Rock & Roll 101

April 23rd, 2025

Tomas may have lost some enthusiasm, if you have any ideas for how I can help him want to push himself, I'd love it. He's ready to move to harder songs, but he bails a bit if it gets too hard, and when it's easy he starts getting careless and doesn't try.

The next steps for him are to really work on reading fills accurately. It's a common area of discouragement for students, so it's not unexpected. I think he'll really enjoy it all more once he starts being able to nail them.

We spent a while trying to find a song that was in the happy medium of being challenging to him, but not too hard. We settled on The Neighbourhood, Sweater Weather.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDrhI0PEtn0

After playing it, I spoke with him about how I missed his enthusiasm and hoped he could set his mind to continue growing.

April 16th, 2025

Tomas did really well on Where Is My Mind! I'm quite impressed with the improvement in one week. He went from 6/10 to 9.5/10.

After that we reviewed Vampire, and it's got a bit of a ways to go yet. He said he'd try to perfect it this week.

We then added Billie Eilish, Birds of a Feather.

April 9th, 2025

We started out with a new song he'd been wanting to do, "Vampire" by Olivia Rodrigo. It's pretty hard, and fast, and short. We went over it three times in the first 8 minutes! :)

He'd forgotten to work on Ghostbusters, so we resumed that in the lesson time, and played it through.

We then reviewed Where Is My Mind, the Pixies, and tried a new one, "Poor Twisted Me" by Metallica.

April 2nd, 2025

We started with adding The Pixies, Where Is My Mind, a request of Simon.

Then we reviewed Georgy Porgy, and added Ray Parker Jr. Ghostbusters.

The latter has some challenging fills, and Tomas was sorta guessing on them, so slowing the video down and learning them carefully will be critical, I think.

March 26th, 2025

Tomas played through Every Breath You Take, and I gave him a 9 on it -- only realizing afterwards that it was a bit easier because we were doing it at 85% speed.

After that we added TOTO, Georgy Porgy

March 19th, 2025

We're going to do Hungry Like a Wolf another week, because Tomas still has some work to do on it.

We thought we'd add another easier one to work on in addition to it, but Tomas struggled to find something he wanted to do. It was either too easy or too hard.

In the end, we decided on Every Breath You Take by The Police.
https://youtu.be/_rOQbmjtUiE

We did it twice and then reviewed Hungry Like a Wolf again.

March 12th, 2025

We started out reviewing Natural, which was last week's song. Good job! We did it twice.

After that we added a new one, Duran Duran, Hungry Like a Wolf! My high-school years!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPSndlUrFDs

March 5th, 2025

We tried Imagine Dragons, Demons
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXZt0edK938
But it was kind of boring, and Tomas decided to not continue with it.

Instead we did Imagine Dragons, Natural
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6m_AQBfaL0

This is a fun one, and pretty tricky.

February 19th, 2025

Tomas hurt his arm tobogganing tonight, so won't be coming to lessons.

February 12th, 2025

Tomas did really well on Fun, We Are Young - only one spot really that could be a bit better, but it's a challenging one, so I'm happy with his 8/10 mark on that.

We then added a Sabrina Carpenter song, "Please Please Please," which isn't a simple one.

February 5th, 2025

Tomas is sick tonight and won't be coming.

January 29th, 2025

Tomas played through Just the Way You Are and did really well on it. I gave him am 8/10. There were a few messy times, but overall really well done and this is a challenging song.

We then spent a good chunk of time trying to find a song that was adequately hard, and not one he hated. A few false starts, but we finally settled on We Are Young by Fun:
https://youtu.be/D4sSCrvqHOY

See you next week!

January 22nd, 2025

Tomas did quite well on Espresso today. He told me he was sick, and grandparents were visiting, so hadn't practised, but he remembered most of what we'd focused on last week. Good job.
After that we added a new song, Just the Way You Are by Bruno Mars. Not an easy song - but Tomas is getting much better at reading these complex songs.

January 15th, 2025

Tomas played through Espresso - he said he'd forgotten to practise that one, so we worked for most of the lesson on it. Near the end of the time he was getting frustrated, so we did the other song, 2002, and he did much better on that. (This is when he'd explained he'd forgotten to practise both songs.

Here are the links again (song links are always at the bottom of the emails too).

2002 by Anne Marie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKUdspaxmhM

Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVKooUUocbs

January 8th, 2025

Tomas played through Maroon 5, Animals, and then we decided to add a new song.

We added 2002 by Anne Marie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKUdspaxmhM

It's pretty easy, so we also added Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter.

December 18th, 2024

We tried a few songs before Tomas settled on one he liked. First we did Last Christmas, by Wham!, then Felix Navidad by Boney M, then settled on Maroon 5, Animals:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrqCjsIV4ho

December 11th, 2024

TOMAS WAS AMAZING on Smooth Criminal. I told him I was so tempted to give him a perfect 10 on my score, except he left out the two drum fills. We tried to work on them, because he wanted to improve his mark from a 9 to a 10, but he gave up too easy. Maybe you can get him to make it happen this week!

We then reviewed Sugar, and this was okay, but not perfect. It's simple and repetitive so Tomas gets bored with it and starts making mistakes or elaborations that throw him off.

