Reading Rhythm for students with prior experience
Found in: Reading, Students with Prior Experience
Susan M., Canada
I have a brother/sister shared lesson who can read music (although not confidently) and I’ve just assigned their first MOR. Next would be to ask them to take the rhythms to the keys over 5SS. Being that they can read music, would you still do this and expect them to ignore the note pitches and focus on the rhythms only while playing 5SS? Also, do you continue to assign “5SS on the keys” rhythm exercises with all MOR exercises until the end of program?
Kym N., California
I do 5SS all the way through even with students who have reading experience. When I was first learning the RR myself, I had a problem ignoring the up and down of the notes. It really bothered me. After a while, I felt fine and I was able to ignore the up and down of the notes and just use 5SS. I did have some issues playing 5SS when seeing the notes in a straight line, but I got used to it quickly.
5SS gives all fingers equal chance to exercise rhythm and prepare them for playing the pitch with rhythm later. Also, it takes away the “thinking” of pitch so that it is still a one-thought process when we are focusing only on rhythm.
Cheri S., Utah
There are only two pages where the pitches actually go up and down. All the rest are just written on the center line of the staff, and don’t seem to cause too much confusion. I don’t have my students do 5SS for those two pages. But we do say those rhythms, practicing keeping our attention on rhythm only–a really useful skill when actually learning songs from sheet music.
Amy L., California
On the pages with pitch changes, I say we’re learning to look at music and pull out a single thought process. Sometimes we look at rhythm regardless of pitch, sometimes pitch regardless of rhythm, and eventually we put it all together.
Stephen R., California
With the Reading Rhythm program they should concentrate only on rhythm. No attention on what pitches that are written. There are no clef symbols anyway.
Susan M., Canada
I have a feeling I’ll get the question “why can’t I read the notes too?” They are very precocious. I realize now that pages 8 & 9 (which is where I’m at with them) are unique in that they have melodies (and subsequent ones don’t), but I’ll set up this one carefully in terms of ‘rhythm only’. I found it difficult myself to ignore the pitches while just doing 5SS and wondered how others found this situation.
Stephen R., California
I would have a setup conversation about the reading programs. I would mention that we focus entirely on rhythm reading first since it’s the natural starting place, then after this we begin Note (Pitch) Reading. When we learn the notes we learn to read intervallically and only learn 5 Cs. After these programs we combine the two approaches with actual pieces of music in Time for More Music.
The reason rhythm and note programs are separate is to make it very single-thought process oriented. I don’t start Notes until I’ve finished up rests and I don’t start TFMM until I’ve wrapped up key signature. Other teachers may overlap, but I want to finish these programs completely before starting the next, and I don’t want to forget important topics later. I would also tell students this will take weekly commitment and discipline to complete the reading programs, but it will be SO worth it in the end because you will have the basic tools to read any piece of sheet music.
Laurie Richards, Nebraska
The 5SS project is mentioned in Reading Rhythm in Projects 7 and 9. I would not skip this step. It can be a little challenging at first, but then you just slow way down until they get it. I would still have them do 5SS exercises even if they have prior reading experience.
Susan M., Canada
And continue through to the end of RR with the 5SS exercises on all MORs? I’m going to give my students a list of exercises to do each day at home, and wonder if the 5SS should be on this list for all upcoming projects.
Laurie Richards, Nebraska
That’s really up to you. Some students need a lot more practice with it than others. I would come back to it sometimes even after finishing RR and going through Reading Notes.
Stephen R., California
I do 5SS for every track in the book. Voice first, then play. I haven’t had any issues from students on the MOR 5’s and 6’s. I had a student the other day say the notes on the first few pages were all on Bs (the middle line). I said “There’s no clef symbol there. If it was bass clef it would be different than treble”. We are purely reading rhythm at this phase. I do sometimes explain why they look different on the 5’s and 6’s. Whether the stems go up or down has to do with the note head being above or below the middle line.
