What Kind of Counters Are Your Band Students?
Above are four listed categories you can fit every one of your band students. Each category relates to the students' ability to count rhythms. Some students are limited by their exposure to band literature provided by their present band programs. Others, by the instructional time that a private teacher or band director is willing to focus on in this specific area. Regrettably, the category of 'guesser" is all too prevalent in most middle schools and even some high schools. For this reason, strategies must be created to assure comprehension, through the implementation of a "time tested" phonetic to whole language approach, and an efficient and accurate evaluation system to measure such comprehension.
It is impractical to think that, in a short time, students can jump from the level of a "bad guesser" to a "Rhythm Master". However, if a director can create a strategy that can "bump up" each member of his or her ensemble just one category, the group's overall improvement will be dramatic. The next step will be to define each of the listed categories in more detail and how to identify advancement from one level to another. Many of the problems students have with rhythms have nothing to do with the actual counting itself. A strong foundation, and a phonetic approach that constantly reinforces pulse and subdivision is equally essential for a student's overall success in this area as well.
The "Bad Guesser"
This student is limited by his or her lack of ability to analyze even the most basic of rhythms. He or she is not consistent in the lengths of eighth notes, quarter notes, and dotted quarter notes, and is especially confused in the accurate performance of those same rests. Little effort is made to count through notes or rests, constantly "guessing" at their durations. To these students, guessing is just plain easier than reading and laziness or lack of caring is an additional obstacle to be overcome. What sometimes makes it difficult, is that these students can become quite adept at "faking it", forcing the director to spend more and more individual instructional time in the period designated for ensemble rehearsal. Pulse and subdivision are not big issues here, due to the lack of whole language recognition or fundamental phonetics comprehension. The director must go back and help these students relearn some kind of phonetic system that will help with identification of the duration of notes and rests, hopefully linking it to pulse and subdivision concepts. Once these fundamentals are established, the student is ready to move on to the next level.
The "Good Guesser"
A "Good Guesser" has the fundamental knowledge to analyze most rhythms up to an intermediate level. Once a students phonetics system breaks down, his/her ability to progress in whole language skills will not advance much further, and his/her rhythmic vocabulary ceases to expand. At this time students normally revert back to what they had moderate success with before, guessing. Those students will also, on occasion, get fairly common rhythms confused or reversed. They can accurately write or even say the counting aloud, but the breakdown here is the application of some kind of pulse or subdivision system. The key is to establish a phonetic analysis system that is not too complex to cause the discontinuation of whole language development. The simpler such an approach can be kept, the more likely these students will be able to achieve well beyond normal expectations. A large limiting factor is the "division" approach used by most systems. Why make it complex if you do not have to? A cumulative counting approach will almost always out-perform a division one, and will allow your students' rhythmic vocabulary to expand much farther, in a much shorter time.
The "Counter"
A "Counter" has the skills to apply a phonetics system in the reading of rhythms, and apply that accurately with some kind of pulse and subdivision approach. With this ability, the student's whole language skills and rhythmic vocabulary are fairly extensive. The breakdown in this category occur when a student is confronted with less common, or rarely seen rhythms. In most cases he/she may have the phonetic skills to figure them out, but the limitation is the phonetic system used. Once again, a cumulative approach beats a division approach every time.
It is not at all easy to find a phonetic approach that is consistent from beginning to end. Many systems will eventually contradict themselves, or end up "redefining" earlier used rules or symbols. This is where the limitations of rhythmic vocabulary development tend to come to a halt, especially at the middle school level. The more symbols or characters we as instructors use, and the more contradictions and re-definitions we use in teaching students to count, the sooner our students will reach their "processing limit", and the next step, of course, is to go back to "guessing".
The "Rhythm Master"
There are some students that have the ability to analyze rhythms well beyond their performance level. These students can also comprehend and perform practically all rhythms in duple and triple meter. In addition, their phonetic system can also analyze doublets, triplets, and multi and irregular meters. They do not need a band director to "tell them how it sounds", rather, they have at their disposal a simple but comprehensive phonetics system where they can figure it out on their own. These are the students we refer to as "Rhythm Masters". This does not imply that the young musician has the technical ability to play any set of rhythmic combinations up to tempo at first sight, but, can break them down and analyze them. As the students advance in experience, eventually, they will master the technical skills needed for each rhythms performance at a variety of tempos. The big question is: "How do we get there?".
