Hi everyone,
Here are your practice assignments for this week:
Aidan
Recommended minutes to practice: 1 hour-90 minutes per day until your audition.
What to practice: The new fills in Verse 2 and the pre-chorus of Arabella by the Arctic Monkeys. Also, your major scales and the D Major reading exercises in your xylophone book.
How to practice it most effectively: For the drum fills, remember to count the rhythms and practice them slowly. Don’t be too worried yet about playing them at full speed. The most important thing is to be able to play the rhythms accurately and consistently. The speed will come later. For the major scales, identify how many sharps or flats are in each of the following scales: G, D, A, F, B-flat, E-flat. Then practice playing them up and down the xylophone many times each. Keep working your way through the xylophone book. Focus extra time this week on the reading studies in D Major. We can use one of those as your audition piece.
How parents can support practice: Encouraging your child to practice regularly and helping them develop a routine is the best way to be supportive.
Will
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes per day
What to practice: Review your rhythms and then practice improvising drum fills along with a simple beat.
How to practice it most effectively: Count each rhythm carefully before playing it. Once you are confident that you can play it correctly, then try playing it at different speeds and moving it around the drums. Don’t stop counting! Then, pick a beat that you’re comfortable with, play it a few times in a row, and then use some of the rhythms that you worked on to improvise a drum fill.
How parents can support practice: Encouraging your child to practice regularly and helping them develop a routine is the best way to be supportive.
Oscar
Recommended minutes to practice: 20-30 minutes per day
What to practice: The son clave and rhumba clave exercises that I wrote down in your book.
How to practice it most effectively: Just as we did in your lesson, start with the clave rhythm in the left hand and then play the other listed rhythms repeatedly with your right hand. Then switch your left and right hands. Once you can do this comfortably, then move on to the next listed rhythm. You should be able to do at least #s1-4 together with both the son clave and the rhmuba clave.
How parents can support practice: Encouraging your child to practice regularly and helping them develop a routine is the best way to be supportive.
Alexy
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes per day
What to practice: The open hi-hat beats that I wrote down in your book.
How to practice it most effectively: First, identify where the open hi-hat note(s) is(are) in each beat. Make sure you know when your left foot should go up and when it should come down. Notice whether the snare or the bass is playing together with either the open or the closed hi-hat. Practice the beat slowly and focus on keeping a steady rhythm.
How parents can support practice: Encouraging your child to practice regularly and helping them develop a routine is the best way to be supportive.