Instrumental Study

1.1 Day to Day Maintenance Requirements of My Instrument

a) What are the maintenance requirements of my instrument?
how to tune your acoustic drum kit:
first of all you need to know if your kit actually needs tuning,
to tell if anything needs tuning you turn your snare and if it squeaks or has some kind of wet sound it needs tuning.to tune a snare you have to unlock the snare wires, the and tighten all the nuts on the top of the head, and finally use a drum key to tighten the top-most bolt half a turn.
to tune a cymbal you have to use either special cymbal cleaner or pour some coke into a tub and keep the cymbals in the tub for around one hour. this method has been tested and came back with some very positive feedback
finally how to tune your toms - first you have to press down on the head and tighten the bolts on the side to make it de-wrinkle. after you have done that you have to leave the tightened bolts for a few hours, possibly overnight, when you come back to the drum you have to untighten the tom to make it sound like it did before, if you keep the tom tightened you will have a different sound and you will possibly breaking the tom.

b) What Can I undertake personally?
personally i think i would be able to clean the symbols myself but i think that i would find it very difficult to take out the bolts in some of the symbols like the toms and the snares, i think that i would be able to tighten the symbols myself because that is not very hard.
1.2. Personal Health and Safety Issues 

a) What Health and Safety issues are there that you need to consider when playing your instrument, and when approaching your playing style?
a danger for the drums is that you can cause temporary damage in the hands and wrists after a long time of playing, to avoid this make sure that you use the correct technique and have your hands and wrists in a comfortable position. i need to make sure that the drum sicks are blunt at the ends and not sharp so they cannot pierce through any of the drum symbols. i also need to make sure that none of the bolts in the symbols are sticking out because that is dangerous for the instrumentalist.
b) How should you review your own approach to these issues when playing your instrument?
i would approach this by checking for any of he following dangers every time before i play and every time after i play.
2.1 Reviewing Personal Goals

a) What are the personal goals that you would like to achieving in playing your instrument?

. finish the song for you in my music lessons (grade 2)
.my aims are, to first complete the song yellow and the song for you with my music tutor, then i am going to try and play a song with other people.
. i need to improve on my drum fills so i can use a wider variety of fills to become a better drummer.
. i am going to achieve these aims in my 1 to 1 music lessons
b) How do you intend to achieve these personal goals?
. i am going to achieve these aims in my 1 to 1 music lessons.

The agreed plan with my teacher is to:
1. Attend and take part in 1 hour of practical lessons per week, for a minimum of 15 weeks. 
2. Attend and take part in a 20 minute lesson for my instrument, for a minimum of 15 weeks. 
3. Review and reflect upon my lessons and progress each week on my blog, for a minimum of 15 weeks. 


c) Blog of all rehearsals - you must state what you have achieved, and what you plan to do next week. 

week 1

today i rehearsed counting stars on the drums and did changeovers with kujay. i found the song relatively easy but i found a couple things a little tricky. i found the fast and upbeat chorus tricky because sometimes i made mistakes because i was going quite fast. i also found staying in time with everyone else was hard because sometimes people made mistakes and i felt really confused!
i found the beginning and end very easy because all you had to do was use the base drum so it was easy. with my tutor i will practice being in sync with other people and also from going from slow beat to fast and upbeat.
my goal is to complete the song yellow by coldplay fluently also i need to improve on my timing because everyone is meant to be in time with the drums. i also need to improve on technique because sometimes i hit the two drum sticks together and sometimes i miss the drum!
so today i practiced the song yellow but i didn't get to far because i didn't have much time in the lesson, i only practiced this peace for around 5 minutes so i cant say too much but i feel that the song i am doing is not too hard and i should be able to do this. my instrumental lesson went quite good because i also got a bit of practice playing yellow. my teacher told me to practice the song more to improve.

week 2

i was practicing the song yellow on the drums until my teacher (miss harris) told me that I should be singing so I sang the song LOVE YOURSELF by justin bieber with Nigel.
i practiced is for most of the lesson but i can already sing the whole song because i have listened and hummed to the song before.
my instrumental lesson went quite well, i practiced yellow again with my teacher and he told me that i was making good progress, next week i will continue practicing yellow.

week 3

today i practiced more love yourself by justin bieber and i practiced it with nigel
i found it was quite easy but soon i am going to start on a new song because i am quite confident with this song.
 my instrumental lesson went quite good, i practiced the song yellow again and i feel like i am really improving, soon i will start a new song.

