Josh

Josh clearly practised this past week and made this week’s lesson way more efficient. We were able to get into the pre chorus section, and especially looked at bar 33 and 34 together. I explained to him that it is quite similar to the second bar of the main pattern, but with a different fourth beat pickup. I explained the concept of three stroke ruff/drag and I would like him to follow the sticking notated for him. Our next focus is bar 36 where it matches the lyric “like to say to you but I dont know how”. Continue practising with the score, and also listen to song when needing clarification.

Aleksander

We worked on Bring Me to Life for another week playing with the song. Aleksander showed clear improvement with following the guitar riff, and was able to stay steady throughout. Now I would like him to pay attention to the details, for example the crash cymbal every other bar. Bar 65 seems to be a tricky bar to play, and I would like him to ghost the last 16th on the third beat and start on right hand for beat four. We will choose a new sing next week.

Noah

We worked on an exercise using Stick Control where bass drum is played on beat 1 and 3, hihat on 2 and 4, and the challenge is to stay steady while switching to different stickings. Practising this exercise will make working through Smooth Criminal a lot easier, as it will build the limb independence required. Then we revisited Smooth Criminal. Let’s look to get to Pre chorus for next week.

Finn

Finn is making good progress with Otherside, but I find that at times the playing sounds slightly choppy and stiff, so I tried to use the metaphor of a baseball run all the way to home base to get the idea across. On beat four is the hit, and while you make your “run”, try to stay steady, and connect the runs from base to base as smooth to possible. With that in mind, each beat should connect towards the next, and by beat four, connect back to 1. We will look to apply that concept to different bars of Ofherside next class.

Mateo

This last class we tried to do a run through of Labios Compartidos, and it seems like because Mateo wants to play the whole thing through, he didn’t place enough of an emphasis on the troubling bars while practising. Just like to remind Mateo again to always practise in the small chunks and focus down troubling spots, that way when we do runs of bigger section, we are not tripped up and under prepared for those hard spots.

Koel

We worked on Superstition, familoarising Koel to the swung 16 feel, and worked on the two tricky 32nd note fill. I would like Koel to jam out with some swung 16 material and drop in the fill every few bars.