Hi everyone,
Here are your practice assignments for this week:
Nate
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes per day
What to practice: Drum fills, syncopated rhythms, and 16th-note drum beats (all in your book).
How to practice it most effectively: Practice the drum fills in alternation with the drum beats that you are familiar with. Play the drum beat three times in a row and then play the fill. At the end of the fill, make sure you go straight back to the drum beat and stay in time. It is important not to speed up, slow down, or pause. With the syncopated rhythms, make sure you are counting them out loud before you play them and then continue to count in your head while you are playing. Identify which notes are short (16th notes) and which notes are longer (8ths and quarters). With the 16th-note beats, just read the rhythm of the bass drum and keep a steady pulse on the hi-hat and snare drum.
How parents can support practice: Encouraging your child to practice regularly and helping them develop a routine is the best way to be supportive.
Aidan
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes per day
What to practice: The new syncopated snare drum beats.
How to practice it most effectively: Take it slow and count out loud. Be sure that you can identify which notes are supposed to land with the hi-hat and which are to land between the hi-hat notes. Keeping a steady pulse on the hi-hat is very important in order to make sure that the beat stays in time.
How parents can support practice: Encouraging your child to practice regularly and helping them develop a routine is the best way to be supportive.
Sam
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes per day
What to practice: Syncopation concepts with rhythms and beats.
How to practice it most effectively: Review the rhythmic concepts that we talked about in your lesson. Read each of the rhythm examples and count them out loud before you play them. Be sure that you can feel a steady pulse while you’re playing the rhythm. You should be able to feel the 1, 2, 3, and 4. With the drum beats, take them slow and maintain a steady pulse on the hi-hat. These beats aren’t much different from the kinds of beats we have done before, so you just need to read them carefully and count.
How parents can support practice: Encouraging your child to practice regularly and helping them develop a routine is the best way to be supportive.
Harrison
Recommended minutes to practice: 10-15 minutes per day
What to practice: The bass drum variation beats from your folder.
How to practice it most effectively: The problem that you’ve been having is in the coordination between your hands and your feet. These beat each use different rhythms in the bass drum (right foot) while keeping the same rhythm in your hands. You need to be able to count the bass drum rhythm out loud and then play it without changing what you’re doing with your hands. You should take these beats slowly and sometimes practice just the bass drum and snare drum together if you’re having trouble.
How parents can support practice: Encouraging your child to practice regularly and helping them develop a routine is the best way to be supportive.
Alejandro
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes per day
What to practice: The new accent patterns that we worked on in your lesson.
How to practice it most effectively: The accented notes should be played louder than all the other notes by lifting your stick higher above the drum before you play the note. The non-accented notes should be played very softly by keeping your sticks close to the drum. Count out loud while you play these exercises so that you’re not adding extra notes by accident. Take them slow and focus on keeping a steady speed.
How parents can support practice: Encouraging your child to practice regularly and helping them develop a routine is the best way to be supportive.