Hi everyone,

Here are your homework assignments for this week:

Michelle

Keep working on your four-bar phrases. Add fills at the end of each phrase. The fills can be variable in length, but make sure you don’t add extra beats to the bar. Make sure that you arrive on beat 1 at the end of your fill.

Oscar

Take a look at the clave rhythm exercises. Practice each one at a slow and steady pace. Make sure you can hear the rhythms that each of your hands is playing in relation to one another. It is important that you can identify on which beats the hands are playing together and which beats they’re playing separately. Come prepared next week because we’re going to try some new exercises.

Ronin

Keep working on the beats and rhythms that I have written in your book. Especially with the beats, focus on consistency; try to play each on for an extended period of time (1-2 minutes) while keeping a steady tempo. Also, find some music that you like and take some time playing along with it. We’ll spend some time on this next week.

Leonie

Great work today on some new and challenging exercises! Practice the clave rhythm exercises with your feet and left hand. Keep it slow at first and then see if you can play the exercises faster. Always start with the feet and then see if you can add in the rhythm with the left hand.

Benjamin

Take some time this week to listen to some music and try playing a simple rhythm along with the music. Be sure to listen carefully so that you can stay “in time” with the music. Listen to a variety of music (slow songs and fast songs) and let me know next week if there are any songs that you really like to play along with.