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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Feb 28th
Hi everyone,
A reminder that I will not be here next week so there will be another teacher.
Samson
Keep working on Bass drum independence with the exercise from today. Try to work on your double strokes by alternating it with singles and playing for longer periods of time. Practice the etude at 120 and the triplet version of it at 85bpm. Please bring back the sheet music.
Lucas
Work on shifting between quarter notes, 8th notes, and 16th notes. Remember to take a pause between repetitions of the exercise. Make sure to follow the metronome; The metronome will not follow you. Keep it at 60= quarter,120 = 8th, 240=16th note.
Leo
Try practicing everything you’ve already learned in the piece at 55bpm. Practice with a metronome so that you know what patterns start on or off the beat. Speed it up once you feel comfortable but make sure you can play it through with minimal mistakes.
Rachel
Good work on the swing pattern! Try to work on stick control with everything swung so that you get more used to how that feels, it could help fix your tendency to play things straight when it gets more complicated. As always, even without a kit miming the motions will help.
Feb 4
Jonah
Try to do the first 8 lines of stick control every day with double stops. Remember to practice with a metronome as much as possible, you have a good sense of rhythm but it could be much more exact. Use slower tempo markings to really make sure you know where everything goes (60-80) and then turn on subdivisions by setting the tempo to 4x that (240 – 320) and really make sure every note lines up. We’ll go back to reading etude 1 next week.
Good work today!
Preferred Books for Jeffrey’s Students
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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.