 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Dan Oberlin ★2017
Date: 2020-06-02 01:52
My just out of eighth grade grandson is a good clarinet player in many ways but he can't sight read very well because he doesn't have a good understanding of rhythm. He has a great ear and has used it as a crutch to avoid confronting this issue through his time on the clarinet and through six or seven years of piano. I always thought that being gifted mathematically should make reading basic rhythms pretty easy to master, but he is a counterexample. I'd appreciate any ideas: books, online resources, ... . Thanks in advance for your suggestions!
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2020-06-02 03:38
I do have a suggestion.
My brain was quite stubborn regarding reading music and executing rhythm. The rhythm got decidedly better when I realized that I needed to compare the length of each sound against another. I started with just playing steady, moderate quarter note length notes one after another .............just listening. Then I'd apply that idea to a quarter versus eighths; then half notes .........then mixing things up. But it was a process of just realizing that it was the ratio of the SOUNDS IN THE AIR rather than anything more arcane.
Then of course there is the Bona: Rhythmic Articulation
This is a book filled with short, examples of articulation exercises that get quirky fairly soon. It was recommended to me in college.
.................Paul Aviles
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2020-06-02 04:45
Teach him to play Guillaume Connesson's Disco Toccata and the fast 5/4 parts in the Bernstein Sonata. Even if he has to work on them for a year or more, the time will be well spent.
The Bona Rhythmic Articulation book is good for learning basic subdivision and syncopation in traditional meters (like 4/4, 6/8. 3/8) but it is very dated and not helpful for the rhythms found in 20th and 21st century music. Joe Allard's Advanced Rhythm (published by Charles Colin) goes much further into the exploration of more subtle subdivision and tied notes, and offers some preparation in reading parts in Broadway musicals and commercial arrangements. The 3 books of the Jeanjean 20 Melodic and Technical Studies teach rhythmic patterns that look or sound almost alike but but must be carefully and precisely differentiated in performance. The Nathan Kaplan Concert Etudes (Kendor Music) are a gentle introduction to mixed meter that, if worked up to a fast pace, can be good preparation for the fast 5/4 sections of the Bernstein sonata. Paquito D'Rivera's 8 Exercises for Latin Jazz offer practice in syncopation that have a different feel from the operatic displacements in Bona. Stravinsky's two versions of the Story of a Soldier put the student face to face with the basic rhythmic difficulties of many 20th Century classical compositions. Studying them with a good teacher can go a long way to developing a strong sense of rhythm and the ability to count and feel the way through meter changes. Contemporary jazz rhythms are well presented in Bob McCheesney's Jazz Etudes and Duets. A nice presentation of older swing rhythms is found in Jimmy Dorsey's Saxophone Method. BeBop rhythms are covered in the Bugs Bowers rhythm book and the three part series by Lennie Niehaus, Jazz Conception for Saxophone.
I would also suggest going through the Hadcock Working Clarinetist's excerpt book and concentrating on singing the rhythms of the difficult passages from Bartok, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky (the 4th Symphony in particular) etc. Technically the parts will be too difficult for an 8th grader to play (at least at the outset) but with practice, he should be able to sing the rhythms exactly. This most likely will require a careful and competent teacher to give directions and needed corrections, as well as demonstrate the correct rhythms.
Rhythm is not presented in the classical curriculum of Klose, Baerman, Rose, Cavallini, etc in anything like its diversity in the performance world. Some sight reading programs on Internet, such as SmartMusic do a better job with this.
Post Edited (2020-06-02 18:25)
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Author: Tom H
Date: 2020-06-02 04:46
Can he tap his foot to a steady beat (actually, I recall 2 or 3 students about that age out of maybe a thousand that I taught in Band that can't do this well)?
If so, think of each beat as ONE. Have him divide it up evenly much as Paul describes.
Different speeds.
If ties are present, always take out the tie and tongue everything at first. A tied note tends to throw off a young person's counting because you are not doing anything but holding the note. Then add back the ties.
When things are going well, stop the foot tapping, and explain that the brain tells the foot what to do, not the other way around.
EVEN foot tapping:
1 2 3 4
1 + 2 + 3 + 4 +
down up down up down up down up
the + (ands) are the "ups".
