The Green Sheet
I want to discuss THE GREEN SHEET, which is the most under read piece of paper in the world of DrumDom....or at least around here. THE GREEN SHEET is the assignment sheet that I give to all students each week listing the items that they are to practice during the week. It is not a menu where one can take one item from each of the categories and create a wonderful practice meal. No, our meals have quite a few items.
At some point students will accumulate more pages than can be practiced in any one week. Most of these are in the area of Technique. The Technique pages are never signed off, with the exception of CONTROL FACTOR. Technique is a 'forever' course. Even if you've mastered it, you can increase the speed, etc.
There are certain exercises that should be done daily for proper muscle building. Drummers use more muscles than most, if not all, other musicians. Put a drummer in a marching band or Drum Corps and it becomes a sport. So our instrument and our drumming activities use muscles that must respond to our musical demands and wishes, so the technique exercises address those areas.
Anyways, most students, simply, do not read their weekly green sheets. Now, the fact that I know that I am one of the sloppiest writers on the planet (thank you) it is legible enough. I must admit though that there have been times when I could not even decipher some words but that doesn't happen all of the time. When it does, I do not hold the student responsible. Lesson pages do, normally, have a date on them. That is the date when the page was initially assigned. I have been adding white tabs with a red, blue or green stripe to make the weekly lesson pages easier to fine.
The solid color tabs are placed on pages where students will need to practice them until the have developed a certain degree of mastery of the page or the rudiment.
So, please read your GREEN SHEETS and parents please remind you child to do so.