WELCOME BILL!

Lesson 1
September 17, 2006

Lesson 2
November 1, 2006

Nice lesson today, Bill. It was great to finally meet you and get started.

Lesson Notes:

Three stroke types:

1. Legato - stick leaves the palm. Mostly fingers with some wrist motion. Continuous.
2. Marcatto - stick stays on the palm. No fingers, all wrist. Also continuous.
3. Staccato - a legato stroke with no rebound. "Throw - catch."

Technique:

- Remember to keep the gap between your index finger and thumb closed. Your fulcrum is the most important part of the grip.
- Stay relaxed.

Assignment:

- Hi-Hat variations page - click here to download (.pdf).
- Technique explanation - this was writen primarily for rudimental percussion (drumline), but the first few pages offer great explanations of the three stroke types. Click here to download (.pdf).
- Bring in a cd for our next lesson.

Great to see you again Bill.

Lesson Notes:

1. Tunes: Work on those tunes we talked about for our next lesson. I'll have you play them and we'll discuss each one in detail. I'd like you to do 99% of the playing next time.

2. It would be great to set up some sort of permanent lessons schedule. You have a lot of potential and if we have lessons regularly you'll really progress quickly.

Lesson 3
November 9, 2006
Lesson 4
November 28

Great to see you again Bill.

Lesson Notes:

1. Tunes:

- Babylon Sisters - I would love to hear this next time.
- Should I Stay Or Should I Go - we'll play this one too.
- Rough God Goes Riding - we'll talk about this next time. Try and figure out what you can.

2. Open Roll Technique:

- Simple 8s exercise.
- "Phil Collins" (PC) double beat exercise.
- Alternate 16th note "check" with roll. KEEP MOVING HANDS IN 16TH NOTES!
- USE THOSE FINGERS!

 

Nice Bill! Your inner clock is really improving and your time feel and groove are becoming more and more authentic. Also your ability to shift your approach to each song is vastly improving.

Lesson Notes:

1. Tunes:

- Babylon Sisters - I would love to hear this next time.
- Should I Stay Or Should I Go - Like to hear this one too!
- Rough God Goes Riding - Good job picking up on this one. Let's play this next time as well.
-Scar Tissue - Excellent feel on this one! The key to this groove is the bass drum part! Make sure that you play the bass drum on 1 and the last 16th note of 1 (The "a" of 1). That creates that swingy/funky/sloppy feel. Also, loosen the hi hats a little as Chad Smith (Will Ferrell) does.

2. Roll

- How's that open roll coming?

Lesson 5
Wednesday, December 13
Lesson 6
Wednesday, December 28

?

Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year!

Lesson Notes:

1. The New Breed

- Get the book and try the following:
a. Play "melodies" in bass drum w/ simple grooves (snare on 2 & 4 with 8th notes in hi-hat).
b. Play "melodies" on snare w/ simple grooves (bass on 1,2,3,4 with 8th notes in the hi-hat).
c. Play "melodies" on bass drum with Right Hand Variations on hi-hat and 2 & 4 on the snare drum.
d. Etc.

I really think you're going to be pleased with the results of this type of exercise. You should also keep working on those tunes we've been playing...I'd love to hear some of them in our next lesson.

NEXT LESSON
January ?