My dear colleague Jade will be stepping in to teach this coming week on April 2nd.
Josh
We moved on to Wonderwall. Josh did Don’t Look Back in Anger previously, and because the beat was so similar, at first he was relying on memory to play the first part of the two bar beat (see bar 24-25). This is a good sign that Josh is able to replicate a beat from listening, but I also would like to remind him to keep going back to the score when learning a new song. Bar 24 and 25 are sounding good individually, and I would like Josh to work on them individually and combining the two. Later, try to play the two bar on loop.
Aleksander
Currently, Alex is working on Bring me to Life. Right now, he is able to play up to bar 37 very well. Up to bar 24, Alex can play it at 90% of the speed, and for the verse (bar 24-32), he is sitting at around 60% speed. To get it up to speed, I think the coordination of beat two in bar 25 is worth practising in isolation, with metronome. Aleksander should try to finish the page this week and play through at a slower speed with Jade.
Zico
Zico is picking up the Sir Duke quickly, and getting a good feel of the swung 16. We tried a little play through of page 1 during lesson, and noticed that the swung 16 tends to be crushed during fills. Listen to the horns for a reference of how those swung 16th should sound like. Also practise the push pull motion on hi hat. Loosen up the wrist, and perhaps do some metronome work to get it up to speed. Now it is a little stiff and its slightly dragging. Overall, great job so far on the song though!
Noah
Started with the play through of When I Come Around, and although it went smoothly, we are back to the old habit of playing fast material to fast. This is perhaps a good reminder to practise material with metronome, making sure it slots perfectly into each beat. We briefly looked at Smooth Criminal together. Try to perhaps get through the Intro with Jade.
Finn
We revisited Kids with a Gun. Great job with the coordination, but need to slightly control the sound quality of the open hihat. We will work on that in the next song, which is Otherside by RHCP. It is similar to Can’t Stop, another RHCP he played in the past. So I will like for him to practise the one intro bar with rim shots, and also revise the Cant Stop groove.
Henry
We continued working on 21 Guns this class. Henry is doing very well with the counting and observing the change in the pattern very well. We have worked till bar 23 and bar 24 is still slightly tricky for Henry. Practise the R R R RL rhythm on another surface, and make sure the 16th notes is played correctly, then move it to snare and crash. The score has the lyrics on top if Henry ever needs a tip for how the melody goes for each passage.
Mateo
For Labios today, we went through first page, and identified the different sections. Overall, Mateo should look towards playing with less tension, and I talked to him about having different energy level for different sections of the song. For example, hold back during verse, slowly escalate during Pre Chorus and at Chorus you can play louder. Escalate also during the fill leading up to the next section. Also the song also has an interesting 10 bar Chorus sections, and another two bars post Chorus before the song gets back to verse. Worth noting that and playing accordingly. I would like Mateo to look through the song until bar 57 this week.
Koel
We continue working on Fool in the Rain today. The song is somewhat repetitive, but Koel is finding the groove slightly tricky to play. The pattern for Chorus on ride is worth practising by isolating different instrument groupings, before piecing it altogether. Also Koel is sometimes tripping on the end of the phrase when there is a different sticking. Practise triplets in these following sticking during warm up: RRL RRL/LLR LLR/ RLL RLL/ LRR LRR. Then play snare and bass drum together first for those bars, before adding in the rest. Try the samba section as well, and if the previous sections are going well, Koel can start working with Jade on samba section.