Reading Rhythm: Processing ties
Found in: Reading
Debbie T., Canada
Has anyone found a creative way to teach the concept of ties to a student who has trouble grasping abstract concepts? I love the idea presented earlier here about using “London Bridge” as a natural way to teach dotted quarters, but I need a new trick to explain ties to this child. To complicate matters, I teach him via Skype.
Laurie Richards, Nebraska
Couple of ideas:
1) Process a 4-count rhythm first without a tie, then again adding a tie
2) Again draw reference to something already known. One that works really well is I’ll Be There. Get the music out, play the rhythm without the tie, then with the tie. They see instantly how the tie works because they know how it’s supposed to sound. Another one is Alma Mater Blues, as long as the swing beat rhythm doesn’t confuse things for them.
Ruth P., North Carolina
Laurie’s Read ‘n Play workbooks help a lot. I encourage you to check them out.
Missy M., Iowa
I have the students touch the notes on the page and trace the tie like a slide. We also do this while saying sounds “Ba BaAA Ba Ba Ba” and the like.
Becc S., Australia
Sleeping has ties too. I say it’s like having a 3-cm rope and we are tying it to another 3-cm rope. Becomes 6 cm. And I use my pointer fingers as the rope, bringing them together representing the length. Just like ties in music. And then singing and clapping the left hand of Sleeping to demonstrate with the music out to follow.
Carol P., South Carolina
Lately I’ve been voicing the first note of the tie as a Ba and the second tied note an “mmm”. MMM means to hold their hands together on the clap or down on a drum or played as a long note on the piano (whichever instrument we are using). So a measure might sound like ba-mm ba ba bubububu for example…they process this slowly several times feeling the steady beat under the rhythm.
Mark M., New York
To the extent that all those words/phrases from the other thread help, the same exact thing could be done here. Literally. I mean, all notation is abstract. So when we use words to help us learn what those other bits of notes sound like, we’re circumventing the abstractness to go directly to the concrete. I mean, on some level, what we’re skipping is understanding. But we’re only skipping abstract understanding.
In the end, the notation, as with any abstract symbols, are a means to an end. They represent something concrete, and it’s the concrete that’s the point in the end. So why not look at ties as being no different from the notes that had the words/phrases in the other thread, or “London Bridge” being a similar example for dotted notes. Just find phrases that match the rhythms, and say this means that, this sounds like that. I’m not saying this is necessarily the best approach, but it certainly cuts to the chase.