Many advocate using the "syllable" method aka "one e and a two e and a"= 16th notes
, etc.
Though I did not learn with method myself as a youngster, I have used it with success with my teaching.
The Most Advanced Clarinet Book--
tomheimer.ampbk.com/ Sheet Music Plus item A0.1001315, Musicnotes product no. MB0000649.
Boreal Ballad for unaccompanied clarinet-Sheet Music Plus item A0.1001314.
Musicnotes product no. MNO287475
Post Edited (2020-06-02 04:56)
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Author: kdk
Date: 2020-06-02 17:00
A few comments:
One thing I have found in recent years to be helpful, sometimes remarkably so, is to have my student sing the rhythmic passage before trying to play it. It's surprising to find out how much the mechanical parts of playing can distract from the decoding process of reading music. Doesn't always help - it depends on what the problem really is. But if anything the student and his teacher can begin to sort out where the difficulty lies. And after working the rhythmic problems out mentally and vocally, once a player can sing a passage, he usually can play it.
Part of singing difficult music before playing it is that it gets "into the ear" first. The reality is that musical or even accurate playing depends heavily on the ability to "hear" or imagine the sound before you play it on an instrument. I think the idea that your grandson "has used it [his great ear] as a crutch to avoid confronting this issue" may be a little off the mark. If he's using memory skills to learn difficult passages by rote, it can limit his reading ability. But that's just an ineffective use of a good ear. Ultimately, he *has* to hear a musical image (or audiate it, as some theorists call it) or he has no way to know if what he's played is right or wrong. Normally the sequential process of see, hear, play happens unconsciously and rapidly, especially for good readers. But when something goes wrong - the decoding process gets stuck between seeing and hearing - playing becomes impossible or at best hit-or-miss.
Paul's approach to note values and subdivision can be useful. So can an approach that emphasizes where the pulses occur (the metric bones, as it were) and concentrating effort on playing those notes on the beat, trying **on first sight** to fit in whatever is between the beats the best your (the player's) skill allows. Once the basic outline, the metric skeleton, is understood, you can go back to the spots that were mostly guesses the first time through and work out the subdivisions (relative length values) as Paul suggests. Some students obsess over individual notes' duration to the point that they completely lose touch with the metric framework.
Karl
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Author: rmk54
Date: 2020-06-02 18:53
I'm surprised nobody has said the magic word: metronome.
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Author: brycon
Date: 2020-06-02 20:43
Quote:
I'm surprised nobody has said the magic word: metronome.
With my own students, I find that the metronome, as it's normally used in practice sessions, doesn't help improve rhythm all that much. Everyone has probably experienced a student playing exactly with the metronome but then having terrible rhythm once it's taken away. It's because the metronome becomes a crutch, i.e. it takes the place of the student's inner sense of rhythm and pulse. If you want to use the metronome as a tool to strengthen a student's rhythmic foundation, I find that it works much better to make the metronome's beat the upbeat rather than the downbeat or to halve the tempo and make it beat two and four--anything that actively forces the student to subdivide and then "check in" rather than rely on the metronome.
Getting to this point, however, requires some basic skills in reading and playing rhythms. The OP seems to be asking more about these reading skills, which would be covered in most ear training courses. My ear training teacher was a Boulanger disciple. For reading rhythms, we used Robert Starer's Rhythmic Training Book and would sing on "ta" and then clap on any strong pulse not articulated by our singing (a half note, for instance would be two beats of singing ta with a clap on the second beat). You could do the same thing for smaller subdivisions: a dotted-eighth sixteenth, for example, would be ta-clap-clap-ta. This exercise, again, forces you into subdividing and "feeling" smaller note values while performing larger ones.
The main reason, I think, why the OP's grandson struggles at rhythm despite doing well in math is because mathematically understanding rhythm, while very important, isn't the same thing as "feeling" it. He probably needs to do things that get him feeling rhythm more: practicing rhythmic exercises without the clarinet, like Karl very shrewdly recommends, using drum loops in place of a metronome, singing through music while conducting, doing some eurhythmic exercises, etc.
