Hi everyone,
Now that we have transitioned 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:
Elliot
Recommended minutes to practice: 10-15 minutes per day
What to practice: Practice the first 12 exercises from the Lesson 3 sheet: https://drive.google.com/open?id=10YGpSqgr9Z2SExyhXz7k1evG3C0t2VEc
How to practice it most effectively: Take time to carefully read and count the rhythms in each of these exercises before you try to play them. Start slow and focus on keeping the rhythm consistent and the beat steady. Once you feel comfortable playing each rhythm, then try speeding it up.
Sylvie
Recommended minutes to practice: 20-30 minutes per day
What to practice: Practice the fills that we worked on from the song “Get Used To It.” https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1MdzpAH-WlxUE2Be0mmnMOUHri-R2utTX?usp=sharing
How to practice it most effectively: Spend time working on the line that starts with measure 5 and also the line that starts with measure 29. Be sure to count the rhythms carefully and give all the notes their full rhythmic value (especially the quarter notes). If you find the rhythms to be tricky, then isolate just the bars that have the tricky rhythms and practice them alone. Then, once those bars start to feel more comfortable, put them back into context with the other bars immediately before and after.
Jonathan
Recommended minutes to practice: 20-30 minutes per day
What to practice: Practice fills using the sticking permutations that I wrote down for you as well as the “Single Beat Combinations” (both are in this Google Drive folder:) https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1GxopIaGPN0UhwG3zk4gQWTnEaDDL7TWP?usp=sharing
How to practice it most effectively: Spend some time just getting used to the sticking patterns and how they fit within the beat. The “Single Beat Combinations” are all in patterns of four or eight, so they fit nicely within the beat. However, the sticking permutations that I wrote down are in patterns of 3, 5, or 7, so they will always shift against the beat. Practice these exercises first with both hands on the snare drum, then move the right hand to the toms while keeping the left hand on the snare. Then practice playing them as drum fills after a bar or two of a drum beat.
Will
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes per day
What to practice: All of the fills from “Chameleon” by Herbie Hancock, especially the new long one. https://drive.google.com/open?id=17pjkCZ1jfMdjwRqFBMaPIG_hKMb3gQGz
How to practice it most effectively: Review all the shorter drum fills from last week and practice playing all of them in a row with 2 or 3 bars of the regular beat in between each one. Also practice playing along with the recording so that you get used to the speed of the song; you have a tendency to play this song too fast. Then, practice playing the long fill. Take it extra slowly at first and then, once it starts to feel comfortable, try playing it at the speed of the rest of the song.
Jonah
Recommended minutes to practice: 10-15 minutes per day
What to practice: Practice the first 6 exercises from the “Lesson 4” page. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1xgENtr7–sAhgC9zceezlfeYJwA6JWlY?usp=sharing
How to practice it most effectively: I’m sorry we got cut off at the end of the lesson! I wanted to say that it was very nice to meet you and I’m happy we have the chance to work together this summer. You’re doing very well with the drum beats that Pino had you working on! I would like to continue with this but also work on some snare drum rhythms and also perhaps start working on learning a song over the summer. We’ll talk more about this next Thursday. See you then!
Noah
Recommended minutes to practice: 10-15 minutes per day
What to practice: Review the first page from the Stick Control book and also practice these accent patterns that I have written down for you: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Dga1ZBRWaN_Ka4O1G009w-74c4VaZCj7?usp=sharing
How to practice it most effectively: With the stick control exercises, try moving your right hand from the snare drum over to the toms while keeping your left hand on the snare. This will help you to think of ways that these sticking patterns can be played in different ways around the drums. With the accent patterns, remember to keep the sticks low to the drum when you’re playing the non-accented notes and only lift them higher when you are preparing to play an accented note. This requires a great degree of control, so be sure to practice it slowly at first!
Aidan
Recommended minutes to practice: 20-30 minutes per day
What to practice: Practice the “Single Beat Combinations” from the first page of the Stick Control book and also work on the “flam accent.” https://drive.google.com/open?id=1yJPRmQn7QZuvnmvhe8ji-CCGmJPGLDZi
How to practice it most effectively: Practice playing each of the sticking patterns using mostly your wrists and fingers to move the sticks. This is important for developing speed and a controlled bounce in your snare drum playing; you can’t playing quickly or control the bounce of your stick very well if you’re playing mostly from the elbow. Also, with sticking patterns and the flam accent, be sure to work on getting a consistent sound from both of your hands; the right hand shouldn’t be heavier than the left just because it is your dominant hand. This will likely mean that you have to focus more on what your left hand is doing in order to even out the sound.