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 31
Samson
Here’s the link to the etude:https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/10Ge9rCczPmU1IEunM5X81VUzmuyy_NbI?usp=sharing.
Try to have a routine when you practice, do some stick control and other rudiments every day as a warm-up for 5-10 min and then spend some time on any assigned pieces (the etude for now) or just have some fun on the kit. It may help to block out a specific time of day for your practice, the more habitual you make it the more efficient you’ll be in the long run.
Lucas
Try to incorporate a warmup into your practice: play along to the metronome at either quarter=120 or 8th=240 bpm. Now that you understand my instructions keep working on the rest of the reading exercises from lesson 2 with the sticking I taught you.
Leo
It’s good that you prioritize your gigs and rehearsals involving other people and I trust that you are putting hours into your practice; just remember to slow down and work through things with a metronome as much as possible. It’s the single most consistent way to learn new skills at any point in your musical career. Also, now that your 5-stroke rolls are getting more comfortable, practice alternating hands and playing them continuously.
Thea and Rachel
If all you have is a pad this week try to play some stick control every day– those first 8 lines take ~5min to run through. Remember that using a mirror really helps you self-correct your playing form. Try to rent a kit to practice on soon and find some songs that you actually want to learn!
Tracie
Really good work on getting through stick control and especially those paradiddles! Try to push towards 100 bpm with those first 8 lines of stick control. Also, turn your metronome to double that (200-240bpm) so that you can hear every note you hit line up to fix the unevenness. Keep working on the rock beat so that we can continue to add more elements to it.
Jan 7
Jonah
Just learn etude no 1 from today for this week. Add bass drum on every beat if you can. Try to play it like a performance, I want to hear it top to bottom next week. I think 120 should be a reasonable tempo for you but faster or slightly slower is fine.
Leo
Good work today! Try to make some progress on “drum corps on parade” on your own so that we’re actually getting somewhere with it. It should be doable for you within a month. Let me know if you want to do more xylo in lessons or if you have some other way to work on your reading abilities for pitch; if you plan to do keyboard at any point in your life it’s definitely best to start asap. Keep up your own practice on kit for band rep obviously but we’ll try to get through some more solos and etudes in future lessons.
Happy 2023!
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.
