Hi everyone,
Here are your practice assignments for this week:
Paula
Practice the accents exercises that we worked on this week. Focus on keeping your sticks low for the non-accented notes and raising them higher to prepare the accents. It is also very important to maintain a steady rhythm and pulse. Try moving the accents onto the toms in different patterns to create drum fills.
Sabrina
Spend some time this week practicing all of your audition music with a metronome. Start with the metronome on a high speed giving you eighth note subdivisions, then cut the speed in half to give you quarter note subdivisions, then cut it in half again and use it as half note subdivisions. This process allows you to first identify and fix the rhythmic inaccuracies in your playing, then to work on keeping good time on your own without the metronome giving you every beat.
Will
Practice all of the different parts of Paradise City that we have worked on so far. Focus especially on the transitions between the verses and the chorus. Remember the crashes that we added in the chorus this week. Practice playing along with the recording an listen carefully for cues in the music for when each transition occurs.
Oscar
Practice the triplet accent patterns from your binder. Keep time by playing quarter notes on the bass drum and play the accent patterns on top of this. Play each accent pattern at a variety of speeds. Then see if you can incorporate some of them as fills in Higher Ground by Stevie Wonder. Also, continue to work out the stickings for Super Mario Bros. Be sure that you are doing them consistently and the same way each time.
Isaac
Spend some time practicing the beat that we worked on this week. Focus on keeping a steady pulse on the bass drum and not allowing yourself to speed up or slow down. Pick different speeds at which to practice (slow, medium, and fast). Also, work on playing drum fills with the beat. Always keep the pulse going on the bass drum as you play your fills. This will help you to know if you are keeping good time.
Leonie
Practice the first beat from Arabella by the Arctic Monkeys. Start by practicing the snare drum and bass drum parts together. Then play a steady eighth note pulse on the hi-hat and try to add in the snare/bass part underneath. If this doesn’t work at first, then break up the pattern into two sections (first bar and second bar) and practice them individually.
Nate
Fool in the Rain is starting to sound really great! As we discussed in your lesson, try to keep your playing light (rather than heavy) throughout the song. Don’t feel like you need to play every note loudly. Instead, keep most of the notes soft and bring out the accented notes more. This will help with endurance issues in this long song as you won’t be expending so much energy on every note. It will also help you to play faster more easily.
Alexy
Great work on Back in Black this week! Finish learning the rest of the song this week (the bridge until the end). Be sure to count through the measures that have rests in them so that you can get the timing correct. Also, spend some time listening to this part of the song so that you can hear the drum part in context. Next week we will try to play through the whole song.