Dear Swing Week student,

Welcome to the Swing Week class on drumming and percussion.  Our syllabus for the week includes the following:

• Discussion of the evolution of the drum set

• Study of styles of music as they pertain to the drum set, specifically jazz, swing, commercial, and drums music in various tempos

• Emphasis on developing a sense of metronomic time, or the “internal clock”

• Study of technique and fundamentals for snare drum

• Study of technique and independence for drum set

• Tuning the drum set for different styles of music

• Working with charts, CD’s and tapes to prepare for ensemble playing

• Study of popular song forms a.k.a. blues, swing, big band, etc.

• Developing short and long solos

• Trading 4’s and 8’s and extended solos

Equipment you will need to bring:

• Drum set, sticks, brushes, practice pad

• Hand drums or desired percussion instrument(s)

• Manuscript/music paper, music stand, and metronome

• A tape recorder, if you are interested in recording the class

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Swing Week Coordinator, Wendi Bourne at swing@augustaheritage.com.  She will contact me and we’ll get you any information you need.

See you at Swing Week!

Steve Larrance