First, I encourage the word “silence” rather than “rests” because the “middle school brain” will many times take it literally and “give their brain a rest”. Silence is the “lack of sound” but still must have a place reserved for its notation in all four of “4 D’s” timeline velocities. A strategy that I have found very helpful in doing this I refer to as “filling in the gaps.” Replace the “nothing” rest previously represented and stick in its place a motion, sound, or possibly even BOTH. I have always introduced “Rhythm Motions” as a way of first introducing note and rest notation right from the start. It should be part of your “beginning of the year” curriculum with your beginners as you are waiting for those first “time instruments” to be delivered to your 6th graders. As you introduce each note or rest, they all have a different sound and motions that coincide when performing or executing these rhythms. After I finish the “Rhythm Games” series, I will check with Scott McKee to see if I can write an article about “Rhythm Motions” and how they can effectively be used with your beginning band students.
In the “silence” page of “Time Line Dimensional Transfers,” Section A starts out with the symbolic representation of a “quarter rest,” a down arrow with a “slash” through it. I used to use “parentheses” to identify the rests in rhythm lines but picked up the use of “slashes” from a drum instructor I worked with at one time. There is only one pencil mark needed, and I had more luck getting students to “mark” their rests with one mark than with two. Keep it simple, right? Besides, kids are used to seeing that “slash” as indicating “DO NOT,” as in do not play here. When I begin with this page (and in “Rhythm Motions”), I always have the students bring up one hand with their pointer finger pointing to their lips. The sound I ask them to make (out loud) is “Shhhhhhh,” and the sound must precisely coincide with that particular click of the metronome or other device you are using to keep the pulse. Forcing your students to bring their pointer finger up to their mouth takes approximately one count, which is very helpful in keeping them from rushing their quarter rests. Note: You still probably have issues with some students getting ahead of the metronome “pulse-wise.” Drill them on both the “down” motion of the thumb AND using the pointer finger up to the mouth for both the quarter note and rest. For those students, you will notice that “filling in the gaps” can be a big help in keeping them from rushing.
In Section B, we introduce eighth rests “on the up-beat.” Once again, we will use a “slash” to indicate that one of our four symbols should be silent (without sound). The sound I use is a “tissel” or “ts,” similar to when we sometimes are sight reading music. I know what you are going to say, I thought at first using the same sound for two completely different events would confuse them. I cannot explain why, but the typical middle school kid will not even notice if you don’t bring it up. I explain the motion we use like this: Let’s say we have a candle lit on a table and want to extinguish it but do not want to “blow it out.” I ask if you have ever wet your thumb and pointer finger and quickly touched the flame with both. It does not really hurt, but because the flame is hot, when you hear that “ts” sound, you react quickly and pull your thumb and pointer finger apart. Well, that is a pretty accurate length of an eighth rest. The explanation is a little long, but an excellent description of the length we are looking for. After the explanation, I really do not use the motion anymore, just the sound, unless a review at some point in time is needed. You can try (at this level) to not use the hand motion for quarter rests, however, if your students start cutting them short, put them back in right away. Eventually, your students will “internalize” its length, and the motion will no longer be needed.
Another thing to keep your eye on with section “B” is the “down arrow” and a single “dash” can both be on the downbeat. With the use of the rest motions, especially their sounds, the note and length rest should be accurate from the very beginning. You will notice in exercise #8 I throw another “curve ball” at them and reintroduce the “dots.” Usually, the students get it correct on the first try, but it sets up reintroducing additional symbols and timelines from “Part 1” as we go down the page.
