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Gage Delyea
Past Notes
April 29th, 2026
We went over LEgends NEver Die and Counting Stars (easier version). He wanted to try counting stars at increasingly fast speeds, so we tried that a bit for fun
We then added Bruno Mars, Just The Way You Are (easier version). The link is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cycsK4nKB3E
If you notice Gage playing without crossing his arms, remind him - that's a tricky thing to learn and important not to practise it wrong and develop a bad habit.
Gage seems a little awkward with me, maybe it's his nerves, but I wondered if he on the spectrum? If so, let me know if there is anything I should know in how to best interact with him.
April 22nd, 2026
Gage played through Counting Stars for me -- very good! A big improvement over last week.
We tried adding Legends Never Die - it was a bit overwhelming for him... we slowed the video down to 75% speed, and took our time analyzing each section to work it out. After a few successful pass-throughts, we kept increasing the speed every time by 5% and got up to 95%... we ran out of time before getting to 100%.
April 15th, 2026
FYI: Gage's new stick are a little short. They should be regular full-length sticks.
Gage said he hadn't been practising with the video, which is unfortunate... I really hope we can work out the process for the week so he is able to work on what I give him. As the songs get harder this will be critical and crucial.
We started with me playing on the piano while he played drums. He did really well with keeping the time!
We reviewed Counting Stars, and started off at 75% speed, on each repeat of the song increasing the speed up to 90%.
We then reviewed Lose Yourself. It might be a bit hard for Gage, but he really wants to do it, so I agreed that we give it a one time through.
After that we went back to Counting Stars at 95% speed, and Gage to well on it... still need a bit of practise to get accuracy.
April 8th, 2026
Today we learned the parts of the drum set (crash, ride, snare, high tom, middle tom, floor tom, hi hat and kick).
We then learned a quarter note beat and played together.
We then looked at Eminem's Lose Yourself sheet music briefly before settling on Counting Stars by OneRepublic.
*future song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yv2OIsMbI0 Eminem, Lose Yourself
If he could practise through Counting Stars this week, maybe with a tablet near his drums like we have set up in my studio this will help him out at home.