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, November 26th
Josh
Post Malone: I Had Some Help
–Good work on this!
–To help get that main beat coordinated at performance speed, isolate the “2 + 3” portion of it, making sure to line up the bass drums with the hihats. When isolated, you do a great job of this at high speeds. Can you bring the same coordination to the main beat overall?
–The pre-chorus fill (flam-bass…) is great! Make sure to play it four times, not three
Play-along Tracks:
–In your personal folder, find tracks to play along with
–The “rock” track can be used to work on VD #9, the same beat as in “I Had Some Help”
–Play your soca beat along to the soca track
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 explanation of new bass pattern: master each exercise and then we’ll put it in context next week
–For next week, we’ll warm up with some of these fills (V1 out fill)
==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
–Let’s try to polish these off for next week
–Aim for four repetitions of each. Keep the rhythm steady.
Francisco
Warmups:
–Stick Control*** (in google drive), first page ex. 1-8 (4x each, 100bpm goal tempo)
Stevie Wonder: Superstition
–Everything up until the end of page three
–See google drive for simplified fill from the second last bar of that page
–Think about how you’d like to proceed
Noah
We’ll come back to our regularly scheduled programming next week. For this week, work on the shuffle-train two-beat we learned today
Shuffle-train Worksheet
–Learn the accent patterns from these five exercises
–Pay close attention to the volume of the accented vs non-accented notes. Make them as different from one another as possible
–Also, be sure that the coordination between limbs is precise. This will make these really groove
–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!
Saturday, February 22nd
Jack
Warmups:
–Tragically Hip: 50 Mission Cap
Benny Greb Rhythmic Alphabet
–Practice putting the letters of your new sentence of different drums
–Use the drum set notation on the bottom half of the page to help with reading which drums happen when
Beatles: Ticket to Ride
–Keep working on the main beat of this song! Let’s try to play along with it next time
Nova
Warmups:
–See Google Drive (or handout if we were able to print it) with the C Major, G Major, and F Major scale warmups
Cirone Book: “Step 7” ex. 3-4
–Nice job! Don’t forget to play hand-to-hand, and in the centre of each bar
–This week, let’s do #5-6
FIFTY FIFTY: Cupid
–See chart in your google drive folder
Aleksander
Warmups goal tempo *90bpm* playing four notes per beat:
–Singles, Doubles, and Paradiddles (four counts each for 1min)
–Flams, flam triplets
Drumset Musician: Sixteenth Note Ride Patterns (in your gdrive folder)
–Drill ex. 5-7, 2min ea
Lenny Kravitz: Are You Gonna Go My Way–all the way to the end!
–Polish off the ending (post-guitar-solo fill, and the time signature changes at the end)
Jonah
==Xylophone==
Warmups: see Xylophone Warmup Sheet in the Google Drive PLEASE PRINT
–This week, add in Bb Major and D Major
Ear training:
–Identifying 3rds, 5ths, and 2nds
–Playing simple melodies back by ear
Bruno Mars: Locked out of Heaven CHORD CHART EXERCISE
–I added some more to this this week! PLEASE PRINT***********
==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 (90bpm***)
—-Play each exercise 4 times
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 SLOW
–We learned two fills today for this song. One was short (on beat 4) and one was longer (beats three and four). Drill’em!
Mario
Warmups (1min/ea) with Metronome at 115bpm (two notes per beat)
–8 on a hand
–Single Stroke Roll (R L R L…)
–Double Stroke Roll (R R L L…)
–Focus on keeping up with the metronome. You have a tendency to drag, so don’t let yourself get sluggish!
Queen: Rock you
–Filling in the empty “4”
Joan Jett: Rock ‘n Roll
–Watermelon-watermelon fill off the top
–“apple pineapple” fill before chorus
Drumset Musician p27 (in google drive) – 8th-note Fills, ex. 9-12
–This week, focus on keeping the 8th-note steady through your fills
***NEW SONG Red Hot Chili Peppers: My Friends
–This week, drill the main beat (it’s ex. 7 from Drumset Musician p11)
–We’ll work on the first couple fills
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
–Add in fills from D.M. book. Count aloud!!!
NEW SONG Survivor: Eye of the Tiger
–Find the chart in your google drive folder
–learn page 1 this week
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