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Owen Desjardins
Past Notes
June 28th, 2017
June 21st, 2017
We worked on Ghost in the Shell, and then added Every Breath yOu Take
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPtE-7aNBns#t=242.462765
One more week!
June 14th, 2017
June 7th, 2017
We worked on Ghost In the Shell:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEmoC81vCB8
The drum beat itself is pretty straightforward, but the fills are challenging, and so we focused on learning those.
May 31st, 2017
Looks like I forgot to take notes last time, sorry!
We went over In The End, Who's Crying Now, Just Dance, Highway to Hell and another one which I forget now. :)
May 24th, 2017
May 17th, 2017
We started with Who's Crying Now by Journey:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7KqZJCI3o4
then In The End by Linkin Park:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DbzNbb8NA0
then Lady Gaga Just Dance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxWU5zXpSx8
May 10th, 2017
We went over the three songs we've been working on again; he's come along very well.
I am still hoping Owen will pick a new song to work on - maybe just keep bugging him about it until he decides to choose one? I suggested a couple that he thought were too hard today.
May 3rd, 2017
We went over the songs from the last few weeks because Owen said he hadn't really been practicing them. He promised to practice them all this week.
He should also think about the next song to work on.
April 26th, 2017
We learned a new song this week, "She Sells Sanctuary" as played by CrappyAssDrummer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNaxZnHDxoQ
April 19th, 2017
We went over three minecraft songs, then reviewed Highway to Hell and Sweet Home Alabama.
He forgot to pick a new song to learn, so if he could pick one this week, that would be great!
April 12th, 2017
Great job today! It was good to get back on the drums! :)
We went over Highway to Hell a few times, and it's basically done. Not perfect, but close. I'd be great if Owen wants to apply himself to the last little bugs in that song.
We then went over Sweet Home Alabama, which he says he can't watch on his ipad. So I asked him to find a new song for next week, maybe from the CrappyAssDrummer channel.
April 5th, 2017
March 29th, 2017
In Owen's lesson today we started recording the song for his Leap audition. We recorded the piano, vocals and drum kit-- he might want to work on learning the melody some more to re-record it.
We'll try to put bass down next week.
March 22nd, 2017
Owen and I worked on Highway to Hell, and then Sweet Home Alabama. We then went back to Highway to Hell until the end of the lesson.
We're learning two songs at the same time for the next couple of weeks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWfDUlVvGRs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Z375ArfPtc
March 15th, 2017
March 8th, 2017
Owen is on vacation this week.
March 1st, 2017
We reviewed Sweet Home, Owen said he forgot to work on this one again this week, so we went over it twice, but then added another, AC DC, Highway to Hell:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrCXslf5AI0
February 22nd, 2017
Owen forgot to work on Sweet Home Alabama, but we went over it twice at the beginning of the lesson. Remind him to work on it this week.
We were going to do "They Say It's Your Birthday," but he just wasn't into it. :)
We then continued looking at Radioactive and went over Sugar once because he said he'd practiced that one.
We finished the last five minutes with him playing the Radioactive parody Minecraft video...
February 15th, 2017
Owen said he didn't remember to practice, so we went over the song anyway, and then went through some others from the past:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Z375ArfPtc
And Sweet Home Alabama:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWfDUlVvGRs
February 8th, 2017
Here's a better video for Radioactive:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEt7X_Ut_GQ
February 1st, 2017
January 25th, 2017
We reviewed both songs - he's getting so close on Wake Me Up! Great job!!!!!!!! Heep working on it.
We added Radioactive:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moomTQzHCZA
Here's the Minecraft Version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRPKoTno1kA
January 18th, 2017
We reviewed some beats we've been working on in the past, and then went over Sugar - he's nearly got the hat and kick together! Practice makes perfect! :)
We then reviewed Wake Me Up When September Ends, but he wasn't ready to work on it.
We went over Closer again as well.
January 11th, 2017
Owen came in Sandi's spot this week while she's in Cuba.