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Author: seabreeze
Date: 2020-06-02 20:57
The metronome is useful but is historically a product of the classical age, springing as it did from the tic-tock pendulum of clocks and the mechanical conception of the universe as clock-work. Nobody plays jazz to a metronome beat and even baroque and older music would suffer if played strictly to such a mechanistic concept. The monks who sing Gregorian and Mozarabic chant do not use a metronomic pulse--they follow a more organic beat based on ictus points of emphasis in the music and the natural flow of the melody. Motets, madrigals, and masses of the middle ages and renaissance also do not fall in line stylistically to a unrelenting beat of a metronome. Raga players on tabla and sitar do not follow a metronomic beat either and they are masters of rhythmic and metrical complexity rarely encountered in any Western music. In fact, performers raised on karnatic and other classical Indian music techniques find the rhythmic patterns of most Western music to be child's play. They learn rhythm by a near encyclopedic system of singing syllables, clapping hands, and dance movements that is far more flexible and comprehensive than what you can get from a metronome.
Metronomes are still of some value in pacing even pieces as complex as, say, the Elliot Carter Clarinet Concerto but real rhythmic mastery comes from patterns that have been naturalized and internalized within the human body and psyche and only need an occasional check point from a mechanical metronome. The metronome is never the "last word" in rhythm; it is only a goal keeper and reference point.
Post Edited (2020-06-02 23:41)
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Author: Tom H
Date: 2020-06-03 01:13
Anyone use a metronome like the old electronic one I used to have where you could turn off the sound and just follow the blinking light (like following a conductor)? Maybe that could be of help here?
The Most Advanced Clarinet Book--
tomheimer.ampbk.com/ Sheet Music Plus item A0.1001315, Musicnotes product no. MB0000649.
Boreal Ballad for unaccompanied clarinet-Sheet Music Plus item A0.1001314.
Musicnotes product no. MNO287475
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Author: kdk
Date: 2020-06-03 01:57
It really depends on what "doesn't have a good understanding of rhythm" means. Even if a metronome is used well, the best it can do is provide a steady pulse. It can't help much with the duration relationships that comprise rhythm. The problem most students have has two parts - unsteady (or nonexistent) "beat" or pulse, and not understanding the arithmetic relationships among the various note values.
I personally find watching a pulsing light to be more distracting than listening to an audible click unless the I can see the light easily while I'm reading. I'd still prefer the click, except that most of the electronic metronomes (especially phone apps) aren't loud enough and my clarinet drowns them out. But that's only personal opinion. YMMD
Karl
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Author: AB
Date: 2020-06-22 18:43
I'd suggest some time focusing on rhythm away from the clarinet. I like beat function syllables (and when someone needs to switch to the numbers - the foundation is already there). There are programs, apps and youtube videos to work on sight-singing. I'd also recommend walking around saying the most common patterns and improvising once the syllables are set.
The syllables I like are modified from Kodaly & what I REALLY like about them is the division into compound is so natural.
Beat = ta
Simple divisions = ta - ti
Compound = ta - tu - te
Subdividing again Simple = ta - ki- ti- ki or Compound ta - ki- tu- ki - te- ki
Conducting along will help keep track of the measure.
When it comes time to transfer that to clarinet - I'd look for a beginning book and aim to sight read through it (with a metronome).
Best Wishes,
Anne
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2020-06-22 19:18
I like Karl's reference to "duration." All the click does is define the beginning of the next length of time, or "duration." I try to teach DURATION in and of itself.
Also, have you heard a performance of ANY piece of classical music that was metronomically unwavering? At least one that sounded good?
Good rhythm is either a constant duration of time from one [pulse] to the next or an organic lengthening (slowing down) or shortening (speeding up) of that duration over a series of [pulses].
................Paul Aviles
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Author: Steve Becraft
Date: 2020-06-22 19:42
Robert Starer: Basic Rhythmic Training
This book begins with the assumption that you know nothing, and very clearly explains how pulse, meter, and rhythm work.
I can (and do) use this book with beginners and college students alike.
You use this book WITHOUT the clarinet. As emphasized by Rosario Mazzeo (when we worked through the more advanced Starer book), when you encounter rhythmic problems you take the clarinet out of your mouth and work on the rhythm by itself. Only after you have become confident with the rhythm in your brain can you begin to play it correctly! When you are trying to play the clarinet too, there are too many things that your brain needs to do!
