BANDMASTERS 2024 - "House Of The Rising Sun" - traditional Dylan - Drums Eli - Piano SPECIAL GUEST Sean - Guitars TEACHER Adrian This cover is based on the Animals' version from the late 1960's. Arrangement by Dylan and Eli with a little help from Adrian.

BANMASTERS 2024 "Subway Summer" by Dylan and Eli Teacher - Adrian Dylan and Eli were in my Bandmasters class, which focuses on learning how to understand song form, play instruments together in a band context, and how to use this knowledge to write more interesting songs with longer forms, and especially how to play the songs in a live band. Here is their final project from this year, "Subway Summer" where they took several musical ideas and came up with this fun, groovy song. Fantastic work, gentlemen!

Scarlett, “You Belong With Me” & “Beautiful Things” - Keylab Virtual Recital 2024 Teacher comments: "You Belong With Me" was so much fun to play! As you can see, for these performances Scarlett made the creative decision to dress as a clown, fit with rainbow socks, rainbow skirt, and a red clown nose. Additionally for this song, she utilized a larger-than-life pencil to act out the verse of the song, really setting the scene for viewers and adding to the campy-ness of this particular piece. I adore that Scarlett brought her bubbly and hilarious personality to this vision, and that she gave these performances her all. I'm so proud of her! "Beautiful Things," like "Cruel Summer," is very challenging for its range, and it has an interesting shift in tempo/meter that we worked on significantly over the course of the semester, which Scarlett nailed!! This song was super fun to work on, and I love that Scarlett infused the emotions of the song into her vocal performance, especially on the verses.

Celine, “Ode to Joy” & “Summer” - Keylab Virtual Recital 2024 Teacher comments: Celine learned a lot about dynamics and articulation this year—how to make long and short notes for different kinds of songs, how to phrase sections of a song to convey different moods and expressions, and how build louder and softer over the course of a section. She also improved a lot in her comfort using both hands while playing! In this song (“Summer”) we worked a lot on maintaining steady rhythm and energy. We also practiced new hand positions using the black keys (F#)!

Harley, Drum & Piano Medleys - Keylab Virtual Recital 2024 Teacher comments: Harley has great rhythmic intuition and loves to play along and freestyle with his favorite pop music on drums. We've been working hard learning how to play the specific beats and patterns at the foundation of these songs to work on our focus and connection to the music. Harley learned a complex 4-bar kick and snare pattern for the classic drum anthem, Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight", which you'll hear in this medley performance, but first, you'll see him perform Adele's "Rolling in The Deep", cycling through different drum grooves and adding his own fills! Congratulations to Harley on all his progress this year learning to organize his creativity on the drums. Harley's musical curiosity isn't limited to the drums. He also wants to know how his favorite songs work at the piano, so we devote time during our hour lessons to the basics of piano and learning these familiar melodies. Harley already intuitively understands what it means to have a well-rounded love and appreciation for music! Of his own volition, he took the time to learn the timeless melody "Heart and Soul", and we thought that would be a classic way to start our performance! We continue with his latest favorite, Olivia Rodrigo's "Vampire" and it's signature hooky piano figure. Finally, he loves catchy pop melodies like Usher's "DJ Got us Fallin' In Love", which closes our piano medley. His ability to perform this syncopated line shows how his rhythmic understanding on the drums is making its way into his piano playing. With continued practice at the drums and the piano, Harley will get to know his favorite songs inside out and perhaps write some of his own! The sky is the limit.

Calder, “Minuet in G” - Keylab Virtual Recital 2024 Teacher comments: This piece requires each hand to play a separate melody at the same time which reflects a big step forward that Calder has taken this year. It takes a lot of focus and patience to get both melodies to speak together.

Alex, “Happy Red” - Keylab Virtual Recital 2024 Teacher Comments: Alex is focused on the details, and his note reading, ability to play entire songs in tempo, and shading his performances dynamically improved a lot this year. Alex also has a really surprising talent for transposing his pieces into other keys, especially taking major pieces and transposing them into minor keys, which results in some really creative and fun exploration in our lessons each week. Great work Alex, and I hope you have a fantastic summer!

Stellan, “Journeys & Shuttle” - Keylab Virtual Recital 2024 Teacher comments: Stellan is truly a remarkable student, I don't know how he could possibly have so much knowledge about music at such a young age! A lot of our time during his drum lessons is spent writing original songs, and using them as vehicles to explore new grooves and sounds on the drum set. He is always a fountain of ideas and sticks with new and difficult material until he gets it! This track (“Journeys”) was his favorite of the songs we wrote together this semester! Every few weeks, Stellan and I spend our lesson time making music using the Garageband iPad app! He's so creative and loves to experiment with the drum sequencer, thoughtfully tweaking his beats without interruption until they're exactly as he intends. This track (“Shuttle”) is his favorite of the 8 or so that we've done together, and it all started with one of those in-the-zone sequencer sessions! He then chose and recorded the other instruments himself, with only minor inputs from me in terms of what notes and chords might fit together well!

Maris, “Moonlight Sonata, 1st Movement” - Keylab Virtual Recital 2024 Teacher comments: Maris learned this movement over a few months, and learned a lot about balancing the volumes in left and right hands, emphasizing the meter and melodic phrase, and especially incorporating subtle dynamic swells and adjustments to create the dynamic arc for this iconic piece.