Jack

I used Imperial March as a way to introduce triplets to Jack. The first half of the melody is engraved in his brain, but the second half not so much. I wrote it down on one of his handout and we will continue strengthening feel for that rhythm next class. We also revised on how to play the melody on xylophone, remembering the three positions the mallet go to.

Nova

We used the Blue Book to work on triplet and some flam variants. With triplet, I ask Nova to think about always going towards the next beat, and if the triplet is followed by another note, connect towards it. I assigned Solo #15 for them to work on playing triplets musically but also differentiate it from eighth notes. For Sparkles, we revised the first page, and Nova was able to connect the two phrases we worked on so far. Now we are on to the second page. This is a simple but very interesting pattern. Note that the main beats here are 1 and 4, everything else should feel like tip toe. I want Nova to work on the first two lines of the page.

Adam

We worked on the two bar batter no12 from the Drumset Musician book. Then for Under the Bridge, it seems like Adam forgot how the bridge pattern goes (one remembered by blueberry) because Adam has not been able practise on the drums. Once he has access to drums again, solidify that pattern and we will move on to second page next week.

Jonah

We worked on Audition Etude no1 by Joe Kelly this week, in preparation for TSYO audition. The ornament on the first note should be played ahead of the first beat, and should not sound the same as the 16th note triplet. The 16th note triplet should be slower, but both should be phrase similarly towards the final note. Then we revised on American on Paris, recording how things sound, evaluating that the lick should be more left hand leading, to ground to the beat better. We ended the lesson with a brief revision of Super Bad, which Jonah remembered it very well and executed the groove with taste.

Finn

Finn’s practising this week showed great result, that he was quickly able to play the complicated tom groove for bridge after one week. This time around we talked about how to play it more at ease, with a focus of thinking of the RH on floor tom like dribbling a basketball. Everything that is not on the beat should feel light and bouncy. Once more familiar with the pattern, practise playing the lick 7 times in a row, and wrap it up with the last line on the handout. We will try to play with the melody a bit next class.