Hi everyone,
Here are your assignments for this week:
Will
Recommended minutes to practice: 20-30 minutes per day
What to practice: Review all the snare drum rhythm exercises that Chris and I have given you.
How to practice it most effectively: Practice playing each exercise with the left hand while playing the jazz ride rhythm and a simple foot pattern. If you have trouble coordinating the hands together, then take out the feet and play it very slowly. Pay attention to when the hands should line up and when they should play separately.
Elliot
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes per day
What to practice: Review section 1 and practice section 2 from Herbie Hancock’s Watermelon Man.
How to practice it most effectively: Spend some time practicing Fill #1 from section 1 of the song. This is the one that is still giving you the most trouble. Practice it slowly and do it several times in a row. After that, practice playing all the way through section 1. Then, practice section 2 slowly and see if you can get all the way through it. Practice it slowly and count so that you’re not adding or leaving out any notes.
Jared
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes per day
What to practice: Practice up to the end of measure 94 of “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen.
How to practice it most effectively: Focus on the newest material, particularly measures 87 to 94. Review it on your own first and make sure you can count the rhythms and the rests properly. After that, then try playing it with the recording of the song. The triplets in measure 94 are pretty fast, but if you can feel the pulse, you should be able to do it.
Jude
Recommended minutes to practice: 10-15 minutes per day
What to practice: Practice playing simple rhythms on the snare drum and playing back and forth between the bass drum and snare drum.
How to practice it most effectively: The most important thing at this point is just to get comfortable at the drums. Explore different sounds and see if you can remember some of the rhythms that we worked on in your lesson. One exercises that you can try is playing notes back and forth between the bass drum and snare drum: “1 2 3 4” where 1 and 3 are played on the bass and 2 and 4 are played on the snare.
Noah
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes per day
What to practice: Practice the ghost note beats that we have been working on, especially #19-24.
How to practice it most effectively: You’re doing great with the ghost note beats! Focus this week on really keeping the hi-hat notes steady and make sure that each bass and snare note lands exactly together with the hi-hat. You should be able to do this at slow speeds as well as fast. Try all of these beats at a variety of speeds.
Koel
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes per day
What to practice: Practice the intro section of Sweet Child O’ Mine by Guns ’n’ Roses.
How to practice it most effectively: The cymbal part at the beginning of the song needs to played with very precise timing. Have a listen to the recording of the song to make sure that what you’re playing matches the song. Also, with the last bar of the intro, focus on getting the right hand to move smoothly between the ride cymbal and crash cymbal. The rhythm of the bass and snare needs to line up with the crash and ride notes.
Caroline
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes per day
What to practice: Practice playing the second Verse, second Chorus, and Bridge of Can’t Stop.
How to practice it most effectively: Focus on the fills this week in each section of the song. Practice them slowly and do each one several times in a row to make sure you really have it. Then begin to integrate them into the rest of the song. Play the beats leading into the fills and out of the fills. Once you can do this, then try playing along with the recording of the song.