Cam did a great job integrating the concepts we've discussed regarding drum fills into his playing. While playing Espresso during his warm up Cam played some of the best fills I've heard him play. When we paused to discuss what made them so effective he demonstrated solid understanding of the concepts discussed. Seek and Destroy continues to challenge him, but his understanding of the song form and various sections is now quite strong. All that remains is developing the technique and endurance necessary to maintain a certain level of performance for the full duration of the song.

Cam continues to do really well with the practice pad warm ups. His technique and sense of rhythm have come a long way in a fairly short time. Bring Me To Life and Seek and Destroy are still a challenge, but he's making excellent progress and seems to be enjoying pushing himself to this new level of playing.

Cam did very well with the pad warm up today. We've been gradually increasing the tempo with these warm ups and he's doing a great job keeping up. Seek and Destroy is a song that Cam is already quite familiar with, but the drum part provides several new challenges. He did an excellent job overall, but did have to be reminded to stay patient and listen before attempting to play something new. We were able to get through the entire song by the end of class and he seemed to have a good grasp on the parts.

Cam has been showing more interest in creating his own beats/grooves recently so it seemed like a good time to talk about how certain drum parts function within songs and some strategies we can use to come up with our own. To finish off this discussion I had Cam play through a drumless version of a song he had never played before. Having no prerecorded drum part to play along to/use as a reference freed him up to play essentially whatever he wanted. He did a great job responding musically to the ups and downs of the song and seemed to have a lot of fun.

Cam has been developing more freedom on the kit and incorporating more fills into his playing so I thought it would be a good time to talk about how and when to play a drum fill when considering the style and setting of the music. He was interested to hear about the concept, but also wanted to make it clear that when he's playing fills during practice he's just having fun and knows that it wouldn't be the same if he was playing with other musicians. Cam also continues to make great progress on Bring Me To Life. His play through today was by far the best yet, demonstrating significant improvement specifically with his bass drum coordination.

Cam did a great job with the warm up today, playing through the subdivision ladder with single and double strokes. He was also able to get the paradiddle pattern we introduced last week to feel more comfortable in his hands and even successfully looped it once. Bring Me To Life is still an endurance challenge, but we addressed a few of the finer details within the chorus and bridge and Cam did very well incorporating those new concepts into his playing.

Cam did a great job with the practice pad warmup, demonstrating significant improvement over these past few weeks, and also did an excellent job playing along to his warmup songs. Master of Puppets presents a unique challenge for Cam (some odd time signature phrases and strange rhythms) but he did very well following along to the best of his ability. Bring Me To Life is sounding better and better. He still struggles to maintain the bass drum pattern throughout the whole song, but that will naturally improve with time as his endurance increases.

Cam did a great job working through Bring Me To Life. It still presents quite a syncopation challenge, but he's doing very well learning the arrangement and playing through the more difficult sections to the best of his ability. He also did an excellent job grooving along to Espresso and responded musically to the nuance of the bass line and drum groove.

Cam did an excellent job adapting musically and following along with the new songs. Several of them he had previously heard but never played while others were brand new to him. He did a great job deciphering the rhythmic themes and jumping in with his own beat. His sense of rhythm and his ability to hear and identify whats happening on the drum set has greatly improved.

Bring Me To Life is by far the most challenging song Cam has worked on so far, but he did an excellent job rising to the challenge. He's hearing and identifying a lot of the components of the groove on his own, and asking great questions when he isn't sure about something. He still struggles with the bass drum/hi-hat independence, but he made great progress today working through some related exercises and playing along to the track several times. His final take demonstrated significant improvement compared to his first. Paradise City was a breeze for him to figure out, but he clearly enjoyed it very much and did a great job picking up on the hits and character of the drum part.