Why My Piano Students Don’t Clap Rhythm
Several year ago a little seven-year-old began piano lessons with me. She was sweet, cheerful and very enthusiastic. Our lessons began well and she was excited. however, within a few short weeks I noticed that no matter what we did she could not perform simple rhythm correctly. She couldn’t clap note values EVER. This is not completely uncommon but it had been a while since I’d seen this at such an extreme.
I did all of the things. Clapping, call and response, duet playing, games etc. etc.
Eventually, after many, many months, she began to improve. I was happy when I saw this but I had decided to take the opportunity and seriously question the way I had been teaching rhythm for so many years. I came to think that the root of such problems in piano education are found in a simple habit we often fall into, which is to teach directly from method books. We show the books to our students and then ask them to produce sounds they SEE instead of introducing them to sounds first and then showing them the notated symbol that represents what they have already learned to HEAR.
Of course this belief is not my own. There are many schools and methods that argue the benefits of an aural approach to music education, Kodaly and Suzuki taking place at the top of the list. However, throughout common piano pedagogy practices we still tend to rely heavily on books with only smatterings of aural training thrown in.
I decided to take matters of rhythm training into my own hands and go "‘off script’ with my students. Since I made this decision I have seen deep learning happen throughout my whole studio. It’s inspiring and marvellous in equal measures.
The difference in my approach these days is that I don’t show students a series of various note values and ask them to clap - or verbally describe - those values abstractly outside of a musical context . I always introduce rhythm by first involving students in making music. This happens away from the piano, usually sitting on the floor where we begin to discover PULSE. I introduce the idea of pulse as the “Music Heartbeats”. We use our palms to tap our chests in time to singing and chanting. When the concept of pulse is established we practice moving the “Heartbeats” around. We put them on our laps, our heads, or our noses. We move the heartbeats to drums or boomwhakers or any other noise maker we can find. We even begin to experiment with moving the heartbeats to our minds - which is where it eventually needs to live. This is fun and can be immensely creative as students begin to experience music like this.
I introduce the idea of musical pulse visually with hearts and always refer to pulse as the “Music Heartbeat”. (In time we naturally drop the “heartbeat” term and just refer to them as “beats”).
Only after ALL of this do I begin to build rhythm on top. I introduce rhythm by first creating a steady pulse (laps, drums etc. ) and then we SAY or SING the rhythm on top. We never cheat on the pulse, I insist it remains steadfast throughout every long or short note.
This is when powerful learning happens. When young students create rhythms by speaking or singing whilst maintaining a steady pulse, their musicianship abilities take massive leaps forward and a deep sense of understanding begins to develop. It echoes Kodaly’s philosophy of course, that making music should come first - before notation. If they can hear it then they can produce it.
I have come a long way from teaching rhythm from a mathematical point of view. The days of drilling students in the subdivision of note values using worksheets, theory books and clapping are long past. Now when I introduce a new concept we make music together first. This has made all the difference in my studio.