Student Zone
| I've been pretty lucky to have some truly amazing teachers over the years who have helped inspire me and provide me the opportunity to tour the world doing what I love. I really hope hope that I can do the same for my students, and the student zone is a big part of this.
So, what is it? Well, the student zone is an online addendum to my teaching and gives my students access to all their music, backing tracks, videos of me playing their songs/giving helpful hints, as well as notes and feedback from their lessons in their own personal student area. My major aim through the use of this online resource is to try and help my students to make the most out of their personal practice and become the best musician they can as quickly as possible. This means not only helping them with their practice, but also letting them know about cool gigs, events or clinics they should check out, sharing great videos to inspire them and help them take their playing to the next level. Every student's student area is tailored to them - I try and choose videos I think they would like to see, and all lesson notes/feedback are written either during the lesson and discussed with the student then and there, or very soon after. And the best bit? It works! My students love it, I love it, and I'm getting great results from my little army of drummers. Wicked huh?! |
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Sample Student Area
John Doe
Hi John, and welcome to your lesson area!
Here you will find (almost) everything you need to help you with your weekly practice from lesson to lesson, as well as heaps of random cool things I find and decide to share with you to help inspire you to be the best musician you can be.
This is your area and I want it to be perfect for you, so if you ever have any questions, comments, or ideas for what we can do to make it better, please either let me know in a lesson or flick me an email
So what are you waiting for? Get practising! 😀
Quick Links: Important Dates - Clips/Licks - Lesson Diary - Upcoming Events
Important Dates
Term 3 dates: Saturday, 16th July - Saturday 17th Septmeber
Cam Away: Saturday 6th August (make-ups available) - gigging at Mt Bulla
John Away: Saturday, 10th August (no make-up requested)
Recital: Saturday, 27th August
Your Profile
This information is 100% private. No one can view this except you and me, and I cannot access or view your password
Sweet Clips, Crazy Licks, and other fun stuff...
DO IT! WATCH IT! GET INSPIRED!
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Snarky Puppy are sick... like maybe the sickest. Check out how great the dynamics are in this track and how much that adds to the song. Dynamics are king baby! |
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Some really cool marching percussion magic from BYOS. We have Harvey (in red) at the National Drumline Camp this year....! (see you there?) 😉 |
 Preach! |
Lesson Diary |
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14/8/16 - Knights of the Round Table (week 2)Excellent work with your practice this week. Great to see such good progress on "Knights of the Round Table" in such a short period of time. Keep it up, and have fun with this one... it's a laugh and a half! _ Technical: Good development of your hand technique. Remember to pay particular attention to the placement of your thumb relative to your index finger. Keep working through paradiddle exercises from 140-160bpm ensuring you stay loose and relaxed. Careful not to "overplay" your downstrokes and hit hard - this creates tension and will affect your rhythmic accuracy and your tone. Create a big sound by using good velocity with high "mass", not by hitting hard. Music: Move on to page 2 of Knights of the Round Table (music/video @ 7/8) Bar 36: Nice strong buzz roll on beat 4 with semi-quaver subdivision (quavers will sound too relaxed) Bar 55 - 64: Watch accuracy of ensemble hits. If in doubt, subdivide with your counting - That's it! Enjoy your practice this week. Remember - "if you're not having fun, you're doing it wrong!"
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1/8/16 - Stairway to Heaven (week 5) / Knights of the Round Table (week 1)Great job consolidating your hard work on Stairway to Heaven. You are doing a great job with the groove and timing in what really is quite a hard track to play well - you should be proud! As discussed, I'd love to see you play this at the Recital on the 27/8 so make sure you keep it in your head and in your hands. Looking forward to making the same great progress with Knights of the Round Table. This one is a blast, so enjoy it! _ Technical: New hand out with Paradiddle Exercises to get used to different permutations of the sticking and accent pattern. Work through slowly from 100bpm up to get the sticking comfy. Really feel how the accent patterns sit in around the pulse and start to internalise that groove. Think about the finger control we looked at this week and last week as well as how you transition from the accented down strokes to loosey goosey relaxed taps. Music: Stairway to Heaven all done. Tick that box! Make a start on the first page of Knights of the Round Table (music/video below). Be careful to ensure you quickly and accurately pick up the speed from bar 4 into bar 5 - listening to the recording a few times counting through it will help with this. Make sure "quick-step"/"two beat" feel (bar 9-14, and 19 onwards) doesn't drag. It is an energetic feel so sit right up on the beat. Practice crash and syncopated stab section from bar 11-14 paying particular attention to the quick transition from the choke in bar 14 back to the rhythmic phrase at bar 15.
- That's it for this week. Enjoy your practice and see you next week. Remember - "if you're not having fun, you're doing it wrong!" |
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1/8/16 - Stairway to Heaven (week 5)Still going strong on Stairway to Heaven - well done. Time for final polishing and developing your consistency so you are confident that it will be 100% correct every time you sit down to play it. _ Technical: Finger adder exercise. Development of "trigger finger" to help with low diddle control and speed. Focus on adding the fingers one by so they are working perfectly in unison - any change in sound or tone from the stick indicates a slight change in technique when adding a finger which means they are not working in perfect harmony. Remember to use a good pair of sticks and a hard pad so you can really "hear" the stick. Music: Stairway to Heaven - Good to see you comfy with all of this - you are doing a really great job with this. Work on displaced dotted 8th note fill at bar 119. This is tough to make sit right (you have a habit of rushing), so spend plenty of time with with this to a metronome. Start off with an quaver subdivision then move to crotchet or even a minim when comfy to force yourself to rely on your own internal time. Practice timing of interlude section - you really need to just feel this rather than strictly count it if playing with the original recording as it does waver a little. "The Fill" (bar 129) - you have the bones of this and just need to work on developing the speed. Be careful not to drag the main section (demi-semis to semis) and then rush the semi-quaver triplet at the end in an effort to make up for this. - That's it! Enjoy your practice this week. Remember - "if you're not having fun, you're doing it wrong!"
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Upcoming Events
Here you will find a bunch of great local events worth checking out. They could be of any style, any focus or even on any instrument, but they all have one thing in common - they will be wicked! Worth going to and checking out if you can. Remember, becoming a great musician is about far more than just practicing: you have to live and breathe music and expose yourself to as many great opportunities as possible. As always, feel free to ask if you have any questions about any of these 🙂
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National Drumline Camp
Date: September 30th - October 3rd
Cost: $425 (all food accom etc. provided for 3 days)
Location: PGL Campaspe Downs, Kyneton (about 1hr from Melbourne)
Style/Focus: Drumline and Marching Percussion. Feature artist is Harvey Thompson (BYOS) from the USA. Other instructors from all over Aus.
This is a seriously great event. It is a heck of a lot of fun spending three days hanging out with a bunch of cool drummers and you will learn heaps! A great way for you to get a taste of the drumline thing and see if you're into it.
More Info: www.nationaldrumlinecamp.com
*full disclosure: I am involved in the organisation of this event
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Australian Ultimate Drummers Weekend
Date: August 27th and 28th
Cost: Varies ($69.95 - $139.95)
Location: Darebin Arts & Entertainment Centre, Darebin
Style/Focus: All kinds of performance from world class players, drumming competitions, and expos from all the big drum manufacturers. A big weekend of in your face drums!
More Info: www.drumtek.com.au/audw-2016
Quick Links: Important Dates - Clips/Licks - Lesson Diary - Upcoming Events