Lukas

“Hotel California”

Our main focus was the guitar-solo section, where the drums have a call-and-response relationship with the guitar.

When the guitar is playing its riff:

• Bring down your dynamics.
• Support the guitar rather than competing with it.
• Listen carefully so you know when it is your turn to respond.

When the drums respond, play with “main-character energy”:

• Play confidently.
• Allow the phrase to breathe.
• Build gradually from beat 3 into beat 4.
• Aim for a strong landing on beat 1 of the following bar.

We also discussed choreographing your body movement for fills that travel across the drum set. Practise the waist movement by itself. Allow the movement of your waist to lead your arms naturally from one surface to another, rather than reaching with the arms alone.

At our next lesson, we will begin with a complete play-through of the song and then move on to a new song.

Practice Material

Finn

“Imposter”

The four-bar phrase is now quite solid. Our next goal is to maintain focus while repeating it continuously.

The first time through is usually secure, but during the second repetition, the bass drum sometimes lands on the wrong beat and disrupts the phrase. Try to keep track of where you are within each bar, even if you make a mistake. Rather than stopping, continue counting and find your place again.

For the final bar:

• Practise with a metronome.
• Pay close attention to beat 3.
• Make sure beat 3 is played as sixteenth notes rather than eighth notes.
• Loop the bar until the subdivision feels natural.

I also encourage Finn to practise the phrase repeatedly with his father this week, treating it like a band rehearsal. This will help Finn become familiar with what is happening around him while also receiving immediate feedback whenever an issue appears.

I look forward to hearing how the “band rehearsal” goes!

Aleksander

“Smooth Criminal”

Learn the music through bar 41.

Focus on making the pre-chorus feel fluid and connected. A useful two-bar phrase to loop is:

• Bar 20
• Bar 21

As you move into the chorus, aim for a lighter sound on the ride cymbal. Let the cymbal support the groove without becoming too heavy.

Pay particular attention to:

• Bar 27: Play the dotted rhythm accurately.
• Bar 33: Learn and understand the rhythm first before trying to play it at speed.

Keep the tempo slow enough that every rhythm and transition remains clear.

Zico

“Drum Corps on Parade”

Learn the piece through the end of the first page, with particular focus on the final three lines.

Follow the phrasing marked on the screenshot:

• An upward-pointing arrow indicates a pickup leading into the next phrase or grouping.
• Treat the pickup as movement toward the beginning of the phrase.
• Try to play each grouping in one breath.
• Use the accents to create a clear underlying melody.

Continue practising the previously assigned rudiments.

Also work on:

• Five-stroke rolls
• Nine-stroke rolls

Practise these rolls at a variety of tempos, with special attention given to slower tempos. Playing slowly will make it easier to hear whether the spacing and rhythm of each roll are accurate.

Koel

“YYZ”

This week, practise everything at a slower tempo and allow more space between the quarter-note beats.

Using the sixth repeat leading into the guitar solo as an example:

1. Establish beats 1 and 2 clearly.
2. Make sure the pulse is secure.
3. Then move into the paradiddle pattern.
4. Even when “going rogue,” the pattern should remain controlled and grounded in the beat.

I also challenged Koel to play the bridge without making a mistake. Although the material appears simple, a mistake immediately occurred in the second bar. This is a reminder to study and understand every pattern—even the simplest ones.

When playing through the song, the goal is not to sight-read each bar as it arrives. You should already understand how each pattern works so that you can play it confidently and recover if anything goes wrong.

Goal for this week: Try to learn through to the end of the song.

Lukas

“Hotel California”

We are seeing great improvement in maintaining the pulse. Last week’s practice approach has also helped you enter and exit the fills consistently while keeping them securely in the pocket.

A few reminders from our lesson:

• During the introduction, feel free to improvise on the cymbal.
• Save the thirty-second-note pattern for the fourth bar.
• Begin with a simple texture and gradually make it denser as you approach the verse.
• Experiment with striking the cymbal using different parts of the stick to produce different timbres.

For the open-and-closed hi-hat lick that first appears in bar 32:

1. Work out the exact timing of the hi-hat opening and closing.
2. Practise the lick slowly in a small section.
3. Once it feels secure, practise entering and exiting the lick without disrupting the pulse.

