gradually release the pressure as the stick bounces. Practice alternating your sticks as you bounce them.
Jude
Recommended minutes to practice: 10-15 minutes per day
What to practice: Practice the rhythms and the bass/snare/hi-hat exercises that I wrote down in your book.
How to practice it most effectively: Remember to count the rhythms as you play them. I wrote in all the countings for each type of note at the top of the page. Take it slow so you can play the rhythm correctly while counting. With the bass/snare/hi-hat exercises, remember that two note stacked on top of one another should be played at the same time. #5 and #6 have the hi-hat playing on every beat and the snare and bass playing different rhythms underneath the hi-hat.
Noah
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes per day
What to practice: Practice beats 7-10 on the page from last week and 1-4 on the next page available here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Dga1ZBRWaN_Ka4O1G009w-74c4VaZCj7?usp=share_link
How to practice it most effectively: The open and closed hi-hat sounds, just like with the eighth note beats, need to always be heard clearly with the 16th note beats. Because the notes are faster, this means that the left foot needs to move up and down quicker and with more precision. Focus on playing each of the beats on the new page slowly and with really steady 16th notes. Don’t try to play the beats faster until you have a good handle on the coordination of the feet with the hands.
Koel
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes per day
What to practice: Practice up to the end of Chorus 3 in Sweet Child O’ Mine.
How to practice it most effectively: Focus this week on all the bars that have drum fills in them. These are the most challenging parts of the song and will require the most practice and focus. Once you feel comfortable with the fills, then try playing them in context with the bars that come immediately before and immediately after. Once you have done that, then try play through the song up to the end of Chorus 3. You can try it with the recording of the song too!
Caroline
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes per day
What to practice: Practice the guitar solo and ending of Can’t Stop and then review playing through the whole song.
How to practice it most effectively: The most challenging part of this song is from the end of the bridge to the end of the song. Focus this week on learning the big fill in the guitar solo and everything that comes after it. Then see if you can play it together with the end of the bridge, counting all the empty measures of rest. Once you get this down, then go back and work on playing the whole song from top to bottom.