week 4

today i practiced love yourself one time today and then recorded on my teachers phone
i found it quite easy but i need to practice on my voice because i feel that my tone didn't sound too good, to improve i will do some vocal warm ups and i will practice singing more. 
 i practiced the yellow on the drums and it went quite well! he told me to practice at home so i don't forget everything i've learned in this lesson.

week 5
today i practiced LOVE YOURSELF a little but me and nigel focused on his music recording. i practiced the song for you again with my drum teacher and i am really happy because i have completed the whole song!!! Now i am going to focus on the song BLEACH which in my opinion is a lot harder, but i think i will be able to do it in the next 3 or 4 lessons, in the next lesson i am looking to complete section A of Bleach.
with my drum teacher i practiced BLEACH and when through section A i found it very hard but i will improve.
week 6

today i decided to go back to the drums, instead of doing singing because i felt that singing wasn't for me and i stated back on the song yellow by cold play.
i found it quite easy because its an easy song, i'm half way through now and i am hoping to finish next lesson or the lesson after that!
I played section A of the song BLEACH today which i found quite hard because there are a lot of beats that i have never heard of before and it is hard to read and play.
 today i was late to my lesson so my teacher made me do a little bit of composing for 5 minutes but then i did a bit of grade 2 music which was very hard as i am not used to being a grade 2 drummer, over time i will get better and be able to play more grade 2 songs.

week 7

i practiced the drums today and i have played more of BLEACH, I need to still practice part A but i am getting more confident playing it. i still have room for improvement in part A but i am much more confident than i was last week.i arrived on time to my lesson today and i finished my first song on grade 2, which was a breeze for me now i am starting a new one that i should finish soon, because they are very small pieces and they are easy in my opinion.

week 8

today i practiced the song BLEACH on the drums (grade 2 music) and i focused on section A again.
i found it very challenging because this is my first grade 2 song but when i get used to it, hopefully i will be able to do it!
with my drum teacher i started practicing my second grade 2 song called "for you" and i practiced part A of the song, next week i want to be polishing it off and starting on part B.

week 9

Today i practiced the song for you again and i am really happy because i have completed the whole song!!! Now i am going to focus on the song bleach which in my opinion is a lot harder, but i think i will be able to do it in the next 3 or 4 lessons!
With my drum teacher i was on time and i completed for you and he was very impressed because he thought that it would take a couple more lessons but i finished it quite easily and i had about 5 minutes left to practice bleach. in my next lesson i am looking to complete section A of Bleach.

week 10

Today i practiced the song for you but since i've already finished the song we only went through it twice, after that i practiced the song bleach which was very challenging and i went through it twice but i was very happy because my drum teacher even said he was impressed.
i found for you easy most of the way but a bit challenging at some points because i hadn't practiced that particular beat in a couple of weeks so i was a bit rusty. with my music teacher i spoke to him about getting a grade 2 book because i bought one but i got the wrong one!! the we practiced for you and after that we played a little bit more bleach.

week 11

today i practiced with kujay and we mostly practiced grade two drum fills because we both thought that we needed to improve on that. after that we practiced a song called Alabama and it was a grade 1-2 song and we both found it not too hard and we almost finished the song!
i cant speak for kujay because i dont know what he thought but i felt that the drum fills we quite hard but not challenging enough! and when we played Alabama i found it not exactly easy but not very hard. Today i had my first drum lesson of the new year and i got there on time. We practiced 8 bar drum beats and i flew through them until the last two which i found a bit challenging because i hadn't practiced for a while, then we practiced a song called NEED YOU NOW which was a song that my teacher liked and we did this because he said that someone had took his grade 2 book so we couldn't practice the grade 2 song, i found the song quite easy until we got to this part where it was really hard and i didn't know what the beat was so i found it very tricky.

week 12

today i practiced the song NEED YOU NOW  and i finished the first page off, also i practiced on some quite tricky 8 note drum beats and finally with my teacher i tried to play a very simple beat but i had to add a hi hat pedal which was new to me!
i found the song NEED YOU NOW quite easy apart from the fill at the end. then when i played the 8 bar beat i found it very easy until i played the 5th and 6th line which i found relatively easy after i had a few goes to get a hang of the beat. then when i played with my drum teacher and tried to do the beat and use the step hi hat i found it so hard and i couldn't do it. the best i could do was use the step on beat 2 and 4, use the symbol on all beats and use the snare on beats 1 and 3.

week 13

today i practiced NEED YOU NOW and i went through the first page and half of the second page, i stopped at the drum fill part because i thought that it was quite hard.
after that i went back over my 8-bar drum notes and i flew through the first 5 beats and struggled a tiny bit on the last one but with a couple of attempts i got through it!
with my drum teacher i continued on trying to get good at my hi hat step beats bit i still find them very hard! so next week i am going to try it again.

