Simpedia

Leon M., California

Hello to all, Leon Moore here writing in response to an email received a couple of weeks ago regarding “rhythmically challenged” students.

I have had a really hard time gathering my thoughts on this, hence the delayed response, but I feel that this is an important issue we all need to discuss.

I know that I am not fully addressing the original question that was asked above, but I felt that this particular issue struck a chord with me, and I wanted to have some input about it. The bottom line is that I think we need to eliminate the phrase “rhythmically challenged” from all of our lips as SM teachers. I actually think that the words “rhythmically challenged” or “musically challenged” need to be non-existent in our language. I don’t mean to say this in a way of criticism or anything, but I just don’t think that those words have a place in our dialogue.

EVERYTHING in SM is based on the one solitary premise that EVERYONE is profoundly musical. If at any level, any of us don’t buy into this, it will show up in our teaching sooner or later. How it will show up, is that from time to time a student will “appear” to be musically or rhythmically challenged. Here’s the problem: believing that “almost everybody is musical” is not only NOT the same as, but it is not even remotely close to believing that “everyone is profoundly musical”. Here’s why: If you believe that “almost everyone is musical”, then I can promise you, that students will start to pop up that appear to have problems with their musicality and rhythmicality.

Coming from the stance that “almost every one is musical”, implies that some people are lacking or somehow inadequate and incomplete to some degree. The source of the problem has now been shifted onto the student – they are the problem, they are the cause, they are responsible, they are to blame.

In contrast, coming from the stance that “everybody is musical”, when a student is having difficulty CONNECTING to their musicality, then we know that it can’t possibly have anything to do whatsoever with the student – they can’t possibly be lacking, it is not possible for them to be inadequate, they have everything they need, they are perfect, complete and whole.

What’s truly so great about coming from this place, is that when we do, WE can now be 100% completely responsible for the outcome – what did I do that I shouldn’t have done?, what didn’t I do that I should have done?, what steps did I miss?, what did I skip over?, where did I move too quickly?, etc., etc., etc… We can assume complete responsibility for causing the CONNECTION between the student and their absolute, complete, natural musicality.

And what’s so great about that? Well usually the fix is pretty simple, I’m learning from my own experience and from my own hurdles, that problems always are a result of some simple thing that I did or didn’t do. I’ve found that the best approach (let’s assume we’re talking about a rhythmic problem), is to go back to the very first step and discover whether the student has mastery at that level. If not, there is nowhere to go until they do.

The irony is, that if students are facing a challenge even at this level, very often it is a result of a lingering, unspoken belief that the student is still holding on to where at some level, they too are holding on to the illusion that they are not musical. Unfortunately, this belief in itself is often inherited by the student, from the teacher who has unresolved issues in that area.

I don’t feel qualified to address this particular issue, and its probably something that would be better addressed in a conversation with my father, or the more experienced teachers who are completely resolved in this area.

The questions I want to pose to everybody are, “Where are you at with regard to the Simply Music premise? Are you completely resolved that EVERYBODY is musical? Do you question or doubt that sometimes? For those of you who do, do you see that doubt expressing or manifesting itself in your students?”

I hope you all get the gist of where I am coming from, and I appreciate you taking time to read this LONG mail.

Some input from others, particularly the Advanced and Senior Associate teachers would be much appreciated. In fact, it would be great to have some input from anybody and everybody.

Karen T., Illinois

I am so glad this issue resurfaced. The original message came at a time when I did not have even 2 seconds to give in response to it. Now that it has come up again I can say what I wanted to say then. If the boy in the first email has a heartbeat, you can relax. He is not rhythmically lacking anything. The beat is inside him, ready to be tapped into. Granted, this sometimes takes a great deal of creativity on the part of the teacher. In our society people grow up believing that some people “have it” and some do not. Not only in music, but in almost every area.

One very creative idea might be to beg or borrow or buy a stethoscope. Let the student who is having trouble connecting with his inner rhythms listen to his own heartbeat. Show him that the beat is in him, and then slowly and carefully begin to bring the beat outward. Large limbs first (walking), smaller limbs next – even weeks later if need be (feet tapping), add hands, etc. Work from the large to the small and take as long as it takes. The rhythm CAN be brought out. And it is wonderful to watch a student blossom into these new arenas. The glow just grows and grows!

Kerry V., Australia

This is an interesting and extremely important topic to have oneself clear on one’s own musicality. I have never thought of myself as being ‘un-musical’ however did not do anything about my own musicianship until five years ago. What a wonderful journey it has been.