December 4th, 2024

Tomas did very well on Smooth Criminal. It's not perfect (he's missing the 16ths on that hat, and some fills) but it's very good.

We played it through a couple of times, and then added "Sugar" by Maroon5 to do along with Smooth Criminal this week.

*practise smooth criminal at 75% speed until you can get the highhat working.

We looked at Beat It by Michael Jackson but took it off the list.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wjx4sElXnWQ

November 27th, 2024

We started off playing through Numb. Tomas did a pretty good job on it- not all the sixteenth drum parts were played on the right beat, but it's pretty hard... not sure whether not enough practise, or just a bit beyond ability yet.

We then added an oldie, Run D.M.C., It's Tricky:
https://youtu.be/2MvjK36DTw4

At the end we added Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson. A really hard one, but Tomas is going to start off with playing the hat on eighths to make it easier.

November 20th, 2024

We reviewed Beautiful Things, and then looked to add a new song. We spent some time looking and trying various songs but Tomas felt discouraged by their difficulty. We ultimately settled on Numb, by Linkin Park:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtJm8EwepzA

November 13th, 2024

Tomas played through Cry for me - it sounds great! We then added a new one, Beautiful Things. This is hard, 8/10 level song, and we had tried it before without success, but Tomas felt ready this time, and was able to nail it. Good job Tomas!

November 6th, 2024

Tomas said he forgot to practise Legs by ZZ Top, but we went over it, then reviewed Everybody by Backstreet Boys, which he had been practising. He played it much better than last week.

He said he wasn't that interested in ZZ Top, so we found a new Benson Boone song to learn, called Cry. We went through it three or four times.

October 30th, 2024

We started with a review of Everybody (Backstreet's Back). Tomas played it through twice. The drum fills weren't exact, but were close. This is just something he needs to focus on at home to get them accurate, possibly by slowing down the recording and looping the part. https://www.looper.tube/?v=sIl5ztzVj2s&s=0&e=236&spd=1 We then added ZZ Top, Legs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIEzKKhuxT8

October 23rd, 2024

Tomas decided to go back to drums today, and we started with review of Cool Kids, Shivers, and Bad Guy.

We then added a new one, Everybody by Backstreet Boys.
https://youtu.be/fzp3iMfK2zE

We found two versions - the link above, and the link in the song list on this page.

October 16th, 2024

Tomas continued with singing. We started with vocal warm ups, and did some vowel pronunciations.

After 15 minutes, we moved to Stick Season, and worked out how to better sing the vowels so they don't sound like they have an accent. We listened to some examples of upper class British accent, and tried to pronounce that way.

October 9th, 2024

Tomas wanted to do vocal lessons today. I split vocal lessons into two parts: 1. technique, like exercises, breath control, diaphragmatic singing, and 2., singing through a song.
The song he chose is Stick Season. Here's a karaoke video to sing along with.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcS1tLmpR5o

He should keep in mind all the techniques we covered, like not punching top notes, phrasing (destination), deep breaths, using the diaphragm, etc.

Here's an mp3 file he can rehearse with:
https://www.rockandroll101.ca/resources/vocal-scales.mp3

October 2nd, 2024

As a warm up we went over the song Shivers by Ed Sheeran. Here's the link in case he wants to finesse it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8tjsS6Hfmo

Then we reviewed Cool Kids, from last week. Patrick said he was tired from track and field, so warned me that he would miss lots of parts. He actually did pretty well. We went over it twice.

We then added Bad Guy from Billie Eilish:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HRaWft3KdE

This is a challenging one, so Tomas will need to work on it. He said it was a bit too hard, but he was amiable to practise it this week.

September 25th, 2024

We started with reviewing All Too Well and then tried to add a new song. We searched for a good notation of Stick Season by Noah Kahan, without luck.

We settled on Cool Kids by Echosmith:
https://youtu.be/rKMtsVZhDR8

Not a hard song, but a fun one!

September 18th, 2024

Tomas said he forgot to log into his dad's outlook so didn't practise any of the songs I'd assigned him. We reviewed Memories, which he played it in his own kind of style - not as written, which I can appreciate, but I also value accuracy to what is written on the charts.

After that we did Have You Ever Seen the Rain and All Too Well.

The former is fairly boring, so we just did it twice and focused on All Too Well. There are a few challenging spots in that, so we went over them a number of times.

September 11th, 2024

We started out with doing Ed Sheeran, Thinking Out Loud. Tomas said he had done it before, but it was a good review.

We added Credence Clearwater Revival, Have You Ever Seen the Rain:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tboc-W5EH6E

We had some time so also added Taylor Swift, All Too Well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8fatIhDdl4

September 4th, 2024

We started off with Thunder, from the end of last year, but it was a bit hard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG9mOoDzJ9s

We decided to review some easier songs to get Tomas back in form. We did:
Can't Feel My Face, Butter, Billie Jean, The Ocean, Wannabe, IOU, Dance Monkey, How Far I'll Go, Circles, Thriller

June 26th, 2024

Today for the last lesson, we played through some of Tomas' favourite songs of the year. We also added a new Imagine Dragons song which he had done on the guitar, called Thunder:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG9mOoDzJ9s

June 19th, 2024

We started out with going over Slow It Down by Benson Boon. Not perfect, but not terrible. Could have seen a bit more practice maybe.

