Ever since I came across D’Net Layton’s post on rhythm blocks many years ago, I’ve had it in mind to make a similar rhythm resource for my studio. Wood blocks cut to size were a bit more ambitious and space-consuming than what I wanted to create, but after lots of pondering and experimenting in the meantime, we finally have a resource that I think will be perfect for all sorts of music theory games and activities related to rhythm: Heartbeat Rhythms!
I’ve used a simple sheet of hearts and a jar of pennies for years to help students grasp the concept of pulse and rhythmic values. What was always lacking, though, was a visual representation of note values greater than one beat. This invariably resulted in students being confused about what to place in hearts where they didn’t hear any notes. In light of that, this latest hands-on studio resource is designed so that the note value hearts that are greater than one beat are cut to include the number of hearts necessary to represent the beats. You can see in the picture above that the whole note includes four hearts, taking up all four beats in a row of 4/4 on the pulse sheet. Similarly, in the compound time note value hearts, the dotted quarter notes include three hearts. I’m really excited to put these to use with our group class this month, and I’ve already included daily rhythmic dictation with these note value heart manipulatives in this year’s Piano Expeditions piano camp! Since this is a brand new addition to the Music Matters Blog store, you can receive 25% off your purchase of the Heartbeat Rhythms downloadable package by using coupon code: heartbeat
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