We started a new song, Maroon 5, Sugar:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFe0G-38mYs
He hadn't practiced Wake Me UP WHen September Ends, so I'd like him to keep working on that one.
----
Owen's regular leson, we did Sugar some more, then took a break to play drums on some Minecraft songs, then back to Sugar again.
He's nearly got the kick part down, time to work on adding the hi hat.
January 4th, 2017
December 28th, 2016
This week we reviewed some of the previous songs, then added Wake Me Up when September Ends:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMagTdE4e4Q
December 21st, 2016
December 14th, 2016
December 7th, 2016
Owen hummed and hawed over singing for the Nativity, but in the end really didn't want to do it. I felt bad because he was pretty teary about saying no, and said he was really nervous about it.
We decided to continue with the drums for this lesson.
November 30th, 2016
Owen played through Closer for me - it's still not 'complete,' but I asked him to work on it at home while we add a new song.
We added TWenty One Pilots, Heathens:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPhPgorxZ38
This has some complex high hat work, so he should work with the video so he can figure it out.
November 23rd, 2016
November 16th, 2016
Owen and I worked on this song, "Closer"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf3uo3t5SaQ
November 9th, 2016
November 2nd, 2016
We worked on adding open high hat this week- on the beat before the snare (the and of 1)
October 26th, 2016
October 19th, 2016
We went over B of BD again and worked on the middle part where he wasn't using the kick drum-- he was a little resistant but figured it out right away.
I want him to keep working on that part, and then focus on the big fill-- and not stopping or getting on the wrong beat.
October 12th, 2016
October 5th, 2016
Owen and I worked through a variety of beats this week - he said he didn't practice but he did pretty well on the triplets, once we got back into it a bit.
He should try to go over the B of Broken Dreams song some more.
September 28th, 2016
Owen did really well today. We started with triplets, and it took him a bit, but he's got it. We ended the triplet session with doing triplets as fills, adn I'd like him to work on that.
We then went to the song, B of B D, and it's coming along really well another week or two, and he'll have it I think.
Then we reviewed 5.4, 6,8 and etc.
September 21st, 2016
We added triplets to Owen's repertoire of abilities - he has the right idea, and needs to practice to get better at them.
We watched a couple of bad videos about triplets, but then found one that simplified it.
We then went over Boul. of Broken Dreams, and basically only needs to work on the snare that goes fast. After the snare and tom fills, he sometimes gets the beat backwards, so practice that part especially.
September 14th, 2016
We went over the Greenday song twice, for the first 15 minutes, and he really did great. A few little things I pointed out for him to work on, especially to keep the beat going between the different sections... like when he goes to the "ride / crash" section.
Then we went through his book of drum beats for the last fifteen minutes.
I asked him to continue with the Greenday tune for next week.
September 7th, 2016
Practice Bouldevard of Broken Dreams:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1WF96lihsQ
Use the video and play along with it if you can, so you can see what the drummer does.
You've got the various parts down, you just need to connect them all together.
Great job!
June 27th, 2016
June 20th, 2016
June 13th, 2016
Owen was just a little off this week, maybe a bit tired. Don't say anything to him, (because he told me not to tell you,) but he cried in the lesson. He was challenging everything I said to him, and getting lippy, and I got a bit stern and said that was no way to talk to me, and that if he keeps it up we won't do lessons anymore.
I felt bad that I made him cry (sorry!), but after a couple of minutes he pulled himself together and we continued the lesson. He was much more polite and humble after the incident, so maybe it turned out okay.
I hope I didn't overstep my rights as a teacher in speaking harshly to him - if so I am very sorry.
June 6th, 2016
Owen brought his book this week, and we worked through the beats I'd written down. He didn't remember how to play a few of them, so it's good to have the book so I can keep tweaking his memory on some of the more advanced things.
May 30th, 2016
OWen and I played through some different beats tonight, working on switching the beat a bit depending on the section of the song we were playing in-- going from sideshot to rim shot, etc.