We added another Benson Boone song today, "Beautiful Things."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M21PQ2reeQg

This is harder than the last one. It switches between eighth note time and triplet eighth note time. It's short, at just less than 3 minutes, so we went over it a lot in the first 20 minutes of lesson time.

Because of that, we reviewed Creep "because it's fun," - not knowing if Patrick would come for his lesson.

He didn't come, so we also reviewed Taylor Swift, You Belong With Me.

June 12th, 2024

We reviewed Memories, I gave him an 8/10 on it - a few little mistakes here and there.
Then we added Benson Boone, Slow It Down. This has some unusual aspects to it, but generally quite easy.

June 5th, 2024

Really good job on Dreams! 8.5/10

We decided to add Maroon 5, Memories:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=gq8rPO67B8g

May 29th, 2024

Dreams was really good - Tomas has most of it down great, but there's one section at about the middle that wasn't quite right. We looked at it a bit some more... I told him I'd give him a 9/10 if he could get that part perfect. Right now, it's pulling his mark down to a 7/10.

We spent the lesson just working that out, so we'll see how it goes next week!

May 22nd, 2024

Tomas played locked out of heaven for me, first at full speed, which wasn't very good, so then again at 65% speed.
It's a hard one so I asked him to do another week of work on it.

Maggie had asked him to learn a cranberries song called so we work on that next.
The Cranberries, Dreams:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5AGwWZc70E

It's got some really challenging parts to it so we slowed the track down to 55% to keep execute the parts accurately.

May 15th, 2024

Tomas worked through Ed Sheeran's Thinking Out Loud and really did so very well on it. There were maybe two little mistakes in total. I normally don't give 10s, but I had to give him a 10/10 today. Good job!

We then added quite a difficult one, Bruno Mars, Locked Out of Heaven:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vjy9GDkylYI

May 8th, 2024

Maggie came in Tomas' slot, and we added a couple of more songs, and played through Mary Had a Little Lamb, and a bit of the Last Post.

May 1st, 2024

We went through Break My Heart, and then I Want It That Way.

We tried adding Benson Boone, Beautiful Things, but it was a bit too had, so we then added Thinking Out Loud, by Ed Sheeran:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPEbHT1EINM

April 24th, 2024

Tomas was sick tonight. Patrick stayed for his lesson time.

April 17th, 2024

We reviewed Permission to Dance and Dynamite. Good job on both of them, a strong 8/10 on both.

Tomas' biggest issue is not losing time on drum fills, and then having to rush the beat to catch up with the song. Fixing this will go a long way to improving his mark to a 9/10.

We then added Back Street Boys, I Want It That Way:
https://youtu.be/rMsRsnuymXs

We went through it three times, and then added a new Dua Lupa song, Break My Heart:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5hiuARHgBuo

Just for fun we reviewed The Weeknd, Save Your Tears

April 10th, 2024

Tomas played through Dynamite twice, and then we added a new one, Permission to Dance also by BTS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyf13urlJxc

This is a fun one, and a bit hard. Tomas did well in the run-throughs in lesson time, I think he'll be able to really nail this song.

April 3rd, 2024

Tomas said he practised the wrong song this week, so we spent the lesson working on it, especially slowing it down for the drum fills and making sure he's playing them accurately.

For the last 10 minutes we went to the one he'd worked on this week (Anti-Hero). He's still struggling with the sixteenth kicks, but so is everybody who does this song. We talked about how to do double kicks again (we'd discussed it last week, but he'd forgotten to work on it).

March 27th, 2024

Both songs were a bit sloppy, but they are very fast, so it might be that they're still a tad advanced for him.

We added a new one, which I think is a bit easier.
BTS, Dynamite: https://youtu.be/U-FUCOdDvLw

March 20th, 2024

We went over Anti-Hero, it's a hard one, and I could tell he practised, but still missing a lot of the beats.

It was actually one we'd decided not to do last week, in favour of Sunroof. After playing Anti Hero twice, we returned to Sunroof.

I have to say, I love watching him play. He's got some soul, this boy! Still could play a little more quietly tho, lol.

March 13th, 2024

March 6th, 2024

We finished up with You Belong With Me, and moved on to try to find a new one. We started with Numb by Linkin' Park, but it was a tad hard. We then tried Evenescence, Bring Me To Life. This is a hard one! We then tried Save Your Tears by The Weeknd, only to realize we already had done it!
We then tried Taylor Swift, Anti-Hero:
https://youtu.be/Amue4psm_0A

Then he changed his mind and we added Sunroof, by Nicky Youre and Dazy.
https://youtu.be/FAwvdY99DME

February 28th, 2024

Tomas played No Surprises for me - the first time was a bit rough, but the second time it was much better. We then went over You Belong With Me. It's still needing some work, so keep focusing on it for another week.

Please work on not hitting the drums so loudly.

February 21st, 2024

Tomas improved Creep, but there are still issues on No Surprises. We worked through them together, and he made real progress. He decided to not continue with it this week, and we added a new one:

Taylor Swift, You Belong With Me
https://youtu.be/DPZ2kn-ipgU

February 14th, 2024

Jason is sick today, so cancelling lessons.