At the bridge, play with a lighter touch—perhaps using only the tip of the stick. Even when adding musical details, maintaining a steady pulse should always remain the priority.

Goal for this week: Work through the guitar-solo section.

Stick Control

• Practise the first and second columns of the triplet page.
• Begin working on the sixteenth-note page, focusing on the first two exercises.
• For the right-hand-leading exercise, practise RLRL RRRR as eighth notes, playing the two patterns back-to-back.
• Do the same with the left hand: LRLR LLLL.

Finn

“Imposter”

Continue practising the four-bar phrase from “Imposter.” We have now worked out the fourth bar.

For the fourth bar:

1. Practise the first two beats separately.
2. Count the eighth-note subdivision carefully while working out the timing of the open and closed hi-hat.
3. When played correctly, these first two beats should sound like the guitar riff.
4. The final two beats use the same counting as beat 4 of the first bar.

When practising the beginning of the song, count “1-2-3-4” internally with each stick-click pattern. This will help you feel the sixteenth-note subdivision and prevent the introduction from becoming too fast.

Next week, we will aim to play the entire four-bar phrase repeatedly and fluently. Once that is secure, we will learn the guitar riff on xylophone and begin working on the chorus fill.

Aleksander

“Smooth Criminal”

This week, we focused on playing with the track at 0.65× speed, and Alex was able to stay with it throughout.

Pay particular attention to the rest beginning in bar 14. Observing the full value of this rest should allow the following pattern to line up properly with the bass line.

Once you reach the verse:

• Use a lighter touch.
• Avoid bringing out every note equally.
• Emphasize only the most important musical material.
• Keep the transitions clean, accurate, and smooth.

For this week, work independently on the pre-chorus section. Aim to bring it up to the same tempo at which you can currently play the opening. If that feels comfortable, you can also begin learning the first line of the chorus.

Zico

“Drum Corps on Parade”

We continued working through the piece and encountered several additional rudiments, including:

• No. 17: Double Paradiddle
• No. 19: Single Paradiddle-Diddle

We also discussed the longer phrases embedded within the piece, including the phrase around the end of line 4.

When working out these passages:

1. Identify how the eight eighth notes are grouped.
2. Use those groupings to understand the shape of the phrase.
3. Bring out the grouping through your accents and phrasing rather than treating all eight notes equally.

Continue paying attention to the left-hand accent in the flamacue. The rudiment is sounding much more even, but the accent is an essential part of its character and must remain clearly audible.

Goal for this week: Work through to the end of the page.

Koel

“YYZ”

The B and C sections sounded awesome! The metronome work has clearly improved the evenness of the patterns and helped Koel maintain the pulse.

A few areas still need attention:

Second bar of the third line

Aim for greater clarity by closing the hi-hat more quickly. It may also help to begin with the hi-hat slightly less open so that it can close cleanly and immediately.

Second repeat in Section C

Continue working on entering and exiting this repeat at the original tempo.

• On the final beat, you may use R R for the two thirty-second notes on the floor tom.
• Emphasize each main beat to give yourself a clear anchor at the faster tempo.
• Practise the transition into and out of the repeat rather than working on the repeat only in isolation.

Since the remainder of the song is similar to the material already studied, try learning the rest of the tune before our next lesson. We will diagnose and work through any issues that arise.

Renaud

“Back in Black”

This week, we are expanding from the first basic drum beat into Renaud’s first song: “Back in Black” by AC/DC.

The song begins with the basic beat we have already learned. This pattern repeats three times before reaching the first fill.

For the fill:

• Play eighth notes during the first beat.
• Beginning on beat 2, switch to counting sixteenth-note subdivisions.
• Feel four subdivisions within each beat.
• Play the first two subdivisions of each four-note grouping.

Practise the fill slowly and make sure the rhythm is secure before connecting it to the basic beat.

Stick Control, Page 5

Begin working on the exercises in the first column of page 5. Apply the same principles and technical checklist introduced with last week’s handout:

• Keep the strokes even.
• Match the sound and height of both hands.
• Remain relaxed.
• Allow the sticks to rebound naturally.
• Maintain a steady pulse.

The material is available through the shared Drive.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1eHr0E4xUVna54lEuGhrkCfz5ax61Aois?usp=drive_link