Teaching Children Music: Beginning Rhythm e-book- NEW RELEASE!!

Welcome to “Beginning Rhythm”, a e-program designed to help you teach rhythm to musical beginners of all ages. Here is what you will find in the program:

(view on the web to see the videos if you are receiving this as an e-mail)

The promotional price is $10.00

Includes all contents of the original “Beginning Rhythm for Preschoolers” released in 2010, and has been updated to include more time signatures, more notes and note combinations, and a 35-page instructional e-book, “Beginning Rhythm”.

The printables in this version have been separated from the e-book for easier reading, and are contained in separate files. No resizing should be necessary, check your printer settings before printing. This is the highlight of the whole program, and has already been successfully used with many beginning music students. I hope you enjoy it!

Rhythm Bingo

Rhythm Bingo comes with one master sheet (the same printable as the “rhythm reference sheet” in “I’ve Got Rhythm), and 15 individual bingo cards. They should already be sized to fit your printer. Here are a few things that you can do with the bingo cards:

Play the rhythms left to right as a sight-reading exercise
Cover all notes except one column and tell your student that you are going to play one of the rhythms and let them tell you which one you played.
Play bingo!
Try three different levels for your students, Easiest: Rhythm solfege. Medium: Clapping or percussion instrument, Hardest: Say and Play

Measure Cards

There are a myriad of ways that you can use these 133 measures of printouts. There are three sizes, full letter sizes, ¼ of that, and again, ¼ of the medium sized ones. The large sized cards are best for classroom use, as well as for very young children. The medium cards are best for young children in studio use. The small ones are nice for a travel bag, older students, and puzzle exercises. There are 56 cards for 4/4 meter (which coincide with “I’ve got rhythm” and “Bingo”), available with or without numbers. There are 33 cards for 3/4 meter, and 50 for 6/8 meter. Each is available individually if you want to single out a measure for specific use, or in a bulk file if you want to just print them all out. Be prepared for a lot of printing! Here are just a few ways that you can use these cards:

Flashcards
Printout (or separate from your stack) individual measures that coincide with a song that you want to teach to help students isolate a tricky rhythm.
Give several students one card each. Have them stand in a circle and say their respective measure. Then play this game: One student says somebody else’s rhythm in the circle. That person has to recognize that the rhythm notated was theirs, and they in turn will say a new person’s rhythm. If the person saying the rhythm says it incorrectly, they are out. If a person fails to recognize their own rhythm when it is spoken correctly, they are also out. Last two players win. (This game is especially tricky when played with 3/4 and 6/8 cards played at the same time. Call the game “Syncopation!”)
Printout an extra copy of the time signatures in “I’ve got rhythm”. Laminate them, and have the student match the time signature with the measure cards. (This exercise involves the combined use of all meters. Note that none of these measure cards are in 2/4)
Use as a puzzle to put together the first few measures of a song. Speak or clap the rhythm.