February 7th, 2024

Tomas played through Creep for me- still some issues with the sixteenths and eighths being played at the same time, but this is always hard for young students.

We added another song that has this same kind of complexity. It's Radiohead, No Surprises:
https://youtu.be/ZE8wDmQknWk

After doing this song a few times, I pointed out that he wasn't getting that complicated part. We focused on that at slower speeds, and he was able to actually execute it!

We then returned to last week's song, for the purpose of trying the hard kick part again. He was able to play it at slower speeds, but not consistently. He said he'd work on it more this week to improve his mark.

January 31st, 2024

Tomas played through The Spectre for me a couple of times, and I left the mark about the same - the parts he struggled with last week were still present.

We added a new song by Radiohead, called Creep:
https://youtu.be/DodEexEGFp0

This has some tricky sixteenth kicks, which make it hard to play the ride and highhat on eighths. That's what he should focus on this week. The temptation is to play it fast, but go really slow.

January 24th, 2024

Tomas did really well on Counting Stars- I increased is mark to 9/10. I might even give him a 9.5 if that was possible with the system I made. :) Great job!

We then continued working on The Spectre, and I gave him a 7/10 on that.

Work on it a bit more and think of another song you'd like to learn.

January 17th, 2024

Thomas did quite well on Counting Stars, considering how hard it is! Great job.

We'll do it one more week, to see if he can get it even better!

We then added The Spectre by Alan Walker:
https://youtu.be/QaeYa9YuEH8

January 10th, 2024

Great job on Yellow! First time, 15 mistakes second time 7 mistakes, for a 9/10.

New song: One Republic, Counting Stars:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ynRk6MEfXI

January 3rd, 2024

Tomas did very well on Knocking on Heaven's Door, and actually, much better on Perfect than he did last time. He said he only practised it a couple of times, but however it happened, it's better.

We added Coldplay, Yellow. Don't forget to watch the closed and open highhats indicators, the kicks, and the fills.
https://youtu.be/Ssz69tFTS7Y

December 27th, 2023

I cancelled lessons Wednesday night (no charge).

December 20th, 2023

We removed Enter Sandman because Tomas doesn't have the right drum tom toms.

We tried adding Ed Sheeran, Perfect:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heFkdb974DI

It's different than others we've done because it's in groups of three, instead of four (in the subdivision of beats). He also found it a bit boring. We went over it twice. It was a bit better the second time. I'd still like him to work on it this week.

We then settled on the main new song as Guns 'n' Roses, Knocking on Heaven's Door:
https://youtu.be/L81lPm5laX0

We ran through it a couple of times before running out of time.

December 13th, 2023

I missed seeing Tomas tonight. Hope all is well.

December 6th, 2023

Tomas played through Bones for me three times, trying to perfect his score. In the end I gave him a 10/10 - there were only three small mistakes, which is pretty good.

He then played Billie Jean twice for me - I gave him a 9/10

We then added Enter Sandman:
https://youtu.be/KpmGz0xZ4S4

November 29th, 2023

Great job on Save Your Tears, I gave you a 10/10!
Stitches is really hard, I kept your mark at 9/10.

Tomas had trouble finding Imagine Dragons, Bones. Maybe you can forward him this email.
Here it is again: https://youtu.be/F9Jbcy35Fm4

We added Michael Jackson, Billie Jean:
https://youtu.be/F3lehTwTOwc

November 22nd, 2023

Started out by going over I Don't Think That I Like Her because I hadn't given it a grade before. I gave him a 7/10

We went over Save Your Tears and Stitches next, and he's going to keep working on Stitches. After that we added Imagine Dragons, Bones:
https://youtu.be/F9Jbcy35Fm4

See you next week!

November 15th, 2023

Tomas played Save Your Tears through for me - the first time was a little rough. I told him I didn't want to be too hard on him, but I thought he should be able to play it at a higher level. I said it was about a 6/10 and I think he should get it to 8/10 at least.

We tried again. He got it better - up to a 7 or an 8. We decided to try another week, to see if we can move it up to an 9 or 10.

We did Stitches and decided to do it another week.

We then went to the piano for 10 minutes. I showed him the names of the keys, and how to play chords using his pinky as a frame of reference for the chord name. We went through the melody of Mary Had a Little Lamb, but he didn't have a book to write out anything this week.

November 8th, 2023

We started with Stitches. It was a bit fast for him to keep up at full speed. After going through it at 100% speed, we slowed down to 75% speed. It was still needing work quite badly. Hopefully he can work on both songs this week.

After that, we went to Dance the Night again. It's still about a 7/10 - I asked him to get it up to a 9 by next week.

We then added The Weeknd, Save Your Tears:
https://youtu.be/QEjNCZEnBbo

November 1st, 2023

Tomas came a bit early and played with the girls before him - adding drums to the piano/ukulele song they're working on.

We then reviewed Dance the Night, which is still not quite ready. I'd like him to keep working on it.

We then added Shawn Mendes, Stitches:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slznQ_xWEH0

October 25th, 2023

We spent the whole lesson on Dance the Night. It needs some more work this week to get it up to part with his usual ability.

We also added Charlie Puth, I Don't THink That I Like Her:
https://youtu.be/nUREJMy4eSI

Please work on both songs this week. Try to get Dance the Night up to higher accuracy.

