SURPRISING TEACHING IDEAS Issue 2 Creative Rhythms

Have you ever felt like a student just has no rhythm? Or, have you ever wanted to explain the concept of fractions to a young student eager to become the world s next best drummer? !hat if you could teach these students to read rhythm with the ease that you read words? Music is essentially composed of pitch and rhythm. Usually, rhythm is taught either by: a) Math (counting 1-and-2-and-3-and- -and) b) !hythm names (tah"s and ti-ti"s) #oth of these $ays $ill allo$ students to translate a rhythm from the page to the instrument. %o$e&er, these methods alone $ill not produce indi&iduals $ho can hear $hat they see and see $hat they hear' that is, allo$ students to become musicians in the full sense of the $ord. %o$ then do $e create these (musicians)* +ell, here is today,s -urprising .eaching /dea: 1. 0irst, teach students to FEEL the beat. 1o this by ha&ing them clap to their fa&orite song' then to music of different time signatures and genres. /f they can find the beat in any music, you ha&e mainly $on the battle 2. 2e3t, teach students to HEAR divisions of the beat. 1o this by clapping or playing a number of sounds in one beat, then, as4ing students ho$ many sounds they hear 3. 5fter, teach students to WRITE divisions of the beat. 1o this by $riting a clear beats ( hearts, happy faces, etc.) and as4ing students to mar4 a line per each sound they hear in a beat. .his is the dictation they $ill ta4e . 0inally, teach students to READ rh th! as divisions of the beat. 1o this by reading trough the dictation they too4, and then &enturing into ne$ rhythms .eaching students to read rhythms through feeling the beat is as effecti&e as learning to tal4 before learning to read. 2e3t time you need to teach students rhythm, gi&e this idea a try, the results will surprise you6

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