We also did some ride cymbal in the louder sections. He was really on top of his game!
May 16th, 2016
Owen was feeling a little unwell tonight, so we spent the first 15 minutes jamming with me on electric guitar, and the next 15 minutes watching music videos about minecraft.
He said he practiced through everything in the book this week!
May 9th, 2016
Owen said he went over the beats in the book so writing them down may have helped him!
We went through them all again, and then I added another page of things we've worked on in the past. Some if he forgot a bit, but we just touched on them a bit. By next week I expect it will have come back to him! LOL
Good job tonight, Owen!
May 2nd, 2016
We reviewed all the beats as usual, and have made progress incrementally as usual! I love it how from one week to the next -- without practicing -- he somehow comes to accept the new challenge. He just needs time to process it!
So we did eighths on 3/4 for extensive amounts of time this week.
I wrote out a bunch of beats for him to work on this week, should he decide to practice.
April 25th, 2016
Owen and I worked on the drum beats we've been doing, with 3/4, 4/4, and eighths and quarters.
He finally tried to do eighths on the 3/4 beat tonight, at the very end of the lesson. He was able to do it three bars in a row without a mistake, so we're making progress!
We did rim shots and flams on beats 2 and 4 as well.
April 18th, 2016
Sandi came in Owen's spot this week.
April 11th, 2016
We continued working on the 6/8 and 3/4 drum beats, adding eighths to them as well. I talked about how a couple of weeks is the difference between him balking and not balking on new ideas-- that he just needs some time to process and idea and then he's fine with it.
That seemed to make him more receptive to new ideas and push himself to try things even more. :)
April 4th, 2016
Owen was pretty focused today, and I was glad that he wanted to learn the 3/4 beat we added.
On his own he should practice the eighth notes on the high hat while playing in 3/4, as he balked a bit at that.
Also, the snare can go on beat three, OR beat two, and he should work on putting the snare on beat two.
We finished by playing along with a couple of songs:
You Shook Me All Night Long:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo2qQmj0_h4
March 21st, 2016
Owen was in a great mood tonight, and embraced some new stuff without hardly balking. We added a swing beat on the ride symbol, and he also had been doing the kick much better without lifting his whole foot.
We came back to the 6/8 beat, and he even counted it in correctly, using 6 beats instead of 4. I am coming to the conclusion that when confronted with a new idea or new directions, he needs some time to process- usually a week or two and he's doing what you asked (even though he was so against the idea maybe at the beginning). It's good to know!
March 14th, 2016
March 7th, 2016
I started Owen this week with asking him to play his favourite beat. I then asked him to elaborate on the beat by adding extra percussions in it. Initially he had some trouble being able to add beats and keep time. I think this is probably something we need to focus on more and more. Though he is able to keep time for a while, he doesn't seem to understand the general approach to playing drums the same speed throughout.
I stressed the importance of keeping time, and eventually he was able to do this. I also asked him to play the quarter note and eighth note beats back-to-back, and he did it without changing tempo very much. This is a big improvement from how it used to be.
He was having trouble with the kick, and so I pulled the floor tom out of the way, to discover that he's been playing the kick by lifting his whole foot off the floor. I hadn't noticed this before, and this will be a problem for him in the future. I asked him to work on this more, which created a bit of drama.
He can be a bit non-conformist, which makes it hard to get him to use the right technique. Along with the foot lifting, he still is using the wrong hands to play, and hits the drums way too hard.
I am not sure how to get him to want to do things correctly. IF you have any suggestions, I'm all ears. :)
February 29th, 2016
Owen was a little frustrated with me (or himself?) today. We took it pretty easy, but I encouraged him to work on it at home.
We reviewed the 6/8 beat which -- once he gets over being afraid to try it, -- he does quite well!
Still not getting the disco beat quite right, but he is enthusiastic about playing it, so I hope to keep picking away at it until he can get the hat on eighths instead of quarters.
We took the last five minutes to look at a minecraft song.
