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1.8 A survey of available resources

Many types of publications are available with information and instruction about rhythm.

The three broad categories I have found are: 1) college textbooks with a rhythmic component; 2)

piano method books; and 3) books written solely on the topic of rhythm.

As mentioned earlier in this work, many larger college textbooks include some pages

with rhythmic studies. Most often these pages are few in number and offer only practice drills,

without explanations of the topics being drilled. One of the most popular class piano textbooks,

Piano for the Developing Musician, has about ten pages dedicated solely to rhythmic practice,

including two popular rhythm ensembles.18 These ensembles served as an inspiration for the

ensemble component of the new method presented in this dissertation. Students seem to have fun

while performing the ensembles aloud; there is always a great feeling in the room and good

collaborative learning taking place. In the Hilley/Olson text, there is no narrative explanation of

concepts in the rhythmic drill pages – simply practice suggestions such as hand motions assigned

to different types of notes (snapping eighth notes, for example.) Some of the pages of exercises

include two-part duets, drawn with up stems and down stems differentiating the two parts.

Though the instructions mention playing the duets in student pairs, another beneficial utilization

of the duets is that they can be practiced as two-handed exercises with the right hand playing the

upper part and left hand playing the lower part.

Music theory textbooks typically cover a summary of basic rhythm concepts including

meter, rhythmic values, tempo, pulse, and time signature. One aspect of Fundamentals of

18
Martha Hilley and Lynne Freeman Olson, Piano for the Developing Musician, 6th ed., (Boston: Thomson
Schirmer, 2006), 34-35, 54-55.