Klarinet Archive - Posting 000227.txt from 2005/06

From: "Geoff & Sherryl-Lee Secomb" <gsecomb@-----.au>
Subj: Re: [kl] Bounced babies
Date: Sun, 12 Jun 2005 19:30:43 -0400

With regard to teaching INNER PULSE to those who don't have it:
I have spent much time teaching clarinet to lots of kids, and inevitably one
comes across those who haven't a rhythmic clue!
One approach I have used to start the process is to get them walking. How
often have you seen anyone who can't maintain an even step when walking? It
seems to me that everyone has the ability to maintain an inner pulse - you
see it as soon as a baby starts to crawl with any consistency in that a
natural rhythm develops - but that when we ask some people to apply this
natural pulse to something less physical and more abstract they have
trouble. And so getting a child (or an adult for that matter) to go for an
extended walk and asking them to pay attention to this evenness of pace has
been for me a worthwhile place to start in the process of teaching a sense
of beat.
A fellow teacher from some time ago also taught me a method to help teach
less basic rhythms to beginners, which is to tie the notes to a physical
movement i.e. the distinct down-on-the-beat and up-on-the-half-beat
movements of the foot. This is done at first without regard to a consistent
pulse, concentrating instead on co-ordinating the notes with the movement
and thoroughly learning this, then as the notes and co-ordination with
movement are learnt, starting to tie the movement to a regular pulse (as
learnt from the walking exercise, perhaps) and bringing the notes along for
the ride, so to speak.
One of the difficulties of this approach to start with is that beginners
have a tendency to want to follow the foots direction with a similar finger
movement direction. The early Klose mechanism exercises are excellent for
breaking this association and thus allowing this method for teaching rhythm
to work.
I should say, though, that I don't think I would have used this method in
more than about 5% of students, because the majority have not needed it at
all, and for many with whom I have used it, it has been more to take the
guess work out of syncopation and dotted rhythms.
Cheers from Oz,
Geoff Secomb.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Tony Pay" <tony.p@-----.org>
To: <klarinet@-----.org>
Sent: Sunday, June 12, 2005 9:10 PM
Subject: Re: [kl] Bounced babies

> On 11 Jun, John Dablin <jdablin@-----.com> wrote:
>
>> I find I need to keep this "beat" going, even if the music is freer, more
>> rubato in style. I think I need it like signposts to judge where I am in
>> the phrase, while not keeping strictly to time. Again, I hope this
>> doesn't
>> show, but I do wonder if it's a shortcoming that isn't needed by really
>> fine musicians.
>
> Judging by those I've talked to about it, absolutely it isn't. Indeed,
> one
> conductor I know maintains that without it, a player is useless, and that
> whilst he can help someone who has difficulty with complex rhythms, he can
> do
> nothing with someone who has a deficient sense of pulse.
>
> I did a bit more introspection:-) and came to the conclusion that there is
> an
> auditory component to my internal pulse, too. So, it's a mixture of
> kinaesthetic, visual and auditory components, and a mixture that seems to
> be
> spread out over a short time duration, with a sort of centre of gravity in
> the middle that determines a precise instant. Importantly, I feel, it
> isn't
> at all associated with any bodily movement.
>
> I wonder whether anyone has tried to teach this inner pulse directly to
> someone lacking it -- and if so, I wonder how they went about it?
>
> My description of my own inner pulse is, I would have thought, a
> sufficiently
> general template to suggest some technology that might help in this
> regard --
> for example, a pressure cuff around the wrist or arm that could squeeze at
> varying tempi, and also more or less suddenly (I notice that that's
> another
> characteristic of my own that varies according to the music).
>
> Perhaps the cuff could glow and hum a bit too, if you wanted (you read it
> here, first!-)
>
> Tony
> --
> _________ Tony Pay
> |ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd tony.p@-----.org
> | |ay Oxford OX2 6RE http://classicalplus.gmn.com/artists
> tel/fax 01865 553339
>
>
>
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