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CHAPTER TWO

2.1 Introduction: teaching beat, tempo, durational symbols, dots and ties

When teaching students about rhythm, it is essential to begin with the fundamental terms

and symbols with which rhythm is composed and performed. Because students come from a

variety of different backgrounds and experiences, there are sometimes disparities in learning.

Starting at the most elementary concepts and building from them will ensure that all potential

information gaps are clarified. A good example of a learning error or gap is the commonly held

definition of a quarter note being worth “one beat.” While true in some time signatures, the

definition is incomplete. This method of teaching rhythm begins with simple time (no division of

beat) and presents time signatures with 4, 2, or 8 as the denominator so that students can grasp

the concept of different beat notes. Rhythm trees are critical knowledge as they help illustrate

the ratios between note values. Division of beat is presented with simple duple and compound

duple concurrently, along with a more clear explanation of the meaning of numbers in time

signatures. (In simple time signatures, the top note is the number of beats per measure and the

lower number is a symbol to represent the note that gets the beat; in compound time signatures,

the top number represents the number of divisions of the beat in each measure, and the lower

number is a symbol for the type of note that gets the division.) The paragraphs that follow

describe some basic concepts that can provide a foundation for teaching rhythm:

All music has a basic pulse. The basic pulse of a piece is best described as the heartbeat

of the music. When listening to or playing music, the basic pulse is the underlying beat to which