Hi everyone,
Here are your practice assignments for this week:
Aidan
Recommended minutes to practice: 20-30 minutes per day
What to practice: Sight-reading snare drum and xylophone music.
How to practice it most effectively: I know that you don’t have a xylophone to practice at home, but it would be great if you could at least work on some of the exercises from your xylophone book on a piano keyboard. Focus on reading the notes as you play them rather than just memorizing the notes and playing from memory. Try to read more than on note at a time (read at least one or two notes ahead) and only look at the keyboard when you absolutely have to. Also, with snare drum, be sure that you are looking at all the details of the music before you play. This includes dynamics, accents, and other articulation.
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: Accent patterns #1-10 from your book.
How to practice it most effectively: Play each of the accent patterns on the snare drum to start. Focus on keeping a steady pulse and playing the non-accented notes as softly as you can. After that, try moving the accents around on the toms. You should still keep the non-accented notes soft and played on the snare drum, but play each of the accents on different toms. Be careful not to mix up the right hand accents and the left hand accents.
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: 20-30 minutes per day
What to practice: The fills at the end of the Bridge and Guitar Solo in “Can’t Stop” by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers.
How to practice it most effectively: Read the notes that I wrote down in your folder. Count three measures of the bridge beat and then play the measure with the fill on beat 4. Next, count 3 measures of rest and then play the fill starting on beat 3 that leads back into the Verse beat. If you can play all of this without stopping, then try playing it along with the recording.
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: “Fool In The Rain” by Led Zeppelin.
How to practice it most effectively: Take it slow and follow the steps that I outlined in your binder. First practice the beat without the ghost notes on the snare. Then practice the ghost notes with a snare accent on beat 3 and the hi-hat part. Then add the bass drum only on beat 1. Then add the bass drum on the last note of the triplets on beats 2 and 4. Then, finally, add the bass drum accent on the last note of the triplet on beat 1. It is very tricky to put it all together, but if you do it in stages and practice slow, you’ll be able to get it.
How parents can support practice: Encouraging your child to practice regularly and helping them develop a routine is the best way to be supportive.
Nate M.
Recommended minutes to practice: 20-30 minutes per day
What to practice: Review the four scales that we learned on the xylophone: C, F, G, and D.
How to practice it most effectively: I know that you don’t have a xylophone at home to practice on, but you can practice the scales we worked on with a piano keyboard if you have access to one of those. Remember the order of whole steps (W) and half steps (H) that we talked about which forms the pattern of every major scale. The pattern is: W W H W W W H. With that pattern you can figure out the notes for any major scale! Practice the scales going up and down using both hands (alternating right, left, right, left, etc.).
How parents can support practice: Encouraging your child to practice regularly and helping them develop a routine is the best way to be supportive.