Practice the Christmas sheet music and “My Heart Will Go On,” as well as the flam rudiments we have previously worked on (remember you’ve got two weeks before we see you again).  Most of your parts for these pieces are individual and use lots of instruments you won’t have at home.  But have no fear!  There are still good ways to practice these parts.  THE BEST WAY to practice this is by having random items in the different places you want your real instruments to be in, and then play along with a recording (found either on YouTube, on the CD’s at the back of your book, or at the online website you can access through the code in your book).  This way you get used to transitions between instruments (like picking up the cabasa but having to play the triangle two beats later), and it gets your ear used to the way the piece will actually sound when the whole band plays it.  It also makes all those multi-measure rests more interesting….

Lastly, if you practice with a metronome for these two weeks, you’ll get 3 extra tickets!