B.Mus (U of T) in progress
Jeffrey Zhu is a percussionist with an interest in a variety of music and a passion for teaching. He grew up in Toronto and enjoys sharing music in the community of his childhood. He will involve himself in any musical opportunity he can get his hands on and performs regularly at the University of Toronto and in orchestras across Toronto.
Jeffrey is primarily a classical percussionist at U of T who continues to broaden his musical exposure outside of the university academia. At the University, he has performed with the U of T percussion ensemble, Wind Symphony, and the campus philharmonic. Additionally, he helped lead a Taiko (Japanese drumming) ensemble in high school giving him a unique perspective on percussion performance and education.
Jeffrey is currently working towards completing a bachelor’s in percussion performance at UofT.
Get to know TEACHER…Beyond the Bio!
Hobbies: Biking
Musical influences: Aiyun Huang, John Rudolph
Favourite food: Peking Duck
Least favourite food: Garlic
Favourite music: Classical Orchestra, Big Band, and video game music
Favourite song: True Lovers’ Farewell
Favourite movie: Your Name
Favourite movie music: Fantasy
Favourite musical theatre/opera: The Sound of Music
Best quote from your teacher: “Very Musical!”
Favourite book: Watership Down
Best thing about teaching at ABC: Working with a large community vested in music
Latest Homework from Jeffrey
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Jan 3
Here are the etudes I’ve been using for some of you: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/10Ge9rCczPmU1IEunM5X81VUzmuyy_NbI
Since most of you are here to learn kit: just a reminder that any snare exercises we do you can at least add the kick drum for yourself as an additional challenge. It will also help you stay in time in the long run.
Samson
Work on your rolls primarily and practice with a metronome as much as possible to work on stability. We’ll keep reading some new stuff next week.
Lucas
Keep going with the new material I left you before the break but focus on adding bass drum to the exercises you’ve learned. Try to play those exercises more like a performance rather than just a bunch of random notes, we’ll work on that for the next while.
Charlie
Nice seeing you after so long! Mess around with gridding different rudiments you can think of. Just work on the etude we played today and we’ll see where it’s at next week.
Happy new year!
Dec 3
Jonah
Good job with the reading today! You’re definitely making progress on the keyboard, just try to stay more focused when learning new music. I’m trying to make sure you can read things on your own; I know you can learn things very quickly by ear. Keep messing with your keyboard at home and I trust that Hannaford will keep you playing all the instruments we don’t have time to cover in lessons.
Devon
Good job on the 16th note grid! You’ll probably have it in your hands next lesson so don’t sweat the small mistakes. We just need to build some muscle memory which always takes time. Work on cleaning up the flame and learning to isolate the motions in each hand.
Preferred Books for Jeffrey’s Students
Click to buy them here, and they’ll come right to your house! What could be easier?
STICK CONTROL
George Lawrence Stone’s Stick Control is the bible of drumming. In 1993, Modern Drummer magazine named the book one of the top 25 books of all-time. In the words of the author, it is the ideal book for improving: control, speed, flexibility, touch, rhythm, lightness, delicacy, power, endurance, preciseness of execution and muscular coordination, with extra attention given to the development of the weak hand.
Tradition of Excellence - Percussion
Tradition of Excellence by Bruce Pearson and Ryan Nowlin is a comprehensive and innovative curriculum designed to appeal to today s students. The music; the dynamic look; the scope and sequence; the tools for differentiated instruction; the smooth pacing with careful review; and the included INTERACTIVE Practice StudioTM make Tradition of Excellence the fastest growing band method today!
100 Essential Drumset Lessons
100 Essential Drumset Lessons contains information, examples, exercises, and over 300 demonstration and play-along audio tracks covering a range of topics that every drummer from novice to professional will find useful. Its educational scope runs the gamut, including basic rock, funk, metal, hip-hop, blues, country, basic swing, advanced swing concepts, fills, technical exercises, metric superimposition, soloing concepts, odd time playing, brush playing, as well as Afro-Cuban, Brazilian, and other world music drumming styles. It also includes advice on productive practicing techniques, transcribing drum parts, creating an original drum part for a song, and five drumset audition solos suitable for use at all-state auditions, music festivals, or recitals. Audio is accessed online for download or streaming and features PLAYBACK+, a multi-functional audio player that allows you to slow down audio without changing pitch, set loop points, and pan left or right available.
