Hi everyone,
With the transition 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:
Will
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes per day
What to practice: Finish up working on the triplet accent pattern exercises, #45-60: https://drive.google.com/open?id=17pjkCZ1jfMdjwRqFBMaPIG_hKMb3gQGz
How to practice it most effectively: With all of these exercises, don’t just play them the same way over and over again, but rather practice moving the accents around the drums in different ways. The ultimate aim of all this is to get comfortable improvising on the drums in the context of a triplet subdivision. The accent patterns are just a method for getting there. So practice playing the accents on the snare, the toms, the cymbals, and all different combinations of the three. Be creative!
Elliot
Recommended minutes to practice: 10-15 minutes per day
What to practice: Finish up working on page 3 and begin page 4 of “Smoke on the Water”: https://drive.google.com/open?id=10YGpSqgr9Z2SExyhXz7k1evG3C0t2VEc
How to practice it most effectively: Practice playing all the way through the guitar solo section without stopping. Play it slowly at first to be sure that you can transition into and out of each of the fills smoothly. Then, once you can play it up to speed, practice connecting it with the earlier sections. Finally, take a look at page 4 and beginning practicing the last sections of the song.
Aidan
Recommended minutes to practice: 20-30 minutes per day
What to practice: Practice the first six lines on the second page of “Drum Corps on Parade” and review page 1: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1yJPRmQn7QZuvnmvhe8ji-CCGmJPGLDZi
How to practice it most effectively: Practice playing through this section of the piece slowly. It is important to be able to play everything slightly under tempo. This will help you to really know when each stick should be lifting to play and accent or staying close to the drum to play a flam or drag. You should also do this with page one as well. Once you feel comfortable with all of this material, try playing through it from the beginning. We will work on finishing the last five lines of the piece at your next lesson.
Noah
Recommended minutes to practice: 10-15 minutes per day
What to practice: Practice exercises #1-4 from the 16th-note accent patterns page: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Dga1ZBRWaN_Ka4O1G009w-74c4VaZCj7?usp=sharing
How to practice it most effectively: First, practice playing each accent pattern very slow without the bass drum pulse. Count each note out loud “1 e & a 2 e & a …” and make sure that all the non-accented notes are played softly. Note that, in each exercise, you should play the first note with your right hand and continuously alternated hands from note to note. Once you feel comfortable with each pattern, then add in the quarter note pulse on the bass drum.
Nate M.
Recommended minutes to practice: 20-30 minutes per day
What to practice: Focus on the 7/4 section “Red Barchetta” by Rush: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1UJYz7hx_AeAM7Std0aj1Y1IyVd-8f86S?usp=sharing
How to practice it most effectively: Print off the sheet music that I have provided in the link above. You can spend some time reviewing the sections of the song that we have worked on previously, but I want you to focus on the 7/4 section that begins at letter E near the bottom of page 3. Remember to count this section in seven and to closely observe the rhythm between the bass drum and snare drum. Also, watch out for where the crash cymbal is played; sometimes it is at the beginning of the bar, but sometimes it is played ini other places.
Nate O.
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes per day
What to practice: Work on finishing the Guitar Solo 2 section of “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1lsS6FvGAobS96Y5mFUDE_7L1HGfAK0_s
How to practice it most effectively: Play from the beginning of the guitar solo on page 3 until the end of page 4. Practice playing the bass and snare rhythms without the hi-hat in order to make sure you can play them correctly. Listen to this section of the song a few times so that you know what the beats are supposed to sound like. Be careful of the change in the bass drum rhythm starting on the second line of page 4. Here the bass drum plays 16th notes while the hi-hat plays 8th notes.