October 11th, 2023

Need You Now, was pretty good, but the fills weren't all there. We went over them together, and Tomas was able to play them fairly well. I suggested he work on it another week, try to get them better. He said he forgot to put the link to the song in his favourites, so perhaps you can remind him of that.

We added another for him to work on also this week: Dua Lipa, Dance the Night
https://youtu.be/Ke34Wgxhj18

October 4th, 2023

We started with a new song, by Lady Antebelum, called Need You Now
https://youtu.be/X_YC5XdpUE0

There are some points where it requires a crescendo, and Tomas is starting too loud to really have any place to go. If you notice him playing really loudly, please remind him to get used to playing at different volumes.

September 20th, 2023

Tomas and Patrick came in together tonight.

Patrick was kind of emotional, and struggled with figuring out where he was. He doesn't have quite the same sense of rhythm that Tomas has, so that's something we can try to work on more in the future. We kept at it, with me eventually joining on bass guitar. By the end of the hour, I think Patrick was feeling better about it.

I suggested that when he practise along with the song at home, he try to take mental note of what each section sounds like, so that when he's playing with Tomas, he doesn't get lost, or can find his place again.

September 13th, 2023

Tomas was sick tonight, Patrick came in his spot and took an hour.

September 6th, 2023

Tomas and Patrick are going to learn the same song so they can play together next week. This week was Flowers by Miley Cyrus:
https://youtu.be/HfQdwrPBn9c

We worked on it at 75% speed, (getting up to 95%), because it's got some challenging parts in it. I think he can speed it up from home and get it to the 100% speed if he practises.

June 28th, 2023

I'd been promising Tomas a chance to play one of my electric guitars for a few months, so today I let him play the SG. We went through a couple of his songs-- he's forgotten a lot of the chord names, but remembers the positions. We may have to refresh a lot of things after the summer if he doesn't practise much.
Have a great summer!

June 21st, 2023

Tomas rode his bike today, so no guitar. We spent the whole lesson on drums.

We went over Fight Song and then added Def Leppard, Hysteria
https://youtu.be/JE6HEqLYTUs

We did it twice. It's within his abilities, but will need lots of practise - it's not simple. There are some new things, like open high-hat at the same time as a ride (in the bridge), and no kick on beat 1 here and there.

June 14th, 2023

Tomas brought his guitar, and we worked through Charlie Puth, Left and Right.
He forgot his book, so I wrote out the chords in this song again (and how to play them.)
We spent most of the lesson time drilling switching to B minor from D. He was able to get it from about 4 seconds down to 1.21 - I told him to keep working on getting it faster and he can try my electric guitar next week.

May 31st, 2023

We wrapped up One More Time by Daft Punk, and added Fight Song by Rachel Platten:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGJpPio2-2Y

This has some very FAST sixteenths on the kick drum,so will take some work to work it out! I think Tomas can do it.

Remember that I'm not here next week, I'm at in-laws in Saskatchewan.

May 24th, 2023

Tomas wanted to play my electric guitar, but I told him I want him to bring his book and his own guitar, and to have practised, and then we can use my electric guitar as a "reward" for doing well on a song.

On the drums, we wrapped up TNT - not as good as some of his others, I graded it as a 7/10 but he wanted to move on. The main issue was slowing down a bit through out, and a few mistakes here and there (I think mostly related to timing slowing down timing issues).

We then added Daft Punk, One More Time:
https://youtu.be/YEcaW11jw2k

This one is pretty easy, but does require him to practise so he knows when the parts stop / change.

May 16th, 2023

Good job, Tomas has got Free Fallin' and Hotel California down pretty good. We spent the lesson trying to iron out the hard parts in TNT.

We ran out of time while working around 2:27 on the video, so he can continue where we left off and get those fills worked out.

If not, we'll start where we stopped today.

May 9th, 2023

We started out working through The Eagles, Hotel California:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFSqzXfavdg

He's doing well on it, with just a few little issues.

I would like him to work on it another week or two, to see if he can iron out the messy fills.

He picked Tom Petty's Free Fallin:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pL70leJIEeE
...after going through it he said he'd done it before (oops!),

so we chose TNT by AC/DC
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waMCMJD7bQk

May 2nd, 2023

We started things off with One Republic, Counting Stars:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehOEV2ruvnY

Tomas found a new song he wanted to learn, Maroon 5, Payphone:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxRl5dEOo_8

He'd been working on this at home, so other than a mistake with the kick drum throughout (which we fixed and went over again), it was great.

So we added The Eagles, Hotel California:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFSqzXfavdg

April 25th, 2023

Tomas forgot his guitar, so we worked on drums for the entire lesson.

We started with reviewing As it Was by Harry Styles, first at 75% and then moving up speed as high as we could get. We got to 95%, which is really a challenge! Not perfect there, but pretty close!

We added a new one by One Republic, Counting Stars:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehOEV2ruvnY

April 18th, 2023

We did Left and Right on guitar for the first 15 minutes, and then moved to drums and added As It Was by Harry Styles.

Use looper.tube to get the song up as fast as you can... good luck! It's hard at 100%, so start at 75%.

https://youtu.be/QdS3jI5gXVY

April 11th, 2023

Tomas did well with his E and Am chords.

