Jonah

At the beginning of the lesson, Jonah attempted a complete play-through of “Triplets.” The first half was smooth, but some similar-looking passages in the second half caused difficulty.

When two passages look similar:

  1. Compare them and pinpoint exactly what changes.
  2. Isolate the version that is causing difficulty.
  3. Repeat it until the correct performance is intentional rather than accidental.
  4. Connect it to the bars immediately before and after it.
  5. Expand the practice loop into a short passage.
  6. Finally, play both lines back-to-back.

Remember to take short breaks and drink water during longer practice sessions. After doing this in the lesson, Jonah slowed the tempo, carefully anticipated previous trouble spots, and gave his best performance of the second half so far.

I am happy to put this project behind us and move on to a new snare-drum etude. Please preview Etude No. 13 this week, and we will examine it more closely together during the next lesson.

Etude No. 13

Sam

We revisited some older material, and Sam played everything with great composure. We then focused on the guitar-solo section of “Holiday.”

At the beginning of the section, the bass-drum note must swing properly. Listen closely to the guitar riff to find the correct feel.

The guitar-solo pattern can sometimes become mixed up with the chorus pattern. Study the score carefully and identify the differences, especially how each section ends.

Pay particular attention to:

  • Bar 48: There is an additional cymbal hit on beat 4. When played correctly, the cymbal is struck twice consecutively—on beat 4 and again on beat 1 of the following bar.
  • Bar 51: This bar is played like bar 48, but the following bar is different from bar 49. Make sure you can clearly distinguish the two versions.

For the next lesson, begin working on Section I, the chanting section of the song.

Dylan

We focused on the second pattern from “Opalite” and played it with the chorus.

Dylan can play the pattern perfectly by itself. When playing with the song, however, she sometimes misses the first hi-hat note in the bar following the changed pattern.

Remember that there are two consecutive hi-hat notes:

  • One at the end of the changed bar
  • One on beat 1 of the following bar, played together with the bass drum

Isolate this transition and practise it with a metronome or by counting all four beats aloud. Make sure the second hi-hat note lands clearly on beat 1 with the bass drum.

Jack

We learned the “Enter Sandman” melody on the xylophone.

Practise the melody by grouping the notes into three small shapes:

  1. The lower E
  2. E to G
  3. B-flat to A

Thinking in groups will help build larger movement patterns and develop muscle memory for the locations of the keys. Practise each group separately, then connect the three groups while maintaining a steady pulse.

We will continue working on bringing the melody up to speed.