week 14

today i practiced the song FOR YOU on the drums with my drum teacher, he was very surprised with what i did because straight away i played through the whole song, only making a few mistakes and with out a warm up. Then i actually played the song and i whizzed through it, he was very impressed with what i did. after my lesson i went into room A49 with kujay and nigel, we took turns playing the music that our teachers had given us and i finished up properly on FOR YOU, in my opinion the song was easy!


week 15

today i practiced the song FOR YOU and BLEACH on the drums with my drum teacher, he said he was "quite impressed" with how much work i had done because i basically i completed the whole of for you and lots of bleach! when i finished my lesson i then did some on the 8 bar notes that were in my bag, i found them very easy. Then finally i did a small recording and i thought it went well apart from the hi hat and the crash symbol were not working so they didn't make sound. next week i want to complete more of BLEACH and move onto my 3rd song of grade 2

week 16

today i started a new song on the drums that I really like called HEATHENS with my drum teacher and i found it very challenging because i was not used to the beats at all. After that i went into my own room to play the drums and i continued playing HEATHENS. at the end of the lesson i was very happy because i finished one whole page which was half of the whole song, i also enjoyed playing this song because i liked the song and it was part of the movie SUICIDE SQUAD which i thought was cool.


joe k upload:
in this performance i played the song HEATHENS. i feel like the performance went well however i noticed that i was speeding up and down, which made the rhythm sound not so good. i am happy with my ability to use the whole drum kit and overall i think the performance went well!

joe k:
in this little performance i went very fast throughout the bit of the song and the music did not sound as good because it was all very rushed, next time i need to slow down in my performance. in my next performance i will make it more lengthy and have better quality.

joe keczkes 2:
in this performance i recorded a few lines or the song FOR YOU and i feel that i played the song well but again i feel that i rushed it so it didn't sound as good as it should of. next time ill slow down the performance to improve the quality of my music.

joe keczkes 1:
i feel that this performance wasn very rushed, and messy. i will improve by taking my time and staying in beat. overall i feel that this is my worst recording and i hope that i will always improve from here. in my next performance i will have a longer performance and a better quality(no rushing!)





3.1 Review of your progress

a) What comments has your tutor made about your progress?
My tutor says that i have been making really quick progress recently and he is very happy with the pace that i am working at, right now it is taking 3 or 4 lessons to get through a whole song!
b) What are their reports on your:

i) technical ability
i have learned how to play a paradiddle on the drums which is a technical ability, i am able to play them at a good speed with out messing up but if i go fats then i will mess up, i want to get better at that.
  ii) dexterity
my teacher said that when i play my "flow" is very good, he said that when i play i am able to go fast but "keep it smooth" at the same time. this is a very good skill to have and i am happy with the progress that i have been making and i want to keep getting better.

iii) stamina
my drum teacher said that i am able to keep playing with out messing up and getting tired for a good time, he commented that i would be a good drummer in front of audience, i am going to take this advise and act on it more to become the best drummer i can be!

iv) control of the instrument
"joe used to miss the snare a lot when he started this year, but over the last few months he has improved his accuracy drastically, also he is becoming a very good player"
c) All recordings and dates of these recordings
29/11/16- recording from song FOR YOU 
6/12/16- recording from song FOR YOU
13/12/16- recording from the song BLEACH
20/12/16-  recording from the song BLEACH
14/03/17- recording from song HEATHENS 
For each recording, write an evaluation of what went well in the performance, and what you would like to work on next.

i did a recording on the song HEATHENS but i only did a few lines because i hadn't dont any recordings on the songs before, obviously it went well because it was only a few lines but next time i want to do the whole first page and then do both pages.
3.2 Final Evaluation

a) What are your achievements, in relation to the personal goals you chose at the beginning of the course?
i feel that i have made many achievements, i have gone from grade 1 drums to grade 2 drums and i am flying through songs right now so i feel that i am in a very good position right now and i am looking forward for more improvements. 

b) What are the strengths in your progress?
recently i have been doing really well on my drum fills and my composition, i am able to read lots of music now which is a really good strength to have! i feel that overall i am a good player with not many weaknesses when i am playing.
c) What do you need to continue to work on as a performer?

As a performer in think that i think that i need to concentrate on my timing. because i have noticed that sometimes i have gone too fast when i am playing to a song in my drum lessons, i think this will make me a much better drum player! in the future i want to reach grade 4 drums, then i will be able to use a very big variety of fills, and beats in my music.