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
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Tuesday, December 3rd
Reminder: I’ll be away until January. Lessons will continue with Jasmine as usual until I return. Happy holidays, and see you in the new year!
Josh
Warm-ups:
–Hand and foot coordination: playing steady beats on the bass drum, play singles, doubles, and paradiddles with your hands on the snare drum. There should be two snare notes (ti-ti; eighth notes) to every bass drum note (ta; quarter notes)
Groove Essentials Play-alongs
–Rock groove 4 (track 7): great work! Count along as you play with the backing track. In the eighth measure, play the fill from “I had some help”
–Soca: nice work! Similar to the rock groove above, try playing along with the soca backing track and adding a three-note fill in the gap of the music. The drums come to a stop, and fill in the space with three notes.
Myles
Drumset Musician p81 ex. 9-12
–Polish these off this week
Weezer: My Name is Jonas
–Drill the intro and main groove on p.1
–See worksheet for additional exercises on Bass drum variation
–For next time, we’ll learn the other two prominent fills in this song
==Xylophone==
Warmups (***G Major):
–Scale, one octave, ascending and descending, saying the note names as you play them (G-A-B-C-D-E-F#-G’)
–Arpeggio (G-B-D-G’-D-B-G)
–Broken thirds (G-B A-C B-D…)
Cirone Book: “Step Six” ex. 5-8
–Flashcards for note identification
–Next time we’ll do eartraining
Finn
Warmups (30sec each, counting aloud):
–Single Strokes
–Double Strokes
–8 on a hand
White Stripes: Seven Nation Army
–Great work! Make sure to play the regular beat during the chorus EXCEPT for that one moment when you play the triplet
Joan Jett: I Love Rock and Roll
–begins with “watermelon watermelon” on the snare
–Play the main beat (1+2 3+4)
Fruit Salad game
–Four fruits: pear, apple, blueberry, watermelon
–Each fruit has a rhythm. Experiment mixing up to four fruits together to create your own rhythms!
Visual Drummer: Drum Beats ex. 1-3
–Great work!
–This week, polish off ex. 4-6. Your goal is to be able to play them each four times in a row without breaks in between the repetitions
Francisco
Warmups:
–Stick Control first page ex. 1-8 (4x each, **120bpm goal tempo)
Stevie Wonder: Superstition
–We are going to work on finishing the remaining two pages of this song in a simplified manner. Good work so far. For this week, focus on the following two passages:
–Everything on page 3, up until the end of the second-last line. Get it up to speed so that you can play along with the recording
–Work on the new groove from the Interlude section on the next page. The first measure of that section gives you an idea for the “normal” version, which will later have some variations.
Noah
Warmups (1min each per practice session):
–Single paradiddles 75bpm
–Double Paradiddles 75bpm
–Triple Paradiddles 75bpm
–Combo exercise: four of each paradiddle w/o breaks
–This week, add an accent to the first note of each paradiddle***
Shuffle-train Worksheet
–Good work
–Now, use the accent patterns on the worksheet to create variations in your time keeping. Switch between the different exercises (or even create your own accent patterns) while playing along to the backing tracks below
–For backing tracks, try “That Was Your Mother” and “All Around the World” from Paul Simon’s album Graceland. These aren’t a perfect fit, but work well as a slower-tempo example for this beat. Give it a try!’
Paul Simon: Late in the Evening
–You’ll find the chart for this song in your google drive folder
–This week, just work on getting the groove up to speed. It is a tricky one, so be patient. Once at speed, begin playing along with the recording. Future lessons will delve deeper into the song
Saturday, March 1st
Nova
Benny Greb’s Rhythmic Alphabet
–Play our sentence in steady time, no break sbetween the letters
–Try putting the different letters on different parts of the drumset
Groove 1 FAST
–This week, play the first section (4x) switching between 8th-notes on the HH and 1/4-notes on the ride to give your RH a break!
–Create fills to play every 16 measures
Three types of creativity:
1) Reproducing
2) Responding
3) Imagining
Use this to guide you in creating drum beats and fills on the song “Baby Beluga”
–Sing the melody in yoru head, and see how you can reproduce, respond to, or imagine alongside it
Jonah
==Xylophone==
Warmups: see Xylophone Warmup Sheet in the Google Drive PLEASE PRINT
–This week, add in Bb Major and D Major***
Bruno Mars: Locked out of Heaven CHORD CHART EXERCISE
–I added some more to this this week! PLEASE PRINT***********
G Blues Scale: G-Bb-C-C#-D-F-g
Next time: Back in Black on the xylophone
==Drums==
Warmups:
–Paradiddle combo exercise with bass drum playing quarters. Accent the beginning of each paradiddle
Paul Simon: Late in the Evening
–You can find the chart for this song in your google drive personal folder
–This week we learned the main beat. Continue getting it clean and up to speed
Jared
Warmups:
–Stick Control ex 14-23 (80bpm***)
Igoe’s Groove Essentials – Groove 1 slow (track 1)
–Same assignment, but now move the RH to the ride and put LF hihat “chick” on a) “2” and “4” (b) “1 2 3 4” and (c) “1+2+3+4+”
Funk Groove Eleven FAST (in google drive)
–Learn the beat up to speed
–use fills handout to practice fills at this speed
–begin looking at groove variations
Tracie
Warm-ups:
–Triplet ex. (85bpm, 1min)
Benny Greb: Rhythmic Alphabet
–Have fun creating words
–Use the four words on the handout from today to help you create some fills. Try putting each letter on a different drum
Groove Essentials: Groove 1 (find chart and backing track in the Freq. Used folder)
–Good work on variation A this week! Keep it up
–Try using some of your Rhythmic Alphabet words from above to create drum fills that you can play in this song
Montell Fish: Don’t you Love Me
–Play the main groove up to speed
Mateo
Warmups (30 sec each) **pulling your thumb back:
–8 on a Hand
–Single Stroke Roll (RLRL…)
–Double Stroke Roll (RRLL…)
Drumset Musician p27, ex. 10-12**
–Aim to keep the flow of the eighth-note pulse STEADY
–try looping these exercises, so that the crash after the fill becomes beat 1 of the beat again
–count aloud!
Tommy Igoe’s Groove Essentials, Groove 1 SLOW
–Drill Variation A this week, making it fit tidily along with the recording
Survivor: Eye of the Tiger
–This week, learn everything up until the Verse on p. 2
–See handout for help with the fills
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 11 SLOW (track twenty-one)
–Variation B still needs a bit of work to get up to speed
–Variation A good
–This week, see the 16th-note fill exercises (in gdrive) for fill inspiration
—-Use ex. 18, 21, and pick two more to play at the end of every 8-bar phrase during the backing track (sorry, I uploaded this now)
Duke of Edinburgh
–Koel logs the hours
–Smart goal: measurable, achievable, and in a timely manner (end of school year)
–SMART GOALS: 1) triplet exercise up to 140bpm 2)sixteenth-note exercise up to 110bpm 3) Master six new grooves from the Tommy Igoe Groove Essentials book (2x rock, one funk, one r&b/hiphop, one jazz, one world) 4) Learn one new song
Preferred Books for TCHRNAME Students
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