Samson
Now that you can comfortably play through the whole piece, work on rhythmic accuracy and your timing. Practicing with a metronome and listening for downbeats seems to help. Turn the metronome to 400 so you can hear all the subdivisions and make sure to really listen. Mess around with the paradiddles and hi-hat pattern I showed you. Remember to relax!
Lucas
Keep working on the reading exercises. Make sure you always practice with a metronome on. If 80 is too slow you can do 100 but no faster at this point. If you make a mistake do that line 5 times correctly before doing anything else, don’t just repeat the entire exercise without thinking about what you need to fix.
Leo
Keep going with drum corps on parade! I think we’ve more or less gotten through the first page so try to smooth that out for next week. Remember that the whole piece is just a collection of rudiments so if you struggle with certain patterns just repeat it in isolation and identify how you can move more efficiently (ie. lower stick heights, accenting the beat and correct stickings).
Rachel & Thea
Work on the swing/shuffle pattern (what the right hand was doing on the ride) with stick control. You can swing the eighths for all of it. If that’s too confusing then just do it with doublestops. Set a metronome to ~120 for this.
Tracie
Priority right now is to get you to feel downbeats more subconsciously and accurately. Turn the metronome to 180 and only play on 1. Then play on all the beats as we did in the lesson. Work your way up to 200. If you like the tools on your kit then keep using those, just make sure your rhythmic accuracy improves even when you’re not playing along with it.
Happy Valentines day!