Christopher Hull is a percussionist and ethnomusicologist whose work focuses on tensions between tradition and innovation in contemporary music. As a passionate performer of solo, chamber, and orchestral percussion, he seeks to ground his work in his classical training while simultaneously transcending the conventions of the conservatory. With classical percussion degrees from Wilfrid Laurier University and University of Alaska Fairbanks, a performing arts certificate from the Arts Institute of Indonesia Denpasar, and his current studies in ethnomusicology at the University of Toronto, Christopher’s genre-defying work exhibits a world of experience.
As an orchestral percussionist, he frequently works with the National Academy Orchestra of Canada, the Hamilton and Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestras, and Sinfonia Ancaster. He has appeared as a chamber musician and soloist in festivals such as Open Ears, International Gamelan Festival Munich, Young Artists Niagara, and Sacred Rhythm Jakarta, and can be heard playing drums, vibraphone, and synthesizer on commercial recordings by Call Me Moon and Treephones. He is also Associate Artistic Director of Toronto-based Evergreen Club Contemporary Gamelan, commissioning and premiering new works for Sundanese degung, and director of the University of Toronto’s Balinese gamelan ensemble, Dharma Santi.
Get to know Chris…Beyond the Bio!
Hobbies: Reading, cycling, and synthesizers
Musical influences: Jojo Mayer, Benny Greb, David Garibaldi, Gary Burton, Tony Miceli, Steve Reich, Glenn Gould, Bill Evans, I Dewa Made
Favourite food: Noodles
Least favourite food: Quiche
Favourite music: R&B, hip-hop, funk; Western modernism and minimalism; Balinese gender wayang; Sundanese degung; Orchestral; beatsce Favourite song:!
Favourite movie: The Departed
Favouirite movie music: Old modern romantic soundtracks (eg. Spellbound)
Favourite musical theatre/opera: West Side Story/Turandot
Best quote from your teacher: “When we perform, we smile. If we make a mistake while performing, we smile bigger.” -Dewa Suparta
Favourite quote: “I’m a man who leaves nothing to chance.” -Maestro Boris Brott
Favourite book: Dance, Dance, Dance by Haruki Murakami
Best thing about teaching at ABC: The lovely students
Latest Homework from CHRIS
Is Chris Your Teacher?
Sign up now to get your weekly assignments delivered, and never lose your homework sheet again!
Tuesday, March 18th
Lila
Warmups:
–8 on a Hand
–Single strokes
–Double strokes
–Paradiddles
Basic Beat Level 3.5 same as level 3, but RH plays on the Ride Cymbal
Step 1) Count “1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + ”
Step 2) Play the Hihat with your Right Hand (RH) on all the counts
Step 3) Add in the Bass Drum with your Right Foot (RF) on “1”, “2”, “3”, and “4”
Step 4) Add in the Snare Drum with your Left Hand (LH) on “2” and “4”
Visual Drumset Method: exercise 12
–great! Number 12 still needs a bit more work to be consistent and comfortable
White Stripes: Seven Nation Army
–Great job!
NEW SONG ACDC: Back in Black
–This week, practise playing the basic beat along with the song
Josh
Warm-ups:
–Learn to sing along to Teddy Bear’s Picnic. Then, play along to the melody on your snare drum while keeping the beat on your bass drum, just like you came up with in today’s lesson!