February 22nd, 2016
Owen was in a good mood tonight. I asked him to work on the rolls this week, (which he did without too much complaining for me -- ) the trick is to really let the stick bounce, and not try to force the playing with the wrists.
We went through our other beats as usual, and then added a new one, a '6/8' beat.
February 8th, 2016
Owen did well, though there was some refusal to do the beats he feels challenged by. He lost three hearts in the process (he can opt to lose a heart or to try a beat -- sometimes he says, nope, not doing it, take away a heart).
We tried a six-eight beat (triplet eighths) and I set this as the boss-- he kept saying it was too hard, then took a mental break to talk about minecraft for while. When he came back to it, he was fine, and was able to "beat the boss."
February 1st, 2016
Good time with Owen tonight, he's really liking the gamify. We're making progress, and he wants to keep his hearts. I'm now taking a heart away when he refuses to do something, so it forces him to try.
It's fun too! He said, "IF I was a sim right now, my fun level would be way up!"
January 25th, 2016
I think the game approach was a success-- Owen seemed excited to try it, and though he balked at losing hearts, he was actually able to push himself to do things that he wouldn't try before, all in the name of leveling up.
I'm going to tweak it a bit more, but I think we're onto something.
He needs to get the practice badge and the booklet badge... remind him. :)
January 18th, 2016
Owen and I went over the beats again this week, and added some new elements.
He seemed to really get excited again when I "gamified" the lesson, giving him "lives" as he got something, and taking them away when he made a mistake.
He suggested that it would be fun to have a screen on the wall to show his level, so I think I'll write a program for that very purpose!
January 11th, 2016
January 4th, 2016
December 28th, 2015
Owen was in a great mood tonight. Had a little issue with him being a tad rude for a moment, but we solved it.
He has actually made quite a bit of progress recently. He's keeping track of the fourth measure much more instinctively adding a crash on the beginning of every four bars. He's now able to do this with quarter, eighth, sixteenth and disco beats.
We also have started adding an extra kick beat and he's able to do this with quarter and eighth note beats, and to include the crash on every four.
Need to work with starting with a crash and not getting out of sync, and adding the missing hat beat in the sixteenths.
December 21st, 2015
December 14th, 2015
Same as usual, with going over the various beats. For new things we tried adding a flam on every-other snare beat, with quarternote and eighthnote beats.
December 7th, 2015
Owen was in a great mood tonight! He did a good job playing, and didn't get upset! :)
We just jammed basically, going through as many of the beats as we could remember, and trying to make up some beats too. I keep sneaking him to try new things.
December 3rd, 2015
Owen was a bit tired this week, and seemed to have some allergy difficulties, poor kid.
We added some other beats (sideshot, rim shot, and disco beat).
November 30th, 2015
November 23rd, 2015
Interesting lesson, I could tell that Owen had practiced-- he's definitely starting to get more refined in some of his beats.
He had a really itchy face though. I think if we added up all the time he itched his face, it would be about 10 to 15 minutes of scratching! LOL
The 16th note beat is really close. He needs to speed it up a lot to get the right sound, but he's close.
He said he'd practice putting the crashes on the first beat of each bar in the sixteenth note beat as well.
November 16th, 2015
Owen was tired again tonight, (though he denied it, LOL!)
We played through the drums beats again, and he is still struggling with 16th note beats. He's getting really really comfortable with the eighth note beat, though.
We also did flams on quarters and crashes on one, but he kind of balked at that.
November 9th, 2015
Owen was back to his regular self this week. We continued working on the three main beat types, including sixteenth. I think we finally made some progress on the sixteenth note beat. He's dropping one of the hi-hat beats-- the one that is played at the same time as the kick beat. Hopefully we can get that in over the next while.
We also worked on crashes on beat one every two measures, and were able to get a fair way on that.
November 2nd, 2015
Owen was a little tired tonight, and had trouble playing beats he knew already... but he did a good job holding it all together. We took a break for a while to watch a video, but then went back to the drums.
