Hi everyone,
Here are your assignments for this week:
Will
Recommended minutes to practice: 20-30 minutes per day
What to practice: Review the scales and arpeggios that we worked on in your lesson today: C, G, D, A, F, B-flat, and E-flat.
How to practice it most effectively: For each scale, first figure out how many sharps or flats are in the scale by using the circle of fifths and the reversible phrase “Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle.” The first letter in each word will tell you the order of the sharps (F, C, G, D, etc.) or the order of the flats (B, E, A, D, etc.). Once you can play the scale, then figure out the arpeggio by finding the first, third, and fifth scale degrees. Then, play the scale and the arpeggio one after another.
Elliot
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes per day
What to practice: Review beats #1-6 and work on learning #7-12 this week.
How to practice it most effectively: Be sure to count carefully each of the sixteenth notes in the new beats to make sure that the bass drum notes are all landing in the right places. Whenever you have a bass drum note that is on the “e” or the “a” of the beat, that means you will play it together with the left hand on the hi-hat. Listen carefully for when this happens and make sure that the bass drum and hi-hat are always exactly together.
Jared
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes per day
What to practice: Review beat #1-4 and work on learning #5-8 this week.
How to practice it most effectively: Be sure to count carefully each of the sixteenth notes in the new beats to make sure that the bass drum notes are all landing in the right places. Whenever you have a bass drum note that is on the “e” or the “a” of the beat, that means you will play it together with the left hand on the hi-hat. Listen carefully for when this happens and make sure that the bass drum and hi-hat are always exactly together.
Noah
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes per day
What to practice: Review all of the jazz rhythms from the last two weeks and work on the main beat from “Good Times Bad Times” by Led Zeppelin.
How to practice it most effectively: With the jazz rhythms, focus on making them feel more relaxed. Part of this is playing lighter, especially on the bass drum. Another part of it is getting the swing feel with the eighth notes. Remember that it should feel like “long short long short long short long” etc. You can also work on putting together some of the rhythms into two bar phrases like we worked on a couple weeks ago. With the main beat from “Good Times Bad Times,” work on getting the bass drum and snare drum rhythms really consistently, then try to develop the speed.
Koel
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes per day
What to practice: Practice up to the end of the guitar solo section of “When I Come Around” by Green Day.
How to practice it most effectively: Review each of the fills individually. Practice them slowly at first to make sure all the rhythms are correct, then play them faster and see if you can connect each fill with the beats that come before and after. Once you have done this, then go to the beginning of the song and practice playing through to the end of the guitar solo section. Work on developing speed without losing consistency. Next week we will finish off the song and try playing parts of it together with the recording.
Caroline
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes per day
What to practice: Practice up to the end of the bridge section of “Say It Ain’t So” by Weezer.
How to practice it most effectively: Practice the new material from the bridge first. Make sure that you can play through each bar slowly without stopping. Then try to connect the bridge to Chrous 2 which comes just before it. Then go back to the beginning of the song and see if you can play all the way through to the end of the bridge. If you have trouble getting through it without stopping, then identify the spots that are giving you trouble and practice those sections alone. Next week we will learn the last part of the song.