I wanted to reply to what Karen said:
“He is not rhythmically lacking anything. The beat is inside him, ready to be tapped into. Granted, this sometimes takes a great deal of creativity on the part of the teacher. In our society people grow up believing that some people “have it” and some do not. Not only in music, but in almost every area. One very creative idea might be to beg or borrow or buy a stethoscope. Let the student who is having trouble connecting with his inner rhythms listen to his own heartbeat. Show him that the beat is in him, and then slowly and carefully begin to bring the beat outward.”

Yes, no one is rhythmically challenged. I am challenged with the spelling of the word though 🙂 However, I still felt that although Karen has a great sense of own musicality I still had the feeling from what you said that it is still the students fault and they need to work on it. (“Let the student who is having trouble connecting with his inner rhythms listen to his own heartbeat. Show him that the beat is in him,”) I may have read something that is not there however let me go on with this.

If the student is told to listen to his own heart beat and still cannot replicate something that he should have naturally, then I see that as inviting thoughts of incapable of replicating something I should have and I can’t . That does not invite achievement but doubt. To look into oneself and listen to the heart beat is one thing but to repeat that beat can be a hard thing to do. I see this issue, and any others, as being something I have to deal with for the student to see things as being a slow, continued discovery of his own musicianship through my allowing his self discoveries as well as my coaching and following the process of the training.

I do my best to avoid this ‘rhythmically challenged’ issue by being aware that I am the one leading this student. When they start, I learn from them where they are at in their physical capacity of using fingers, to their personalities, to their weaknesses and their strengths. When it comes to rhythm, we start as soon as they are feeling comfortable with their fingers moving on the keyboard. You can see which student is sitting there as stiff as board or relaxed. When we progress on to Dreams Come True, one tool I find invaluable for both the student and myself, is in the sentence one, left hand, we rock to emulate finger 5 to finger 1. Sometimes I even hold their shoulders and rock for them. Some times instead of rocking left to right they rock right to left, even though they are playing finger 5 then finger 1. We use this as a fun time, they look at me real weird, I am used to that weird look, but they do it anyway. This is the start to them realising on some level that rhythm is involved in this process. It is started early so when I do start with the reading rhythm there are less ‘weird’ looks and more understanding of the fact that it might be weird but it works.

Having said all that, I do have a couple of students who are, as it turns out my most outstanding students in the ability to play their pieces well, but had trouble with the reading rhythm. All I did with them was just go over everything so much more slowly, more weeks, patience and creativity. The eight year old, something just ‘clicked’ one day and she is now on the piano with the rhythm, the 23 year old adult still has trouble ‘connecting’ but I know we will get there. Why do I know that? Possibly because he goes home EVERY week and practices what I have talked to him about and with out fail he has mastered that one step. This fellow is studying music and all that mechanical side of music blending etc. (forget the word) but still cannot find his internal beat. We will get there and he also understands that it is going to take time and he is ok with that. He trusts me and the process.

I suppose what I am trying to say is that we have to set it up from the beginning and what ever problem arises later is inevitably because, I know for myself, is because I didn’t prepare them or myself or both for that particular issue. As we have been told and heard many times and tell our students, it takes as long as it takes but, to be more successful needs to start from the first lessons.

If I read something more into Karen’s statement than I should have I am sorry however I hope that the rest of this (sorry long) email has been of benefit and opened up room for more responses.

As Karen said The glow just grows and grows!

Joanne J., Australia

Hi Everyone,

I too was unable to respond at the time of the original question regarding students who take longer to produce different rhythms on the keyboard so am glad to do so now.

I wholeheartedly endorse Leon’s comment that our very first affirmation as a Simply Music teacher must be that ‘without exception, everyone is profoundly musical’ to quote Neil’s words. It is easy to assume that because this wonderful method makes the process seem easy that everyone’s natural rhythm is going to emerge at the same pace and with the same apparent ease. This method, by faithfully following each step as laid out in the Teacher Training vides, DOES give us the tools to assist our students to ‘uncover’ their musicality. It has never failed me in spite of some students needing a different time frame to achieve the same results! Be encouraged that as time goes on and you gain more first hand experience it is much easier to TRUST THE PROCESS.

I have had some students who have needed quite some time (by some standards) to really feel comfortable with some of the rhythms. They ALWAYS get it by:

1. Going back to the basics of the particular song and first making sure that I didn’t miss any of the steps (it has happened!!!!) and also that THEY haven’t missed practicing any of the steps! The latter can happen if we fail to impress upon them just how important every little step is. This can happen by the way as innocently as us not taking the time in the lesson to actually acknowledge the significance of each step. We are human and it can happen!!

