Hi everyone,
Here are your assignments for this week:
Will
Recommended minutes to practice: 20-30 minutes per day
What to practice: Practice the 16-bar exercise from Lesson One and practice the first seven exercises on the new page provided here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17pjkCZ1jfMdjwRqFBMaPIG_hKMb3gQGz?usp=share_link
How to practice it most effectively: Focus on keeping the ride cymbal and hi-hat steady and maintaining the accent on beats 2 and 4. As you play through the different rhythms with your left hand and bass drum, keep counting in your head so that you don’t lose track of where you are. Just simply counting “1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4…” will really help!
Elliot
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes per day
What to practice: Practice all of section 1 from Herbie Hancock’s Watermelon Man.
How to practice it most effectively: Go over all the new material on the new page I gave you this week. Practice the two fill bars by themselves and then practice playing them in context. Review the form of this section (the order of beats and fills) and then practice running through it on your own. Once this feels comfortable, then practice playing it together with the recording of the song. Section 1 starts around 0:58.
Jared
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes per day
What to practice: Practice measures 55 – 94 of “Bohemian Rhapsody” by Queen.
How to practice it most effectively: Read all of the rhythms in this new section carefully. Count either in your head or out loud as you play each rhythm. Then, once you feel comfortable with the rhythms, try playing them in sequence. Try to relate the rhythms to things that you hear in the song, particularly the rhythm of the words that the singer sings. The drum drum rhythms in this section of the song line up pretty much exactly with the singer.
Noah
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes per day
What to practice: Practice playing all the way through Good Times Bad Times as well as beats 13-16 on this new page: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Dga1ZBRWaN_Ka4O1G009w-74c4VaZCj7?usp=share_link
How to practice it most effectively: You’ve got all that you need now to play the whole song. Just practice all the difficult sections slowly and accurately before you try to play everything together with the recording of the song. Accuracy and consistency are the most important things (not speed). With the new ghost note beats, focus on keeping a steady pulse on the hi-hat and making a big difference in volume between the ghost notes and the regular notes on the snare drum.
Koel
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes per day
What to practice: Practice the snare rhythms from this new page together with the ride cymbal, hi-hat, and bass drum jazz patterns: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1SCS8WVjfR1OZVlYmt8a1r2LTxo2NJOpN?usp=share_link
How to practice it most effectively: Always start with the ride cymbal and the hi-hat foot. These two parts are the most important and they need to be in sync. Once these parts feel solid, then add the bass drum playing quarter notes. Be sure to count either in your head out loud “1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4…” so that you don’t lose track of the beat. Then, finally, add the snare notes with the left hand. Focus on the exercises that have either one or two snare notes in them.
Caroline
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes per day
What to practice: Practice playing all the way through the Intro, Verse, and Chorus of Can’t Stop.
How to practice it most effectively: Take a close look at the new material in the Chorus and start by practicing that. Be sure that, in the last bar of the chorus, you can feel the pulse on beat 3 and that you’re not coming in too early on the snare drum. Listen to the song as a reference for this part. Once you can play through each of these sections on your own comfortably, then try playing through it with the recording of the song.