Fresh and Fun! Idea #3
Can you tell I’m more than a little behind around here?! I had a group class last week that took some time to prepare for (hopefully pictures will come this week!), and, on a personal note, I made an announcement on one of my other blogs about some exciting news! So hopefully you’ll forgive my negligence!
Now…on to week three. Most of my students did a decent job with the improvsation activity last week. They all did much better keeping the pulse in 3/4 time than in 4/4 time. So that was interesting. It’s definitely an activity worth doing again. But for this week, here’s what I’m planning to do: Rhythm Runs. I got this idea from a friend of mine who is also a music teacher. Using a rhythm drill sheet (I use the leveled worksheets that Wendy has available on her website), set the metronome to an appropriate tempo depending on the difficulty of the rhythms and the level of the student. Then instruct the student to walk in time with the metronome. Big, well-defined steps are probably the best. Once they feel comfortable staying with the beat, have them clap the rhythms in each row on the page while continuing to walk at a steady pulse. I’m guessing this will be a bit more challenging than some of the other activities, but we’ll see!
Also, my students are still loving the Have a Heart challenge! They’re saying things like, “I played this with perfect pulse at home“, “I’m pretty sure I’ll get a heart on this one“, “Can I try it just once more and see if I can get it with perfect pulse?“, etc. So far, the maximum number of hearts racked up in one week is 11, and they’re all intent on setting a new record!
We’ll have one more week of focusing on Feeling the Pulse, so if you have a suggestion for a corresponding Fresh and Fun! idea, please leave it below or e-mail it to me. Thanks!
hope to see many photos/pictures and video demonstrations of this activity from your students (young, and not so young)…
Love this idea!
I’m enjoying your articles on teaching pulse. I’m curious about the “levelled worksheets that Wendy… has on her website.” When I click on this link, IE says that it can’t load the page because I need to log in to see it. Is there a link you could specify? Thanks!
Sherri~
Thanks for the heads up! I updated the link to the correct location: http://www.composecreate.com/wendys-piano-studio/teaching-resources/music-progression-rhythms
This should get you there!
Great! Thanks, Natalie!