Groove Essentials Rock Groove 5
–This week, add drum fills in every fourth measure
–Practice the skill of knowing when to deploy each fill. Depending on how long they are, they’ll start on a different beat
The Beatles: Ticket To Ride
–Awesome! Let’s start thinking about a new song to learn
Myles
Drumset Musician p83 Twelve Bar Blues playalong
–See handout to help visualize the 12-bar Blues form
–Add in drum fills prior to the different segments
==Xylophone==
Warmups (Three keys):
–Scale, one octave, ascending and descending, saying the note names as you play them
–Arpeggio
–Broken thirds, ascending and descending
Cirone Book: “Step Six” ex. 5-8
Eartraining: identifying thirds and fifths
Tones and I: Dreaming
–See Worksheet in google drive PLEASE PRINT NEW VERSION
Finn
Warmups (30sec each, counting aloud):
–Single Strokes
–Double Strokes
–8 on a hand
Visual Drummer: p19 ex 16-18
NEW SONG Bon Jovi: Livin on a Prayer
–The main beat for this song alternates between Visual Drummer ex. 13 and 1. Practice getting these up to speed to play this song
–Try learning the opening drum fill by ear
Koel
Warmups (1min each):
–Triplet Ex. 130bpm***
–Sixteenth-note exercise 95bpm***
–Sixteenth-note exercise ON THE BASS DRUM goal tempo: 70bpm
—-Try adding the sixteenth-note subdivision into your metronome to help with your rhythmic precision
Tommy Igoe’s Groove Essentials: Groove 14 Slow (in google drive)
–This week, learn the main beat
–as a bonus, try learning Variations A and B
Francisco
Warmups:
–Stick Control first page ex. 14-18 (4x each, 120bpm goal tempo)
–Play eighths ca. 120-160 bpm (gradually building up the speed) using accents on the beats to help with the push-pull strokes
Tommy Igoe Groove Essentials book: Groove 1 FAST
–See the cheat sheet I made for the solo section in your google drive folder
–This week, work on building this solo up. We’ll finish this song off next week
Begin working on Groove 14 Slow (Groove Essentials) in yoru google drive
Noah
Warmups (1min each)
–Paradiddle Combo Exercise with Bass Drum on Quarter Notes (goal tempo 126)
Groove Essentials: Groove 14 Slow (in your google drive folder)
–Learn the basic groove and Variation B, try playing with RH on the hihat and then hand-to-hand sticking
Please bookmark the following links:
Your personal google drive folder
The “Frequently Used Resources” Folder
Aviva
Warmups (1min ea) goal tempo = 150bpm, playing two notes per beat (aka eighth notes)
–Single strokes (LRLR…)
–Double Strokes (LLRR…)
–Paradiddles (LRLL RLRR…)
Accent Exercises worksheet
–Work on these with a RH lead this time
–Play ex. 5-8 like fills (3 measures of beat, then exercise, followed by crash)
Drumset Musician p12, ex. 11-15
–polish these off for next week
–feel free to go on to the following page
Groove 1 FAST
–Try playing along to this MUCH faster track using a quarter-note cymbal pattern (use the starred examples from your folder)
Groove 2 Slow (chart and track in your personal folder)
–Learn the main groove and variations for next week
–Ignore the left-food hihat “chicks” for now, we can add those in later
Hole: Celebrity Skin
–Work on flowing through the intro section (false start)
–Correct the rhythm on snare in beat 2s of the Chorus groove
–Learn and build up the speed of the Chorus fill (bottom of handout)
Saturday, June 14th
Jack
So glad to have worked on Holiday with Jack today! We did a simplified version of the snare tom intro lick. We will speed it up and try to play it with the music next lesson! Jack loved the song!
Aleksander
We chose Holiday as the Green Day song to play! Good job picking up the intro so fast and remember always lock into the beat (1 and 3 on bass drum and 2 and 4 on snare drum) and all the triplet material are just flair added onto that beat. Starting from B, think of this as our usual 8th note rock beat, except the eight note is slightly shuffled into triplet/swung. Also the swung note is marked as ghosted, so try to apply the push/pull motion when practising the groove. We would play the rest of page 1 next class.
Jonah
We continued with the worship song “Praise” today. I encourage you to read the score more carefully, as you are quick to pick up the groove, but often times it is the intricate details that makes the song interesting and is crucial to supporting the melody and development of the song, for example bar 21 and 22 of the piece. Whether it is an accent or a change in pattern, observe it and practise WITH those in mind. If not you will always be practising something sounds right but not quite there yet.
Jared
We read through Silhouettes till “I” today. “G” was slightly tricky with the buzzed snare hit, which at times make your time feel a little shaky. Try to think of that passage in bigger phrases and things will feel much easier to process. We are very close to the end of the song, might try to play through it next class!
Mario
You are growing more and more familiar with the rhythm but it seems like you are at times remembering the rhythm in a fixed speed and not thinking about it in the context of the bpm you have chosen to play the passage at. I encourage you to work with a metronome during practise and actually try to subdivide it (1ena which you are either playing 1()na or 1e()a) The song is also rather slow so instead of practising to play it faster, aim to play it slower but more in time. You got this!
Preferred Books for TCHRNAME Students
Click to buy them here, and they’ll come right to your house! What could be easier?
BOOK TITLE
COMING SOON
BOOK TITLE
COMING SOON
BOOK TITLE
COMING SOON
BOOK TITLE
COMING SOON
