Why Do Music Students Hate Counting?

This is something that I've been grappling with every year. Some students, no matter how hard I try, refuse to count their beats. They are usually the ones who really need to because they are struggling and need help with the rhythm or the tempo.

As far as I can tell, my students fall into five general groups. Perhaps you're in one of them:

1. Students who hope that their rhythmic instability isn't so obvious if they don't count,

2. Students who are self-conscious and don't like to hear their voice,

3. Students who just don't care about whether they are playing the rhythm correctly, and

4. Students who aren't sure how to count beats in their music.

Well students, regardless of whether you count, we music teachers can tell when the timing is off.

For my students who are self-conscious, sometimes, I count out loud with them or bang out the beat on my cajón. You could ask a family member to count with you at home (just ask them to be steady like a clock and then set the metronome to what the tick-tocks should be).

For the students who are apathetic about rhythm, there isn't much that me or your music teacher can do to help you. You've probably heard it before, you just can't help someone who doesn't want help in the first place.

Now for those of you who need a refresher on how to count, I have found these articles and video tutorials:

• Understanding the Basics of Counting Rhythms

• How to Count Rhythms

• How to Count Beats in a Song

Playing Fraction Pies - Help with Rhythm

Hooray! I've been looking for an online game that my students can play to practice their rhythm/fraction recognition. Here's what I found.

David provides a concise breakdown of the pie pieces and then has a game at the bottom of his page.

Happy playing!

(c) 2009 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.

Pikachu Helps Catch the Rhythm

My deepest apologies for not blogging regularly. It's been tougher to juggle all the balls this year - between my ARMTA Calgary President duties and jazz piano lessons (not to mention a full studio), there has been a lot on the go. I have two young brothers who started lessons with me this year. They went through the Yamaha program last year. Excellent ears, not so strong on note reading, but they are getting there. Rhythm reading has been a bit of a challenge for them. Enter Pikachu.

Both boys love Pokémon, those cute little creatures that pop out of Poké balls and are used in Pokémon matches. Clapping and saying "ta", "ti-ti", "tum" and "ta-ah" to their songs just wasn't working for them. Last week, the younger boy and I were talking like Pikachu when an idea formed in my mind:

Pi = quarter notePi-ka = half notePi-ka-chu OR Pi-ka-pi = dotted half notePi-ka pi-ka = whole note

This is the extent of Pikachu's actual vocabulary. Both boys nailed the rhythms to their songs on the first go round, thanks to that cute, yellow, electrical Pokémon.

I guess the moral of the story is, when conventional methods don't work, find something the student is passionate about and milk it to the nth degree!

Arigato gozaimasu, Pikachu. We couldn't have done it without you!

(c) 2008 by Musespeak(tm), Calgary, AB, Canada. All rights reserved.