rhythm breakthrough

[Terry]

I have to share with you a pulse/rhythm breakthrough I had with one of my students.

This girl is one of the least coordinated students I have ever had.  I think her lack of coordination is related to a problem she has detecting a pulse – in one year of study, I think she never played any single piece of music steadily, except by accident!  You probably will wonder about me then when I say that she is also a beautiful musician.  She knows when someone is communicating or not, and every time I show her how to play something expressively, her eyes widen and she tries it with abandon.  When I gave her an opportunity to record a CD to give her parents, she knew just which pieces she wanted to record, because she had noticed that all the best pieces of music in her method book were written by the same two composers (how fantastic to have favorite composers whose music you can play, at age 7!).  And when we were rehearsing one duet for the CD, she astounded me by pointing out that my lowest note, which was on the offbeat of the last measure, was out of place.  And she was right!  I had just been thinking to myself that I would leave that note out if I didn't think it might confuse her.  "There is no other note so deep in this whole piece!" she exclaimed.

You can see why I would really like to help her with her rhythm.  We have been dancing (her feet go down at any time except for on a beat), marching (feet hit the floor on some beats and at other random moments), singing and dancing (random movements unconnected to the song!), listening to the notes in my duet part (she likes the sound the notes make, but it's a challenge to fit her notes in), clapping, snapping, and slapping the knees for different beats (this can be done unsteadily just as easily as it can be done steadily!), swaying to feel the beat (nominal and unrepeated success), and clapping the beats in different places in the air (you get the idea).  Nothing has made an impact.  Until --

At her lesson two weeks ago, I asked her to do something that I usually reserve for more mature musicians, because I thought it was too abstract for most people: I asked her to listen to the space between the beats.  She said, "Okay," and just did it.  It was astounding.  My next student even commented on it.  She said she was writing in her journal, and she had to stop and listen, the music changed so much. 

Steady playing is still not a priority for her.  When she came to her next lesson, she was not playing steadily, but when I asked her to listen to the space between the beats again, all those beats spread out evenly in the air.  She feels that the music is more "graceful" this way, so I don't think it'll take very much more reminding for this kind of listening to become part of the way she plays.

I learned my lesson (again): never dismiss a concept because it is too subtle or sophisticated for a student.

[hmk]

I will have to try that!  Listening to the space between the beats makes a lot of sense - it's probably an aid in memorization too.

I had one student working on the Pachobel's Canon - who is very expressive and musically sensitive.  But for some reason - her rhtym was off and tried all kinds of things for it. 

She was having a concert at school - and I attended it to hear her.  Besides playing a piano solo, she also played a drum solo later.
I noticed she never missed a beat on her drum, so next time at our lesson - I gave her drumsticks and told her to try something new.
Take the Canon home and instead of play it - read it - and use the drumsticks on each beat.
When she came back the following week - she had improved by 80 percent!  I asked her how often she used them - and she said,
"every day!" and looked at me in surprise that I would even wonder that she didn't do it every day.

So that was very exciting for me 

[wongk]

Whenever I have my epiphanies, which is often, I return to the forum. I was recently listening (past progressive tense) to a band which had come from my high school (at least one of the members did). They are a pop/rock/blues/swing type of band but I noticed their use of rests and spaces. I found this to be quite fascinating because I (don't tell anyone about this) am actually enjoying their music.

I also notice this same space in da capo arias by Bach. A good one is "Schlummert ein" from the cantata "Ich habe genug". The use of rests reminded me how fascinating the spaces between the notes can be, especially those divine sections in the return to the aria. The spaces also create balance.

[SusanN]

wongk, your secret is safe with us!

I have to let you know of my recent discovery - a mini trampoline! I tried it with my 6 1/2 year old student who plays everything as fast and as erratically as she can, and forget about observing half notes! We have tried everything - marching across the floor, swinging arms, clapping, but nothing worked when she went to the piano.  I had her jump on the trampoline while we sang one of her songs. When she finished, we returned to the piano, and she reverted to her customary rush routine, and I asked her to remember how she felt on the trampoline, and to pretend that she was jumping on the trampoline as she was playing. She felt the beats! We worked that way with her next piece, which also had half notes, and when she finished jumping, she exclaimed "they get two jumps!" I decided to play around and asked her to go faster and slower on the trampoline, and she realized that a smooth change had to happen gradually, like accel. and rit. This fall, I am trying it with all my other elementary (and not so elementary) students!