![\"xray\"](\"http:\/\/musicboxmusicstudio.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/02\/xray1.jpg\" "\\"xray\\"")
I always loved that song, “D’em Bones”. It’s a good reminder that none of our body parts work independently. They are all connected. \u00a0I know what you’re thinking. I’ve got the lyrics all wrong. The jaw bone’s connected to the finger bones????\u00a0Ok, you got me..\u00a0that is NOT how the song goes….but in music class, that is exactly how things work.<\/p>\n
When I was a child, learning the ins and outs of rhythm, my teacher dutifully counted the beats out loud as I played. Then,\u00a0during practice time, my grandma would repeat the same chant over and over…1 and 2 and\u00a0 3 and.\u00a0 I am not sure if the chanting lulled me into a state of subconscious where the music magically implanted itself in my brain, or if I was one of those lucky people for whom rhythm was natural, but\u00a0either way, the counting usually worked for me.<\/p>\n
When I began teaching I discovered that not all students find counting and rhythm\u00a0to be a natural\u00a0occurrence. Over the years I have spent many lessons drawing beats and colouring the portions allotted to each note for students who just couldn’t seem to feel, hear or understand how the rhythm was important. We would tap the rhythm with wooden spoons (I had painted in wild colours to make them fun) and I would count out loud so emphatically\u00a0that later\u00a0I was counting “1 and 2 and 3 and” in my sleep.<\/p>\n
While I sometimes have had to turn myself inside out in the name of rhythm correctness, I\u00a0am\u00a0happily\u00a0dedicated to this\u00a0worthy cause. If you don’t believe that rhythm matters, try singing “Turkey in the Straw” using straight quarter notes (tas). You will find that without the rhythm the poor turkey is pretty lifeless and the song becomes\u00a0hard to recognize.<\/p>\n
So\u00a0if counting out loud doesn’t work for everyone, what can you do to ensure you are playing the rhythm correctly? If you would ask one of my 3 yr old beginners, they would quickly tell you that you have to “Say the rhythm!”<\/p>\n
If you are saying “ta titi half note”, it is unlikely that your fingers will play anything else. Why???? ….because your jaw bone’s connected to your finger bones…. It sounds crazy but it works every time.<\/p>\n
Of course, the best way\u00a0to\u00a0develop rhythm is to be exposed to music from an early age. The earlier the better. Like language, music is acquired through repetitive experience while the brain is pliable and the neural connectivity is at its’ peak. Sing and dance with your children often. Read poems and Dr. Seuss books together. Say nursery rhymes together. All of these activities develop a sense of rhythm.<\/p>\n
For older students who may be struggling with a specific passage in a piece, there are ways you can tackle those tricky spots. For difficult rhythm passages I usually create a sentence that shares the same rhythm.\u00a0 “Ti ticka ti ticka titi ta” may become “My little dog has a real big bark!”\u00a0\u00a0You will likely remember the sentence well because it is a “chunk” of information\u00a0and magically, the rhythm issues\u00a0will be\u00a0issues no more.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rhythm is important…just as important as playing the right notes. Rhythm adds flavour and gives the music direction. While not all rhythms are simple,\u00a0 IF YOU CAN SAY IT YOU CAN PLAY IT!! Keep practicing! : )<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I always loved that song, “D’em Bones”. It’s a good reminder that none of our body parts work independently. They are all connected. \u00a0I know what you’re thinking. I’ve got the lyrics all wrong. The jaw bone’s connected to the finger bones????\u00a0Ok, you got me..\u00a0that is NOT how the song goes….but in music class, that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,17,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baby-development","category-effects-of-music-on-development","category-practicng"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicboxfmc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicboxfmc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicboxfmc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicboxfmc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicboxfmc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/musicboxfmc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":321,"href":"https:\/\/musicboxfmc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315\/revisions\/321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musicboxfmc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicboxfmc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musicboxfmc.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}