Goals and Procedures
The learning of rhythmic vocabulary should be set up just like a spelling word or vocabulary list was introduced to us weekly back in our elementary instruction. The rhythmic vocabulary is set up into instructional modules of 8 to 12 rhythms that are similar in subdivision and difficulty level. It is important to compare and contrast similar rhythms, as well as incorporate the appropriate rests in these instructional modules. First, an analysis system must be taught, where the student "writes out" the counting, using as few rules and characters as possible but will still get the job done. The closer the analysis can match up the phonetics system used, or how the rhythm is said aloud, the more efficient your system will be and the more accurate your students will perform it. It is also important to somehow incorporate subdivision into this phonetics/analysis approach.
Set up a series of warm up or etude exercises where all the rhythms in each vocabulary mod are drilled over and over again, an equal percentage of times. As you progress, it is important to continue to mix in rhythms from previous rhythmic vocabulary lists to constantly review previous rhythms learned. The ultimate goal is for these rhythms to become instantly recognizable, like "sight words" in our elementary schools' reading vocabulary. The length of time spent on each rhythm drill will vary from group to group. It would also be advisable to set up some kind of evaluation tool, to help avoid individual band members from "slipping through the cracks".
Other factors that may help maximize your chances of success in your "Quest Of Rhythm Masters" are as follows:
- Set up your rhythm vocabulary lists so that they progress very slightly in their advancement from one difficulty level to another. This incremental approach is essential. Any large, or even moderate, "gap" in your students' rhythmic progression could cause problems. Some supplemental and even non-playing exercises may be needed to bridge these gaps to assure analytic and phonetic comprehension.
- When setting up your warm-ups or exercises, be sure you use all the rhythms in each mod the same percentage of times. In this way your students are exposed to "less commonly seen" rhythms along with the "more commonly seen" ones, automatically eliminating any rhythmic bias.
- Also in your ensemble exercises, when you introduce 8th notes, continue to review quarter notes, with 16th notes, review 8th and quarter notes. Continually shift back and forth between pulse and several forms of subdivisions. Do the same with triplets, and even duple and triple meters. This will hopefully minimize errors on the simpler, or longer held rhythms, as well as aid in a smooth transition back and fourth from duple to triple meter. This will also make things a lot easier for you when expose your students to the combination of these rhythms, such as 5/8, 7/8, 11/8, etc.
A lot of different concepts have been "bounced around" thus far. The more you can incorporate into your program's approach to teaching rhythms, the more students you will have advance through the "guesser' to "counter" to "Rhythm Master" hierarchy. The challenge to my fellow music educators is to set up an accurate cumulative phonetics system, that uses no more than eight symbols or characters that covers all duple and triple meters. Additional characters may be needed for triplets and doublets, to avoid reusing or redefining any of the earlier symbols used. This also is needed to differentiate between "pulse is the same" and , "subdivision is the same" analysis. Your system should also allow your more advanced students to progress at their own pace throughout the various difficulty levels of the comprehensive rhythmic vocabulary. The curriculum should be designed for the middle school level student to master the analysis of rhythms all the way up through music grade levels 5 & 6. It is not the number of minutes spent with your ensemble that will be a key to your students success, but the simplicity and clarity of the approach you use. Also, the consistency of which your work on your band rhythmic vocabulary development. Highly successful results can be accomplished with no more than 3 to 5 minutes of rehearsal or warm up time per class.
Trying to create your own phonetics system will give you enormous insight about your students and how they learn. Imagine, knowing what you know now, if you were allowed to totally re-work English language and grammar. How you could easily condense and simplify all the different double sounds, rule exceptions, multiple meanings, into one very easy and concise phonetic language. The number of years it might take a student to master such a revised "English Language" could be cut in half. This is what we can accomplish with our Rhythmic Language. Give it your best shot, and let's see how much you can improve and simplify your approach to the teaching of counting. Then, let's compare notes. However, if you want to just take a look at what I have complied in my three-plus years of research, well, that is, of course, all right as well. Best of luck to you and your program. Have a GREAT YEAR!!!!