We added a new song, Charlie Puth, Left and Right:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7GEX-alOLU

We also tried it on the guitar a few times.

April 4th, 2023

On guitar we learned two new chords: E and A minor.

We reviewed the Imagine Dragons song for a bit.

We then went to drums and he played through The Ocean and Wannabe.

Spice Girls, Wannnabe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BJU0gCZgP0

Mike Perry, The Ocean:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PneYcwLz2LM

March 28th, 2023

Tomas did a great job on Animal and Stayin' Alive. Really! Just a couple of small mistakes, and Animal is really hard. Good job.

He wanted to stay on drums today, so we added two more songs:

Spice Girls, Wannnabe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BJU0gCZgP0

Mike Perry, The Ocean:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PneYcwLz2LM

We also tried Imagine Dragons, Follow You, but it's a tad hard. He could play with it a bit if he wants to:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsJnjsed8X4

March 21st, 2023

Tomas played through Animal and Stayin' Alive on the drums for the first half, and then we returned to Moves Like Jagger for the second half of the lesson.

He had kind of forgotten to practice the latter, and it didn't appear to be written in the book, so I wrote it out for him.

It's pretty easy, so we added a new song, Imagine Dragons, Thunder
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cWtiiAW-6E

March 7th, 2023

Tomas played through Radioactive for me. He did pretty well on it, good practising!

We worked on drums most of the rest of the lesson; Tomas wanted to have two songs to work on this week.

We added

Def Leopard, Animal:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWZGAFrutg0

Bee Gees, Stayin Alive:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8Fza2ZuRLE

After we added Moves Like Jaggar on guitar:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-jqcZ_Jbd8

B minor and Em each for four bars.

Remember, I'll be in Myrtle Beach next week, so no lessons.

February 28th, 2023

We started guitar on a new song (he was having trouble with C and F Major 7 in Circles). We added Radioactive by Imagine Dragons:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3viBe2Q0P8

This has some of the same chords from other songs, as well as a new one, B minor.

We also did this song on drums, using this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEd0OAjKByE

February 21st, 2023

Tomas forgot his guitar so we did drums for the whole lessons, starting with Highway to Hell, which he really nailed! Good job, Tomas!

We then added Charlie Puth, "I Don't Think That I Like Her Anymore"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqWGYSSvplw

This song is just the right amount of predictable and doable for Tomas, while having some really challenging parts (like near the end).

February 14th, 2023

We did 15 minutes of guitar today, and only had time to review last week's song and talk about a new song before running out of time.

We added "Circles," and I wrote out the F major 7 chord for him.

Then on drums, he played through Rolling In The Deep well, and we added AC DC, Highway To Hell:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJQuqSujhB0

February 7th, 2023

On guitar we added two new chords today, "G", and "A." We reviewed the other chords and then added a new song, "Old Town Road."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ae5Ap77b7k&ab_channel=MrShades

This song requires a capo on the fourth fret, but it's not essential for him to work with the song, so don't worry about it.

We then went to drums and he played Rolling in the Deep for me. Excellent job! I'm really impressed with it. I can tell he's been practising!

January 31st, 2023

January 24th, 2023

Today Tomas brought in his little acoustic guitar, and though the plan was to do half the lesson on guitar and half on drums, we got too carried away on the guitar, and Tomas decided he wanted to take the whole lesson with it. I hope that's okay.

We learned the parts of the guitar, and two chords - E minor and G major. I asked him to redraw the parts of the guitar into his own book for next week.

We then practised the first strumming pattern: down down down-up down

We did some "races" to play chords quickly, and he got both chords to under 2 seconds. I believe the E minor was 1 second!

January 17th, 2023

We went through Knockin' on Heaven's Door, and Tomas did really well on it... not perfect, but pretty close! :)

We added Rolling in the Deep next, by Adele:
https://youtu.be/iIi9glOjygk

This is a three star hardness song- it's got some complicated parts in it, especially on the double kick part near the end.

January 10th, 2023

Tomas played through Perfect for me, and it still had a lot of mistakes in it, and parts that need more practice. It would be fantastic if he could focus some attention on the fills and to playing evenly in time.

We added a new one, by Guns and Roses: Knocking on Heaven's Door:
https://youtu.be/L81lPm5laX0

We went over the grade 3 and 4 reading and he did better on them. Keep working on them, and try to work on grade 5 if you want!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd1U-T69a6M

January 3rd, 2023

We went over Can't Feel My Face, but Simon wanted to move on from it, so we added Ed Sheeran, Perfect:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heFkdb974DI

This is in 12/8. This means there are three beats on each each quarter note.

We've never done this type of rhythm before, so it will take lots of practising.

Here's another sight reading test to work on (grade 3):
https://youtu.be/JVe3OhCKiZA

Grade 4:
https://youtu.be/GCqAO6Qa46U

December 27th, 2022

Tomas did well on Wake Me Up When September Ends. There are some hard parts in that, and I was happy with how he worked through it.

We added a new one, Birthday by Katy Perry:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tmu2j0fgYmo

It's fast and intense, so we just did it at 75% speed - still, he found it to hard so we tried Money for Nothing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsBZYePDCbQ

He had trouble with that too, but I suggested he try to work on it anyway.