October 26th, 2015
We reviewed the same beats and tried out the sixteenth beat which was pretty hard.
He says his dad keeps hiding his sticks and moving the kit so he can't practice LOL
October 19th, 2015
We reviewed the quarter note beat, and then came back to the eighth note beat, which was from a number of weeks ago (maybe even last year?)
It was hard for him to get it, but I promised him he could have the last five minutes of the lesson to play with Seth on Minecraft if he got it, so he was determined to try.
He did a great job. Level up!
October 12th, 2015
October 5th, 2015
We worked through about 4 songs from a Minecraft video, and Owen played along. We didn't work on any of the usual stuff this week, just played along with the videos.
September 28th, 2015
Owen did a really great job at this lesson. He was agreeable to everything I asked him to do.
We worked on playing at different volumes.
We worked on crashes at the beginning of every four measures
We worked on flams.
We worked on drum rolls on various parts of the kit
We worked on flam-kicks (buddaboom buddaboom) through out the toms and snare to end with the crash
We took the last 5 to watch some minecraft songs.
September 21st, 2015
Owen was very tired tonight, had a hard time keeping his eyes open, lol.
We reviewed some of the stuff we'd worked on last week, but I had to do a lot of convincing. We played at different volumes, then went over playing crashes every four bars on beat 1.
We tried some ride cymbal, but he was too tired to push it.
We took the last five minutes to talk about Minecraft and watched a Minecraft music video.
September 14th, 2015
Owen and I worked on dynamics-- I finally convinced him he could try to play quieter and louder -- not just loud! He's doing well with it, and we used a Minecraft song to practice with.
June 29th, 2015
Sandi again, in place of Owen.
We added Summertime, and had a lot of fun with it! Great job Sandi! :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3kQt14_5OQ
June 22nd, 2015
Sandi took OWen's lesson again, and we worked on intervals.
This is a good help:
http://www.earmaster.com/products/free-tools/interval-song-chart-generator.html
June 15th, 2015
We worked through worship songs for Saturday tonight.
June 8th, 2015
Sandi came in again tonight.
June 1st, 2015
Tonight Sandi came in Owen's place, since he broke his arm.
We worked on the song she's started last week, and then added Rooftops, which we didn't get to in time.
May 25th, 2015
We tried to do a bit of Uptown Funk, specifically the double highhat (16th beat) with the kick on quarters, and the snare on 2 and 4.
He was valiant in his efforts for the first half of the lesson, and wanted to keep trying, but didn't want my help in working it out. :)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ya2U8XN_Zw
I think he was tired tonight, but he did a pretty good job.
May 11th, 2015
Owen was in amazing form tonight, eager, excited, committed, not afraid to try things. Great job!
May 4th, 2015
Owen and I worked on fills with flams again, and then listened to a couple of Minecraft videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--wUp04vGWU
April 27th, 2015
Owen and I worked on the drum transition we started last week, but added in a crash on the start of each four bars, and later a floor tom hit on 4 before 1 on each four bar phrase.
April 20th, 2015
Owen was full of enthusiasm this week. He said he'd practiced, and I could tell he was excited.
We worked on going from hi hat to ride cymbol every four bars. We also played along with two random mine-craft songs.
April 13th, 2015
Owen played the regular "stompy cat" beat at three different speeds-- really slowly, medium, and really fast-- then I asked him to play it as fast as he could.
We then added an extra beat to the snare, Boom / Chuck chuck / Boom / Chuck Chuck -- we worked on that for about 10 minutes, then added an extra boom to the kick: Boom Boom / Chuck / Boom boom / Chuck.
We really focused on keeping that high-hat on the quarter notes, which he has trouble with, but was able to do.
March 30th, 2015
Owen was in pretty good form tonight, but I had a bit of a challenge getting him to cooperate with me near the end. He set his mind against learning a song that I had asked him to work on last week, and it seemed impossible to get him to cooperate.
