Klarinet Archive - Posting 000037.txt from 2004/02

From: "Karl Krelove" <karlkrelove@-----.net>
Subj: RE: [kl] Rhythmic Help Needed
Date: Wed, 4 Feb 2004 23:27:02 -0500

I would second Gene's reaction. The trouble with the "systems" for teaching
rhythm that are based on mnemonics like "Amsterdam" or "tah-ti-ti" or even
"one-it-is-a" is that they break down once the music begins to require the
kinds of subdivision you've run into. There are so many possible
combinations once you've gotten beneath the level of, for example, dividing
quarter-note beats into sixteenths that syllable-based mnemonics, if you can
come up with them to cover each situation, become too much of a headache to
remember. Young students - children younger than 9 or 10 - are in most cases
not developmentally ready to deal with the relative abstraction involved in
approaching rhythm from an arithmetic basis, so words and syllables are used
as concrete associations. A basic understanding of fractional subdivision,
once developed, is much more useful than a collection of these word
associations for anyone old enough (developmentally) to deal with the
arithmetic involved.

This isn't to say that rhythm is a purely mathematical exercise - at a
musical level it's very much a visceral one. But the notational techniques
we've developed are mathematics-based, and if the ability to read music is
of value to a player, the fractional basis of the notation is an important
concept to grasp.

None of which deals with the possibility that the Rose etudes you're working
on are just too advanced for you right now. That's not the level etude with
which I would think you'd learn basic rhythm subdivision. You should have an
honest conversation with your teacher to see if you can tell whether he has
thought seriously about appropriateness (in which case you're really more
advanced than you've let on) or he simply likes these etudes and would
rather try to teach them than work with simpler material.

My couple of cents' worth...

Karl Krelove

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Gene Nibbelin [mailto:gnibbelin@-----.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2004 10:19 PM
> Trying to learn rhythm thru words
> may work temporarily for 5 or 6 year olds who cannot
> intellectually grasp the concept of fractions, but for you,
> Doctor, "words"
> will not teach you to play rhythmically. Learning the "code"
> (rudiments of
> music.) is the only answer.
>
> Rhythmically yours,
>
> Gene Nibbelin
> Cape Coral, FL
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: hbleich@-----.harvard.edu [mailto:hbleich@-----.harvard.edu]
> Sent: Wednesday, February 04, 2004 1:11 PM
> To: klarinet@-----.org
> Subject: [kl] Rhythmic Help Needed
>
> Gentlepersons,
>
> I am a beginner who lacks rhythm and can't count. My previous teacher had
> words for rhythms. In 6/8 th time, to play a dotted quarter
> note, an eighth
> note, and then a quarter, he told me to think "Amsterdam." He
> used to say,
> "If you can't say it, you can't play it."
>

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