Hi students and parents!

It was a slow week. I hope the kids who were feeling too sick or tired to come to their lessons feel better soon.

Jacinto: Play Back in Black up to the beginning of the chorus. Remember: the pattern for the part you were having trouble with is “LR LR LR LR”. Whenever you play a crash or an OPEN hihat, you will play the bass drum at the same time. You never (in this song) play the bass and snare drums at the same time.

Asher: Since you weren’t here today, continue work from last week: Work on the page I sent home with you, with Ezra if possible. Bring in songs that you would like to learn.

Ezra: Since you weren’t here today, continue work from last week: Try playing along to When the Levee Breaks and Amen Brother. Listen to the Funky Drummer (https://youtu.be/dNP8tbDMZNE) – if you are on a computer you should be able to slow the video down to hear exactly what Clyde Stubblefield is doing. Try playing along to the slowed down Funky Drummer beat. If that’s too hard, you can go back to practicing it one beat at a time. You do not have to open the hihat with your left foot, just focus on the other three limbs for now!

Chloe: Get your BIG headphones (the ones that go over your ears instead of in them) and play along with some songs. Make up different beats for them. Pick 3 songs and play them for me next week. BRING YOUR HEADPHONES. Remember that if you lose the beat, you can stop, listen, and start again when you find the beat again.

Brad: Since you weren’t here today, continue work from last week: Work on the page I sent home with you. If you’re having trouble figuring out where the bass drum sits in the beat, it may help to write down the counts they appear on and then count out loud. For example, in the 2nd bar, the first note sits on beat 1, and the second note sits on the ‘and’ of 2. So it’s ONE (and) (two) AND. That’s what you’ll play with your bass drum.

ALL STUDENTS: Please acquire a copy of Progressive Steps to Syncopation for the Modern Drummer by Ted Reed. No big rush, but we will be working with this book! You can find it on my teacher page: https://music-lessons.ca/teachers/david-zada/