Hi everyone,
Here are your assignments for this week:
Caroline
Recommended minutes to practice: 10-15 minutes per day
What to practice: Practice playing the two main beats from “When September Ends” by Green Day.
How to practice it most effectively: Practice these beats slowly at first to make sure that you’ve got all the notes in the right spots. In the first beat, focus on the sound of the flams on the snare drum, making sure that the notes aren’t too far apart or too close together. In the second beat, focus on the syncopated snare drum note, making sure it’s always in between the hi-hat notes and before the second pair of bass drum notes. Next week we will work on playing these beats faster.
Elliot
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes per day
What to practice: Finish working on “Black Dog” this week by tightening up the transitions and playing all the way through the song.
How to practice it most effectively: Start each practice session with a run-through of the whole song. Take note about which spots gave you trouble. Then, go back and work on just those spots. Practice them slowly, without the song, and repeat them several time in a row to make sure you’ve got them. Then, finish each practice session with another run-through.
Jared
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes per day
What to practice: Practice the first six accent patterns that I have given you and keep working on your drum fills.
How to practice it most effectively: With the accent patterns, focus on your stick heights making sure that the accents are always played from high above the drum and all the non-accented notes are played close to the drum. Listen closely to how each note sounds and try to match the volume of each accent in every pattern. With the drum fills, keep trying to come up with creative ways of moving rhythms around the drums. Don’t be afraid to try out different ideas!
Noah
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes per day
What to practice: Practice the middle section of “Black Dog” (measures 13-17) and try putting it together with the earlier section.
How to practice it most effectively: Work through this section slowly to ensure that each bass drum note and left hand note is in the correct place. Remember that the right hand plays steady eighth notes on the ride cymbal throughout this section. Once you have a good feel for the beat, then gradually speed it up to the proper tempo. Then, practice playing from measure 10 and transition into the new section in measure 13.
Koel
Recommended minutes to practice: 15-20 minutes per day
What to practice: Review the page I gave you which outlines all the note names for each line and space on a treble clef staff and practice the sheet music for your school music class.
How to practice it most effectively: Remember the two acronyms for the lines and spaces on the treble clef staff: E(very) G(ood) B(oy) D(eserves) F(udge) – this one is for the notes that appear on the lines, and FACE (spells face) – this one is for the notes that appear in the spaces. Then go through your sheet music and practice identifying the letter name for each note. You can even write them into your music if that is helpful. After that, look at the rhythms and practice counting each bar.