Jack
Jack has been making great progress with the Visual Drumset Method book. Through encouragement, he now willingly uses his RH to play the snare drum (he likes to call it snake drum), and is getting in the habit to play a single beat on repeat without stopping, which is crucial for us to get into any songs in the future. I will especially like to highlight the control he has gained with both legs now, and sometimes he like to do this hi-hat and bass drum on every other beat pattern just for fun. At the moment I will like to still go through a few more pages of the book with him, just to get him in the habit of reading the score and following it, before introducing a song to him.
Nova
Nova is fast to pick up things but need to slightly work on better practising habit. We are still working on Insomnia by EVE, and we have pretty much gone through most of the beat variations in the song. Now it is all about piecing it together. Watch the score following video available below for better hint on how each beat relates to the song.
Try to play beats in conjunction, not by itself. I will also like to get back to some xylophone for next week or the week after.
Adam
Adam has been showing growth in dexterity through his practise of some basic rudiments. One thing about rudiment however is that we never stop working on these exercises, a better way to think about it is that we are building a vocabulary, a vocabulary for practising. The ideal in terms of the RLRL/RRLL exercise is to get it to however way we aim for it to sound. If the aim to get doubles and singles to sound the same, then adjust the control until your ears hear that. Things to pay attention to is stick height and matching both hands to be similar. This week I introduced the exercise of RLR LRL, and notice that even though on paper it is the same as RLRL, the idea is to be able to put an emphasis on every three hits, and in lesson we will talk about how that is achievable. A
Then we moved onto doing more of Enter Sandman. Adam’s concentration was very impressive and was able to do all the complicated transitions I mentioned regarding intro –> verse –> fill out of verse –> pre chorus. Now we are onto chorus, which although in terms of playing, it is rather easy, it has minute changes in the pattern that could be slightly complicated to master. Best way to master this, is practise with the score as much as possible, observe the details, then listen to the song, relate those details to what happens in the vocal or the guitar riff. We will work towards playing with music under speed next week. After this we will look to also try one more section of Enter Sandman and we will move on to another song.
Nicolas
We worked on Merry Go Around today. Nicolas has been building movement patterns regarding his mallets, but will still need to work on active score reading. I will be notating theory homework for him weekly, and hopefully that builds that skill but also make it a habit. In terms of the song, think about how to bring out the right hand more as it is the melody. Adjust through stick height as well as finger control. Also since the song is a waltz, a dance! think about how to sound more elegant and coherent from note to note.
Jonah
It was good to see Jonah again after several weeks of online lesson, and I am happy to see the amount of practising and self learning he did by himself. However the outro chorus of Fly As Me will just need some fluency in which I hope for him to just work on it slightly this week, and next week we will start the song Superstition by Stevie Wonder. The score has already been printed and made available on his drive.