2. Then getting them to have fun clapping the rhythm for ‘as long as it takes’ ie for that particular song their work for that week may be just clapping it wherever and whenever they can – travelling in the car is a great time for playing a game with this if they are a young student. Keep it light-hearted!!

There is a section in Neil’s training on Reading Rhythm which talks about bringing our natural rhythm to consciousness by first recognising it in the larger body, ie recognising the rhythm in our walking, then refining it down to the hands then to the finger tips and then to the keyboard – like syphoning water from the larger pipes down to the faucet I think he likens it to. He also emphasises how important it is to gain the student’s agreement that they are profoundly musical – they walk rhythmically, accomplish daily tasks like cleaning teeth, sweeping the floor etc, rhythmically and so on. I highly recommend listening to this tape to gain the language ‘straight from the horses mouth’ (a thoroughbred of course!!) to elicit this agreement from your students. You will find specific reference to this on the Reading Rhythm training at around the 16.00 minute mark and it goes to about 20:00. There is much more before and after this time frame that is most helpful for a wider understanding but that is directly related to the teaching of reading rhythm.

It is imperative that WE BELIEVE THEY WILL “GET IT”. We will then be totally relaxed about it which will allow them to be totally relaxed about it and then the magic begins to happen. Many is the time in the past that I have had to totally put my trust in Neil’s instructions when I didn’t have first hand experience to draw on, but that is another wonderful aspect of this method – it has been tried and tested at great length already. Of course it is growing and changing all the time but at this point in time we do have an amazing ‘tool kit’ that will enable us to deliver on the promises we make.

Warm regards

Debbie V., Oklahoma

I have 2 students who are “rhythmically challenged”, but have improved greatly! They are a mom and son who came about 1 1/2 yrs ago. At the first lesson I realized a huge problem! I started the reading rhythm program immediately without them being aware of it (we didn’t use books but we did a lot of marching, clapping, “jump rope songs” while marching and clapping etc.). We did this for at least 10 minutes of each lesson. Standing to march was the only way it worked for quite awhile, we couldn’t even march in place!

But finally it started improving. Now they have finished level 3 and the reading rhythm program and are a lot more coordinated. Mom stated that her son (10 yrs old) was doing a lot better in P.E. at school and wanted to play in different sports now. Before he refused to play sports. We did level l VERY slowly!!! I had to make finger exercises a priority. Level 2 went a lot better and Level 3 went well. Mom still doesn’t play with a flowing rhythm but it is much better and still improving. The songs from level 1 are now sounding smooth. Her son smoothed out much quicker. He wants to do everything at turbo speed!

The challenge here was keeping interest and piano moving forward while we worked on coordination. I used quite a few “extra” accompaniment songs during Level 1 so they were still learning new songs. Chords were easier than individual fingers. They didn’t realize they were behind others who started at the same time until the first recital. I anticipated this so they each played an accompaniment song that no one else knew. This helped in the discussion later about not comparing and showing them they knew songs others didn’t. I hope this helped.

On a similar note, I remember the movie “Mr. Holland’s Opus” where he put a football helmet on a student and used drum sticks to beat the rhythm on his head!

Karen T., Illinois

How about……. “I have a teaching challenge. I need some creative ways to help my student connect with his inner rhythm.”

That seems to work, and seems to be pretty accurate.

Carrie G., Arizona

How about:

Matching internal beat with an outside source?

Helping students develop rhythm?

Cindy

I think that what we have to do is to stop putting rhythm problems in a special category. The second you label one of your students in any special category, your expectations change and you interfere with the Simply Music Process.

When I have a student who is finding a particular fragment in Greensleeves especially difficult, I don’t say that he is “Greensleeves challenged”.

If one student regularly has to be taught with special diligence when marrying the hands, we don’t call them “2-hand challenged”.

If a student regularly has more than the normal problems with keeping the 4th finger from playing in a chord, we don’t apply a label to him – “4th finger challenged”.

Rhythm, like everything else, comes easier for some more than others, and is just as teachable.

Since we believe that everyone is musical, and in our demonstration of this we rely solely on the rhythm demonstration (“I haven’t got a musical bone in my body”) – we must also believe that no one is handicapped rhythmically.

ANY reference to ANY kind of handicap is to automatically place a human being in a category separate from the perfectly acceptable one that states, “I’m having trouble with this or that aspect of my piano playing – but I’m working on it!” There is no label that is politically or musically correct when it is applied to a musical human being unless it is to stamp him “awesome” “stupendous” “musical” etc…..