Then we went back to a one star hardness:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aieFH9ODJGU

He feels more comfortable with this level I think.

December 20th, 2022

Keep working on reading (don't forget):

Easy reading *start with this every day:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIMQya8u6Qc

Harder, pay attention reading:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ssC7VfkQWE

Wake Me Up When September Ends
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FqE5hCdbYI&ab_channel=DRUMMATE

Merry Christmas! See you next week!

December 13th, 2022

We went over the harder reading exercise together, and then Lucky Strike.

The reading can still use more time at home, I think he's avoiding it a bit because it's less fun, but it will help him with reading the drum parts.

Our next song is Coldplay, Yellow:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ssz69tFTS7Y

See you next week!

December 6th, 2022

We went over the note reading... it's getting better, but not perfect yet... keep working on the beginner level and we'll move up to intermediate when you've got that.

We also went over the fills in Lucky Strike. They need some attention to detail. Remember to use your reading skills (ti tikitiki)

Easy reading *start with this every day:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIMQya8u6Qc

Harder, pay attention reading:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ssC7VfkQWE

Maroon 5, Lucky Strike:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O97x0BDLvag&ab_channel=DRUMMATE

November 29th, 2022

Easy reading *start with this every day:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIMQya8u6Qc

Harder, pay attention reading:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ssC7VfkQWE

Maroon 5, Lucky Strike:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O97x0BDLvag&ab_channel=DRUMMATE

November 22nd, 2022

Tomas played thru the last two songs he was working on for me. They're not 100%, but they're okay... we're going to move on this week with Zombie by the Cranberries:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGI-Qd88KR4

He really wanted to do a hard one, and at first thought this was too easy-- but I don't think it is. He will find it a struggle to get it right, I think! I'm looking forward to finding out how he does next week!

November 15th, 2022

Tomas is sick today.

November 8th, 2022

Tomas didn't have the Ghostbusters song finished, those fills still need work... I asked him to try to finish that up this week. Here's the looper program again:

https://www.looper.tube/?v=xHJrjvUVFP4&s=43.8&e=66.5&spd=0.75


We then went through Get Lucky again, and it's great!

We then added a new one, Billie Eilish, Bad Guy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HRaWft3KdE&ab_channel=AtTheDrum

November 1st, 2022

Here's the tom tom part that we worked on today in Ghostbusters:
https://www.looper.tube/?v=xHJrjvUVFP4&s=123.6&e=143.8&spd=0.55

Tomas was away a lot this week so didn't get to work on it as much. We spent the whole lesson focusing on just this.

October 25th, 2022

Ghostbusters is coming along pretty well, but it's not perfect. It would be great if you got those fills exact... use that looper program if you want:
https://www.looper.tube/?v=xHJrjvUVFP4&s=43.8&e=66.5&spd=0.75

Here's the new song, Daft Punk Get Lucky:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1NiwohhJsw&ab_channel=DRUMMATE

October 18th, 2022

Here's that looper website that loops videos for you from specific parts in a song, so you can just focus on parts you need to work on.

https://www.looper.tube/?v=xHJrjvUVFP4&s=43.8&e=66.5&spd=0.75

Work on those fills, try to get them just right!

October 11th, 2022

Nice job on the new song... pretty close!

We added Ghostbusters today... a little hard, but good for HALLOWEEN!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHJrjvUVFP4&ab_channel=DRUMMATE


Good job!

October 4th, 2022

Good job, Tomas! Here's the new song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPVlexnaD6Q

See you next week!

September 27th, 2022

Tomas had a busy week, so said he didn't practice much. We made the lesson a rehearsal time, starting with

Old Town Road.
https://youtu.be/95y98g67p8Y

Then we moved on with I Ain't Worried
https://youtu.be/JlHoGWyzuIY

and ended with Happier:
https://youtu.be/7f1FhdSwY5M&

We also played a couple of older ones incidentally because of the playlist they were part of! :D

September 20th, 2022

We went over Done for Me, Old Town Road, a few times to work out the bugs and problems.

Old Town Road is hard, he's getting close! I'm very impressed!

We worked longer, with going over I Ain't Worried a number of times - keep working on this one.

We ended with Happier which is quite hard, but Tomas wanted to try it again:

Marshmello, Happier:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7f1FhdSwY5M&list=RD7f1FhdSwY5M&start_radio=1&ab_channel=DRUMMATE

September 13th, 2022

We worked on Happier and Old Town Road and Done For Me for a bit, and then also added I Ain't Worried:

One Republic, I Ain't Worried
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlHoGWyzuIY

Keep working on the other ones.

September 6th, 2022

We started with Old Town Road a few times, and then added a Marhsmello song, Happier:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7f1FhdSwY5M&ab_channel=DRUMMATE

It's challenging, but work on it, especially the way the left hand comes off the sixteenth on the highhat to play the "ghost snares"

Done For Me, by Charlie Puth is another to learn this week:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zpv496aoBYE&ab_channel=DRUMMATE

August 30th, 2022

August 23rd, 2022

August 16th, 2022

Good job on the fills - keep working on things like adding a flam on the AND of four WITH the kick after the floor tom, and a crash on 2.

