Thoughts on rhythm

I wanted to take this post to talk a bit about the philosophy behind my approach to the teaching of rhythm. My educational instruction background was focused heavily on Gordon-based learning theory, which when applied to music, basic means that you start music instruction with the most basic of elements, and then work towards synthesizing those elements together into ever more complex and involved music tasks. For example, rather than sitting a fourth grader down at their first lesson, putting an instrument in their hands and a music book on the stand, pointing to a note on the page, showing them what fingers to put down, and then telling them to blow, this approach would first teach the elements separately, such as reading skills apart from fingering skills, etc.

I have tried to adopt this approach to my teaching of rhythm and pitch in the general music classroom, by attempting to break down rhythm and pitch into the simplest and most separate elements and dealing with each as a single skill. Only once a student has demonstrated a mastery of each item, do I move on to putting those elements together.

Specifically with rhythm, I start by separating the writing or notation of rhythm from what rhythm actually is, which is sound in time. I then further break down the sound of rhythm into six basic concepts, two being foundational, and the other four, constructional. The first two are Steady Beat and Meter, which I approach from a performance-based direction. Once these two are understood, and can be used to provide the foundation for rhythm construction, I deal with the four rhythm tools (LIA, Scissors, Glue and Eraser). I purposefully use common household items as my descriptors so that the perceived mystery behind rhythm construction can be overcome.

As I point out in my instruction, with these six simple concepts, along with their performance tools, one can approach rhythms of any complexity with a greater understanding and a greater level of success. Start with the basics, unencumbered with non-essential concepts or distractions, and success will follow.