Rhythm, rhythm, rhythm!

This is for parents who are helping their children during practice time, teachers who are looking for new tools for rhythmic instruction, and for any musician who is frustrated with learning rhythms! This will be a brief but very technical post.

Let’s talk about rhythm—one of the most difficult (and most frustrating) aspects of learning to play a musical instrument. What can be done to feel more confident when tackling a rhythmically challenging passage? How can learning rhythms be more fun—and less of a headache?? Let us dive in…

There are many ways to go about this, but today I would like to discuss the benefits of Dalcroze Eurythmics —or the use of movement to represent musical rhythm. Many obstacles that music students face in their rhythmic training could be helped by simply internalizing music within the body through movement. This is a fun way to learn rhythm without the stress of practicing their instrument (almost endlessly) with a metronome! Some examples of this kind of practice could include walking to a steady beat, clapping hands, humming while walking, etc…

What is Eurythmics?

According to britannica.com, “Eurythmics was developed about 1905 by Swiss musician Émile Jaques-Dalcroze, a professor of harmony at the Geneva Conservatory, who was convinced that the conventional system of training professional musicians was radically wrong. Jaques-Dalcroze attempted to improve his students’ musical abilities primarily by increasing their awareness of rhythm. His method was based on rhythmic bodily movements, ear training, and vocal or instrumental improvisation. In his system of eurythmic exercises, designed to develop concentration and rapid physical reaction, time is shown by movements of the arms and time duration—i.e., note values—by movements of the feet and body. A quarter note, for example, is represented by a single step. For advanced students, the system of prescribed movements may be varied somewhat…”

I myself was helped greatly by this method when I took several semesters of a Dalcroze Eurythmics class in music school. It made rhythm work fun instead of stressful, and made me much more confident in my own violin practice, orchestra rehearsals, and especially in sight-reading!!

Ever since I took that class, I have been using certain elements of this method to help my students with their rhythm and phrasing difficulties. This way of internalizing rhythm encourages creativity, develops problem-solving skills, and can be utilized to address common issues faced by most music students. One of the best aspects of all of this, however, is that this type of work is fun! It takes a lot of the frustration out of practice time and helps to relieve some of the physical/emotional anxiety that can manifest from too many hours of unproductive practicing.

Let’s Get Started!

For this post, I will use two examples from Suzuki Violin School, Volume 1, as this book is widely used for beginning violinists and many of you reading this will be familiar with it. I will briefly discuss some of the obstacles that might arise in learning these pieces, and I will also address how I would help a student through them.

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star Variations:

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star is typically one of the first pieces any music student learns. It’s fun and catchy—and it is so exciting for a beginner to play a “real song” that is familiar to almost everyone! In preparation for this piece, the student might have already been learning some of the rhythms and notes that are a part of the piece; however, he might not be used to playing the rhythms and the notes together in a set meter. This would mean that when he starts learning the variations, he might be overwhelmed by the difficulty of playing with a steady pulse.

To combat this difficulty, I would provide the student with a few fun exercises to help him build an internal pulse:

1. I would demonstrate how to walk to the beat by counting “1, 2, 3, 4” while stepping to the beat.

   *A metronome is very useful for this kind of practice!

2. I would have him step and count the beat with me.

3. I would ask him to sing one of the variations with me while we stepped the beat. This can be quite challenging!!

4. When exercises 1-3 become more natural for the student, I would then ask him to practice clapping the beat while singing the variation.

5. When the previous exercises have been mastered, I would ask the student to play the variation to see if it has become any easier to feel the pulse. The student should keep up with these exercises in their practice and lessons until it is easier to play steadily through the variation—and ultimately the piece. **Please note that this process could take several weeks of practice to master—and all exercises might not be necessary. These exercises should be viewed as a fun supplement to normal practice time!
   
   

Song of the Wind:

Song of the Wind is another great song that many beginner students learn in their first year of violin or viola study. This song is composed mainly of eighth notes; however, in the fourth, sixth, and last measures, the rhythm is one quarter note followed by a quarter rest. It might be difficult for a student to know when to start the rest and how long the rest should last in these measures, as this may be one of the first encounters he has had with rests. How should he practice?

In this case, I would have him walk the beat while clapping or singing the melodic rhythm (as discussed earlier with Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star Variations); however, when one of the measures with the quarter note and rest appears, I would ask the student to sing/clap the quarter note while stepping the first two eighth notes and saying “qui-et” while stepping the remaining two eight notes. This would sharpen his ability to feel the subdivisions (eighth-notes) when he is not playing this continuous rhythm.

Another way to physicalize the rest would be to have the student come up with words to go along with the rhythms on the page. For example the first four measures could be, “pump-kin pie and tur-key gra-vy are the great-est foods- shh, shh.”

If the student feels secure enough with the rhythm, he could also walk the beat while saying the lyrics that he composed—or he could even play the piece and take a step or stomp during the rest. This is where the fun creativity can come in handy to make this process more exciting!

In Closing:

I think that it is important to keep experimenting with different combinations of movement and sounds to make the internalization of music and rhythm fun. I hope this helps inspire you to find new ways of helping your child—or yourself tackle difficulties during practice time!

Source: Suzuki, Shinichi. Suzuki Violin School Volume 1, Revised Edition. Printed in USA. Summy-Birchard, Inc. Alfred Music Publishing Co., Inc., 2007. Print.