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Felix Marcotte Garrod
Past Notes
December 21st, 2023
For me, today was more frustrating than usual. Felix couldn't seem to play anything on the beat, and doesn't seem to have any sense of time at all.
Timing doesn't seem to come naturally to him. It might improve with practise, but he told me he didn't practise this week. I spoke candidly with him, saying that practising is required if he's to continue with lessons with me.
December 14th, 2023
We started off with Billie Jean at .8 speed. Felix was forgetting that the kick should always accompany the crash cymbal. After going through the song, we worked on that aspect a bit.
He was playing an extra hat beat after the crash which was messing him up. I think we worked it out.
We then went through the song at 100% speed. The first verse and chorus was great, but the when we came to a fill, it threw him off and he got backwards on the beat.
December 7th, 2023
Pretty good job on Billie Jean. We went through it on 75% speed (0.75) at first.
A few things to work on this week:
1. The crash is always /with/ the kick drum. Also, sometimes the fills (the tom tom parts followed by a crash) are played on the snare, sometimes on the toms, and try not to speed up on them.
2. Try to get the song up to 100% speed -- trying using looper.tube if you want to use gradient speeds.
We used Looper.tube in the lesson to play it at .8 speed. It was pretty good! Felix has to watch that he keeps his timing even.
November 30th, 2023
Felix forgot to practise Billie Jean - here's the video again, please send this to him or help him get set up with it.
https://youtu.be/YRTWj5K-AX8
We slowed it down to .75, and that's how we worked on it today.
November 23rd, 2023
I'm really impressed with Felix this week! He said he didn't practise the exercises, but the difference in the last two weeks is incredible! Way to go, Felix! Now imagine if you practised them!
Here are the two tutorials:
https://youtu.be/HXo977ktxDg
https://youtu.be/Qp4flocUmxM
We went through Seven Nation Army and Circles together and I am seeing improvement there too! So glad to see it!
We then added a new one, Bille Jean by Michael Jackson:
https://youtu.be/YRTWj5K-AX8
November 16th, 2023
Felix did really well on the drum exercises. A little bit of speeding up on the drum fills (the last bars of each page), but better than last week! I asked him to keep working this week, and to see if he can add the hi hat and the ride parts too.
We then reviewed Seven Nation Army and Circles. I saw improvement in both! There are still issues with him not listening well to what he's playing along with, but it happens less, and I think he's self-correcting, which is awesome!
This is another reading exercise, which Felix was able to get to level 2 without too much trouble. Level 3 and 4 were hard for him. I asked him to work on these first few and to try to get levels 3 and 4 perfect. If he wants to move on through all the levels, and finish the whole video, that's great, but not necessary!
https://youtu.be/Qp4flocUmxM
November 9th, 2023
We started off with the note reading exercise:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXo977ktxDg
Felix is still struggling with keeping time even. If he could do the entire reading exercise every day I think it will help him.
After that we went over Seven Nation Army. I could tell he's been working on it! I see some improvement although, Felix still struggles with playing evenly.
We then returned to Circles, but slowed it down to 75% (.75) to help him with it. Timing is still all over the place, so he promised me he'd work extra hard this week.
https://youtu.be/P69ooyukIKs
November 2nd, 2023
Felix said he only practised once this week. Please be sure he practises at least ten minutes a day, if not more.
We added a note reading exercise today:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXo977ktxDg
This will be helpful for reading and identifying the various drum-instruments on the staff line.
After working on that for 15 minutes, we went over 7 Nation Army. He's still struggling with playing at the same tempo as the song... if you can help him stay on beat, he'll end up enjoying playing a lot more I think. :)
We had some time afterwards, so we worked through another song for a bit, but it might be a bit advanced yet for him until he's got the other things stronger.
October 26th, 2023
I saw real improvement with Felix this week on Seven Nation Army. There were a few little things that still aren't quite right, and we worked through them in the lesson to help.
We also played it just the two of us on the bass and drums.
At the end of the lesson we talked a bit more about note reading (i put some notes in his notebook).
October 12th, 2023
Felix is away this week.
October 5th, 2023
Felix was enthusiastic and said he'd been practising a lot, which is awesome. I may have spoke a little strongly with him because he seems to not pay very good attention while he's playing. He changes the speed in the middle of the song, he focuses on his hands, or something else and stops watching the video, and maybe not listening to the music. When he's focused, he's able to play on the right beat, but when he's not, he can get way off tempo.
If you're listening to him practise and notice he's not playing with the recording, remind him to focus, as it really makes a big difference when he's focused.
At the end, we simplified the Seven Nation Army arrangement, which doesn't have notes, just a drummer playing. If he can try to copy this guy, that may help him with focus.
https://youtu.be/j3qy8H6-5WY
September 28th, 2023
We went through Seven Nation Army - Felix had a bit of issue with playing the right speed, not following well with the drummer in the video. Sometimes he'd forget to press the kick,
I encouraged him to play quieter so he could hear what the music was doing.
We slowed the video down, and walked through all the notation again to help him remember how the notation refers to the actual drum kit.
I graded him a 6/10 and I asked him to keep working on this song to see if he can get up to an 8 or 9 out of ten. We also added a new one:
Imagine Dragons, Believer
https://youtu.be/nNkWuiILCaw
This isn't easy, but he can at least start the first little bit on his own, and when he gets stuck we can go from there.
September 21st, 2023
Great news that you have a drum kit! Felix did well on his eighth note and quarter note beats.
This week I'd like him to also work on this Note Reading Exercise video, to get as far along as he can. In class he got to level 4 or 5.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qp4flocUmxM&list=PLVR4Pzl5lJZ114koesAVMgpqpH0V8GO2x&index=4&t=63s
We also started this song:
Seven Nation Army: https://youtu.be/gQ4DJmMKrdE
See you next week!
September 14th, 2023
Felix did well today. We drew a picture of a drum kit and he was able to name the names of the parts of the drums. He also played a quarter note beat and a boom-chuck beat.
We started on the eighth note beat today, which is a bit harder. He should work on playing this at home, slowing things down, and gradually playing it faster as he can.
He is excited to start playing songs, but I reminded him he needs to learn these basic beats before we can start with that.
September 7th, 2023
Felix did well today. We started out with learning the names of the instruments:
Kick, snare, high tom, middle tom, flower tom, crash cymbal, ride cymbal, and hi hat.
We then learned two beats: the "boom chuck" and the "quarter note beat"
We took a look at our first song, "Circles" and I gave him a quick intro to reading notes:
https://youtu.be/P69ooyukIKs
See you next week!
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