Hi everyone,
Here are your practice assignments for this week:
Paula
Practice the rhythms and drum beats that we worked on this week. Try playing the rhythms as drum fills by moving back an forth between the drum beats and the rhythms. Also practice playing the crash at the beginning of the beat after finishing a drum fill. We will review all of these things next week and then build onto it.
Will
Practice beats #11 and #12 from your sheet this week. They are similar to one another, so make sure you don’t mix them up. Also, take a look at the intro from Paradise City by Guns ‘n’ Roses which I wrote down in your book. Have a listen to the song and see if you can play along with the intro.
Oscar
Keep working on the new jazz rhythms that I wrote down for you. Make sure you understand the rhythm completely before you try to play it together with the beat. Identify which notes are on the beat and which notes are off the beat. Quarter notes will here will always be on the beat, and an eighth note following an eighth rest will always be off the beat. When you see two eighth notes attached, the first one is on the beat and the second one is off the beat.
Isaac
Great work this week on “10,000 Reasons.” Keep practicing it and work on singing along while you play. This will help you to stay on the beat and not get ahead or fall behind. Work on the part that comes at the end of the bridge section of the song: four quarter notes on the bass drum followed by eighth notes on the snare and floor tom. The leads back into the main beat with a crash.
Leonie
Have another go at the beat from “La Villa Strangiato” this week. Work on the coordination of the feet so that the open hi-hat and the bass drum always happen at the same time. Also, practice playing the beat several times in a row without stopping at a slow speed while counting out loud “1 2 3 4.” This will help you to develop more consistency with the beat.
Nate
This week, practice transitioning between the two main beats from “Fool in the Rain” by Led Zeppelin. It is important to be able to do these transitions smoothly and accurately. Focus on the changing pattern of the right hand and try to keep the beat really steady. Also, take a look at the two fills from the song that I wrote down in your book. Practice them along with the beats.
Alexy
Spend some more time this week working on the two-bar phrases from last week. They’re starting to sound really good, but they need a little bit more work to develop consistency. Also practice the fills that we worked on. You can play these fills together with any of the beats that we have worked on so far. Finally, keep practicing the beats from Back In Black. Focus on the transitions between the verse and chorus and back to the verse.