Perhaps one of you can talk to him to see if he will agree to work on it, because we need to take some next steps.
On a really positive note, we were able to add an eighth note groove to his abilities tonight, and I think he felt good about that!
March 23rd, 2015
Owen reviewed the beat we were working on before from the song Seven Nation Army. He did pretty good considering it had been a week away.
We then added a new song, which I'd like him to work on with the video if possible. Back In Black, by AC DC:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kiq9HDUkNxg
This is a kid playing, so it's more accessable for him.
Finally, we played along with "Supernatural Mobs":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29fejX2UPoQ
March 16th, 2015
Owen is on holiday tonight.
March 9th, 2015
Owen and I started with him showing me what he had been practicing (not what I'd asked him to, lol)... then working on some challenging things to him, with his hands crossed on the snare/hat, and hten with the ride.
We did the bell / flat ride cymbol alternating, then skipping the bell, then skipping the flat.
We then tried alternating, which he balked at a bit.
We ended with playing along with a Minecraft song.
March 2nd, 2015
February 23rd, 2015
Owen and I played through a 4/4 quarter note groove a number of times. We worked on fills, and doing the quarter note groove on the ride (ie, with the other hand) -- he was close to tears a couple of times I think, saying it was "so confusing." I told him it takes hard work to get it, and I think he can do it if he works hard! ;-)
We took the last few minutes to watch a video and played along with it.
February 9th, 2015
I had trouble with my server yesterday, so couldn't make notes.
We started out by listening to a song that I wanted him to play with:
Seven Nation Army:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3qy8H6-5WY
He did well on it-- I'd like him to work on playing along with it on his own drum set, with headphones-- so he can do the same thing the drummer in the video does.
We then went to another song to work on:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TF4hO3S6R20
and
.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC5d7kE2K84
February 2nd, 2015
Owen and I played along with a number of songs today, including Living on a Prayer and It's My Life.
We worked on drum rolls on all the drums/cymbals, alone, and along with a steady kick. I asked him to practice doing this while he keeps the kick steady.
January 26th, 2015
January 19th, 2015
January 12th, 2015
Owen was in fine form today! I was completely startled with his intensity on the drums, and how well he played the quarter note groove. He closed his eyes, and seemed to zone into some spot, and played nearly perfectly! He lost the beat or tempo only a few times.
We need to focus on the drum fill strategies next.
January 5th, 2015
Owen and I started with listening to some drummers playing along with Minecraft songs. He wanted to just watch regular minecraft videos with me, but I said we have to make this about music, not just minecraft, but we can try to combine the two.
After listening to a couple of videos, we jammed together with some drum beats like last time.
December 29th, 2014
Owen and I started with jamming along with some different YouTube drum beats-- my hope is to keep exposing him to metre and time so that he develops a natural instinct for it.
After that, we reviewed flams, and then I showed him a pattern that uses the kick and flames:
kick flamsnare, kick flamtom, kick flam tom, kick flam tom
We also did sixteenth groupings on the snare and toms, ending with a kick-crash
We then played along with a minecraft version of "We Will Rock You"
December 22nd, 2014
December 15th, 2014
Owen and Sandi are switching tonight.
December 8th, 2014
Owen was sure keen to play the drums tonight! I think he had a great time.
We started with learning all the names of the drum kit: crash, ride, tom toms, floor tom, kick, high hat, snare.
We learned the basic BOOM CHUCK beat, and tried adding some highhat to it.
We did some playing of drum fills and crashes.
We jammed for a bit with him doing whatever he wanted while I played the bass.
Then I had him play along with "We Will Rock You" by Queen.
He has a natural sense of timing. When he gets frustrated with something he wants to quit rather than being motivated by the frustration. I don't think that's so unusual. He likes to play VERY loud... I encouraged him to think about my ears a bit. :)
My sense is that we will have to take it slowly, keeping him motivated by making it as fun as possible, and changing directions frequently throughout the lesson to keep his attention.
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