Let's Begin--Open the Book to Page One:

The Quarter Note Equals One Beat

It Does? Really? How many music teachers begin a first music lesson with those words? How many music teachers begin the teaching of rhythm with how it LOOKS, rather than how it FEELS? What are the results of this method? Years later, that student still cannot feel the beat, or has other rhythm problems? (Which matters more--what mathematical equivalent [note value] is assigned to the beat, or how the beat feels and where it happens?) Along with failing to feel beat, that student also does not learn to feel divisions or subdivisions of beats, or elongations of the three. The result? That student cannot accurately perform rhythm patterns comprised of various notes, dotted notes, rests, or ties, while maintaining a consistent meter? WHY? The look of a quarter note NEVER provides for feeling beats!

Tonal is Relational. It is generally accepted that singing in tune (pitch matching), maintaining tonal and modal relationships among 7 scale notes (major, minor, dorian, etc.), and singing harmony (3rds, 6ths, I-IV-V chords, etc.) are all based on the inner ability to hear tonal RELATIONSHIPS. Why then don't we teach from the same belief concerning rhythm? We don't open a book on the first lesson, point to a middle C on the staff and say, "This is a middle register note, not high or low, and it equals the tonal center." In how many instances would that statement about middle C be as equally false as naming a quarter note the beat? The look of a middle C note NEVER provides for hearing tonality!

Rhythm is Relational. Like tonal, rhythm is also learned through RELATIONSHIPS. But one must be careful in what order relationships are approached. Many music teachers teach rhythm patterns first (Ta--Ta--Ti-Ti-Ta). Bad news! How does one accurately feel a divided beat before first learning the beat? In proper sequence, we learn to feel the beat--within all styles of music in a variety of meters and tempos. Then we learn a divided beat (beat division). Basic beat divisions are two parts (duple) or three (triple). After beat divisions, we learn subdivisions. We also learn to add together beats, divisions, or subdivisions. These are known as beat elongations, division elongations, or subdivision elongations. Rests and ties can occupy any of these components. A rhythm chart to show these relationships, devised by Dr. Edwin Gordon, and other comparative rhythm charts, are presented in Knauss Music Curriculum, Book 1: Sequential Rhythm & Tonals Skills, pp 1-5.

Try Out on Your Students. Print Excerpts (26 pp.) from K.M.C., Book 1A: Sequential Rhythm & Tonal Flash Cards (1.67 MB) to try out on your students. Especially note the Duple rhythm patterns #1-11 and the same #1-11 rhythms in Triple. The best learning happens when students experience contrasts--Duple vs. Triple. Duple and Triple patterns #1-11 are the first two contrasting sets in a sequence of 18 sets (187 rhythm flash cards in all). The best learning also happens when only one new (unfamiliar) item is added to what students already know (familiar). Each set features only one new item added. NOTE: Be sure you have the latest version of Adobe Reader to view and print the excerpts.