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: Practice accent patterns #52-60 on the page we’ve been working on: https://drive.google.com/open?id=17pjkCZ1jfMdjwRqFBMaPIG_hKMb3gQGz
How to practice it most effectively: As we have talked about in your lessons, practice each accent pattern in a variety of ways. First play just on the snare drum in order to make sure you have the rhythm right. After that, try moving the accents around the drums in different ways. Remember that you don’t need to play every accent on the toms. You can keep some on the snare drum. Try to come up with different combinations of toms and snare that sound musical to you. Also, practice at a variety of speeds.
Elliot
Recommended minutes to practice: 10-15 minutes per day
What to practice: Focus on the new beats and fills from page 3 of Smoke on the Water: https://drive.google.com/open?id=10YGpSqgr9Z2SExyhXz7k1evG3C0t2VEc
How to practice it most effectively: Start with Verse 2. Practice the two fills separately, then practice playing them in combination with the beat. Once you’re comfortable doing this, then practice transitioning from Verse 2 into the second Chorus. Finally, begin working on the 16th-note beat from the guitar solo as well as the fills from this section.
Aidan
Recommended minutes to practice: 20-30 minutes per day
What to practice: Practice the last line on the first page and the first five lines on the second page of “Drum Corps on Parade”: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1yJPRmQn7QZuvnmvhe8ji-CCGmJPGLDZi
How to practice it most effectively: Focus on the sections that you know are problematic, especially the last line of the first page and the transition into page two. Also, when practicing the drags on page 2, remember to think about drags the same way as you think about flams: both sticks should feel like they’re coming down at the same time, but one from a different height than the other. This means that one stick will hit the drum slightly before the other, but both hits are part of the same “note.”
Noah
Recommended minutes to practice: 10-15 minutes per day
What to practice: Practice beats #16-18 from the ghost note page: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Dga1ZBRWaN_Ka4O1G009w-74c4VaZCj7?usp=sharing
How to practice it most effectively: Just like last week, remember to practice these beats slowly. It’s important that you play slowly enough that you can count the rhythm while playing it, at least at first. This way you can be sure whether you’re playing the rhythm correctly or not. Once you are comfortable counting the rhythm, then try playing the bass drum and snare drum parts without the hi-hat. This will allow you to hear the rhythm more clearly and focus on making a difference between the ghost notes and regular notes. Once this feels good, then try adding back in the hi-hat. This step-by-step process will make learning these beats easier.
Nate M.
Recommended minutes to practice: 20-30 minutes per day
What to practice: Keep working on the beats and fills from “Red Barchetta” by Rush: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1UJYz7hx_AeAM7Std0aj1Y1IyVd-8f86S?usp=sharing
How to practice it most effectively: Practice playing through longer sections of the song this week. See if you can play everything up to 3:24 without stopping. Once you’ve got this part of the song down, then practice playing through the next section of the song slowly. Listen to the recording to help with learning the rhythms and remember that this section is in 7/4 time signature. We’ll come back to this section next week.
Nate O.
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes per day
What to practice: Practice playing all of Verse 2, Chorus 2, and the Guitar solo section from pages 3 and 4 of “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1lsS6FvGAobS96Y5mFUDE_7L1HGfAK0_s
How to practice it most effectively: Focus on the drum fills at the end of each line. Be sure that you count the rhythms so you know you are playing them correctly. Practice transitioning into and out of each drum fills without pausing or hesitating. Listen to the recording of the song in order to hear how each transition should sound. Also, be careful of the syncopated notes on the bass drum. Remember that these notes should fall in between the hi-hat notes, not on top of them. Next week we will work on the bridge section that comes after the second guitar solo.