Post Edited (2020-06-22 19:47)
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Author: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2020-06-22 21:14
The only thing I might add here is to teach your son to look ahead as he reads the notes. Do this by covering up the measure he is playing on and forcing him to look at the next measure. Start with easy rhythms at first. Each week build this up. Maybe get a small drum, or an electron drum so the noise doesn't bother you.
It's possible your child has a reading issue. Maybe try to take an online speed reading class? Here you learn to see several words at a time, instead of reading each word alone or worse trying to figure out what the word is. Same process with reading music notes, try to understand patterns and to NEVER read each note. I have a feeling rhythm is not all the problem here, he's stumbling with getting stuck on each note and this of course effects his rhythm. The best way to find out if there is a rhythm issue is have him memorize something simple, even a tune like Happy Birthday and see if the rhythm is OK. My guess is it will be fine.
Lastly, he may have a mild case of dyslexia. This can cause all sorts of issues with stumbling over notes as well as with reading. I'm glad you posted this.
Designer of - Vintage 1940 Cicero Mouthpieces and the La Vecchia mouthpieces
Yamaha Artist 2015
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Author: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2020-06-22 21:29
I need to add something else. There's no music products I know of that deal with dyslexia and reading music as a whole. It's hard to comprehend when a music student could have dyslexia! No teachers sees this! It's hard enough to discover dyslexia with kids who have a hard time reading. Often thought of as dumb or slow. This is so wrong. Dyslexia is not always messing up reading the words and reversing letters such as b and p. Imagine a kid or an adult getting confused because he or she is not able to read rhythms, because the brain is not able to process patterns. Yet most dyslexic people tend to have above average IQ's.
Designer of - Vintage 1940 Cicero Mouthpieces and the La Vecchia mouthpieces
Yamaha Artist 2015
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2020-06-22 22:20
Very interesting addition Bob. I don't know if I've run across any musical pedagogy that addresses dyslexia. Though I thought the original issue was producing rhythmic sounds (which should not involve dyslexia per se) rather than decoding them from print, it should be something we as teachers keep in mind.
Anyone out there see any music related dyslexia being addressed?
.............Paul Aviles
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Author: Katrina
Date: 2020-06-23 00:06
I find it difficult to teach clarinet technique to students who've had a background of the Kodaly syllables. Clarinet tonguing and voicing are so wrapped up in tongue position and vowel shapes that the "ta" verses "ti" make their articulation and tone less clear. On the plus side, their rhythm is usually great!
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Author: Bob Bernardo
Date: 2020-06-23 04:21
Hi Paul, sure I agree with you! I hope there are a few teachers who can offer some insight with regards to teaching. I just want Dan Oberlin to get to the bottom of this and others as well! Maybe this will also inspire some college students to go for upper degrees with new teaching techniques and aids, also for places like the Kodaly Institute at Wellesley College a beautiful place outside of Boston. Well it was there in the summers, not sure if it's still there. Katrina has an excellent idea here. I actually made a recording at Wellesley College in the 1980's and this Kodaly school was in session. I sat in on a few classes. So amazing! The Kodaly school is in the summertime only, the school I think is for women only in the winter? Sorry I don't recall if this is still the case. For the right college student and a Kodaly graduate this might be a fun way to get a doctorate degree; helping kids learn how to read music, with learning disadvantages. Silly idea maybe, but this Kodaly Institute would be the perfect place to start a program for this.
Thanks Paul and Katrina. Well done!
Designer of - Vintage 1940 Cicero Mouthpieces and the La Vecchia mouthpieces
Yamaha Artist 2015
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Author: pewd
Date: 2020-06-23 04:44
This is what usually worked with my younger students over the years:
First, use a metronome when practicing, always. A nice loud one.
Next, when introducing a new exercise, have the student count the rhythm of a bar or 2.
Then have them clap the rhythm.
Then have them play it on an open G
Then have them play it as written.
Smart Music also is very helpful. It shows you wrong notes as well as rhythm errors. It comes pre-loaded with numerous exercises. (At least it used to, I've been retired for a few years.) www.smartmusic.com
Sometimes I'd record them on a smart phone and play it back so they could hear the notes not lining up with the metronome.
I hope that is helpful to you.
- Paul Dods
Dallas, Texas
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The Clarinet Pages
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