difficult rhythm
High Five and Swing Rhythm Notation
I have a question from Jazz Clues. For clue 4 with High Five the rhythms are written in 4 counts, but the song is 12/8 time. The best way to reconcile this is obviously divide groups of 3 eighth notes into 4 sets and it…
Shortening Rhythmic Phrases
I find that my students who don’t like to sing often shorten the ends of phrases in Dreams, Dog, Sleeping, Fur Elise, etc. so they have to work at unlearning, then learning the correct rhythm by singing with me, reviewing the audio, playing with the…
Reading Rhythm and Previous Knowledge
If a student already knows the names of the rhythm ingredients (whole through sixteenths) can we use those or should we actively use the informal terminology anyway before the note naming process? This comes up from time to time with students with prior experience! Personally,…
Family Tree Variation Rhythm
I am finding the variation on Family Tree a challenge, even after leaving it for a time and coming back to it. Can someone give me some tips please? (Or should I just leave that one out?) It is challenging, indeed, in a very similar…
Alma Mater Blues Rhythm
(Over time, different teachers have faced situations in which a student finds it challenging to process the Alma Mater Blues rhythm. Here are Neil’s thoughts on how to handle such situations, video posted September 28, 2022. Below his video tip are two representative posts/questions within…
Light Blue FABE Variation Rhythm
I’m still having difficulty with the variation of Light Blue. Watching Neil over and over with the rhythm in the hands hasn’t helped me. Either it needs to be slowed down or written out for me so that I can SEE it. Could someone maybe…
Writing Spoken Rhythm
Hi I’ve got a question about students who find it difficult to clap words taking note of where the syllables fall. It came up from assigning a footy chant to a sport lover (e.g. ‘ see the bombers fly up” – from Aussie Rules footy).…
Complex Rhythms
Help me with teaching more complex rhythm. I’ve listened to the Reading Rhythm program multiple times but I feel like I’m missing something. With The Mirron, for example, there’s a lot of rhythm going on. The way I am used to figuring it out is…
Compound Time
Advanced Teachers: Talk to me about how to approach teaching compound time is this in relation to any particular piece? For example Greensleeves is in 6/8 and High Five is in 12/8. I would keep the explanation simple to students, but it’s basically dividing the…
Shoo-Fly Rhythm
I came up with a new thing to help with the different but similar rhythms in Shoo-Fly (Level 5): Banana (G-B-G) & grape grape grape grape (G- Bbx4) Apple (B-G) Banana (G-B-G) Students often get confused with the similar little phrases… banana and apple helped…