We went through Old Town Road, don't play the fills so fast - take your time with them. They're mostly the same speed as the high hat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95y98g67p8Y&ab_channel=DRUMMATE

August 9th, 2022

Tomas is still struggling with his drum fills, so we spent a big part of the lesson just working on fills. We started with a floor tom on beat four, then added a mid tom on beat 3, with floor on 4, then high tom on beat 2.
Then we added a snare between each of the toms. (tom, snare, tom, snare, tom, snare - CRASH).
Finally, we swapped the snare for the kick (tom kick, tom kick, tom kick, CRASH).

Work on the fills on the Charlie Puth song Left and Right:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnBm9Tenw7g&ab_channel=AtTheDrum

August 2nd, 2022

I missed Tomas tonight.

July 26th, 2022

July 19th, 2022

New song:
Charlie Puth, Some Nights:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnBm9Tenw7g&ab_channel=AtTheDrum

Good job, see you next week!

June 28th, 2022

Good job today! Work more on Closer this summer, and this new one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGbkorIV8_c&ab_channel=DRUMMATE

I'll likely see you for summer lesson! More details to come.

June 21st, 2022

Work on Treasure some more, and the new one is Closer by the Chainsmokers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ed9mYhaAgss&ab_channel=DRUMMATE

Good job!

June 14th, 2022

June 7th, 2022

Here's the javascript for YouTube speed:

javascript:(function(){document.getElementsByTagName("video")[0].playbackRate = prompt('Speed');})();

Good job on Uptown Funk, do it another week:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSQg-jrD3yA

And add this new one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-0fqJYsPk4

May 31st, 2022

Tonight We went through Moves Like Jagger, It's My Life, and added a new one, Uptown Funk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSQg-jrD3yA

It's hard, but fun!

Keep working on It's My Life, and try to get to 100% if you can!

See you next week!

May 24th, 2022

We went through Moves Like Jagger a few times - it can use a bit more work, so let's do it another week.

We also added Bon Jovi, It's My Life:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=won1f_dp6Gg

See you next week!

May 17th, 2022

Great job tonight, Tomas! You're really making some great progress on your drumming!

We added a little bit harder one tonight,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCWa3TMSNTw&ab_channel=DRUMMATE
Moves Like Jagger!

May 10th, 2022

Here's that link again:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPAR0JBdyjs&ab_channel=EasyDrumTranscriptions

Good job, Tomas!

May 3rd, 2022

Good job, Tomas. Keeping working on Billie Jean and try to get it perfect.

Also, tonight we added Butter by BTS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPAR0JBdyjs&ab_channel=EasyDrumTranscriptions

See you next time!

April 26th, 2022

Great job tonight, Tomas! Levitating sounded great.

Here's the playlist and next week's song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3lehTwTOwc&list=PLVR4Pzl5lJZ1AS5TQlGil7jhKO9_x9fGc&index=12&ab_channel=AnnaliaDuranti

April 19th, 2022

We added Dua Lipa, Levitating this week:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvWTOEVOeno&ab_channel=DRUMMATE

Good job on Another One Bites the Dust and Thriller!!

April 12th, 2022

Tomas did a good job tonight! Dance Monkey is coming along really well!

I asked him to review the other songs regularly (once a week?) so he doesn't forget the things he's been learning.

We added Queen, Another One Bites the Dust:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9xtxyB5okQ&ab_channel=DrumScore-SalvoItaliaDrummer

April 5th, 2022

We went over Moana and Thriller, and then moved to the electric kit and played Circles.

The new song for next week is Dance Monkey:
https://youtu.be/EAmgEaQ3fCk?list=RDEAmgEaQ3fCk

March 29th, 2022

Tomas did really well on Circles, and we can move on from that one. Keep working on Thriller, and let's also add this one:

How Far I'll Go, Moana:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcBO2nEoczs&list=PLVR4Pzl5lJZ1AS5TQlGil7jhKO9_x9fGc&index=3&ab_channel=DRUMMATE

March 22nd, 2022

Continue to work on Circles, and focus on playing those drum fills without speeding up.

We added a new song this week, Thriller:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPAd-4dzFu0&ab_channel=DRUMMATE

Great job!

March 15th, 2022

Tomas is away on March break.

March 8th, 2022

Tomas did very well today! We reviewed the two songs before, and added a new one, Circles by Post Malone:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P69ooyukIKs


Have a great holiday!

March 1st, 2022

Great job!

We added Seven Nation Army:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3qy8H6-5WY&ab_channel=CrappyAssDrummer

Keep working on Back in Black. Don't forget 1/4 note and 1/8th note beats.

February 22nd, 2022

We started with review, covering the names of the drums, and then the two beats we learned last week (1/4 and 1/8).

We then added a crash to beat one (though not the first beat one, as he was struggling some with that).

We talked about flams and he played flams on the snare and toms, followed by a crash and kick.

We then went over Back in Black, and he played the crashes with the kick.

I asked him to try to learn the rest of the song if he can.

February 9th, 2022

This was Tomas' first lesson. We started with the names of the drums and cymbals and then learned the quarter note beat and the eighth note beat. We started with a simple song, just doing the verse. It was Back in Black played by a five year old drummer.

https://youtu.be/Kiq9HDUkNxg