{"id":7245,"date":"2025-03-19T15:22:44","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T22:22:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bandworld.org\/magazine\/?p=7245"},"modified":"2026-01-26T14:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T22:00:10","slug":"rhythm-games-part-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bandworld.org\/magazine\/index.php\/rhythm-games-part-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Rhythm Games (Part 4)"},"content":{"rendered":"

First, I encourage the word \u201csilence\u201d rather than \u201crests\u201d because the \u201cmiddle school brain\u201d will many times take it literally and \u201cgive their brain a rest\u201d. Silence is the \u201clack of sound\u201d but still must have a place reserved for its notation in all four of \u201c4 D\u2019s\u201d timeline velocities. A strategy that I have found very helpful in doing this I refer to as \u201cfilling in the gaps.\u201d Replace the \u201cnothing\u201d rest previously represented and stick in its place a motion, sound, or possibly even BOTH.<\/span> I have always introduced \u201cRhythm Motions\u201d as a way of first introducing note and rest notation right from the start. It should be part of your \u201cbeginning of the year\u201d curriculum with your beginners as you are waiting for those first \u201ctime instruments\u201d to be delivered to your 6th<\/sup><\/span> 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 \u201cRhythm Games\u201d series, I will check with Scott McKee to see if I can write an article about \u201cRhythm Motions\u201d and how they can effectively be used with your beginning band students.<\/p>\n

\"\"In the \u201csilence\u201d page of \u201cTime Line Dimensional Transfers,\u201d Section A<\/strong> starts out with the symbolic representation of a \u201cquarter rest,\u201d a down arrow with a \u201cslash\u201d through it. I used to use \u201cparentheses\u201d to identify the rests in rhythm lines but picked up the use of \u201cslashes\u201d 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 \u201cmark\u201d their rests with one mark than with two. Keep it simple, right? Besides, kids are used to seeing that \u201cslash\u201d as indicating \u201cDO NOT,\u201d as in do not play here. When I begin with this page (and in \u201cRhythm Motions\u201d), I always have the students bring up one hand with their pointer finger pointing to their lips.<\/span> The sound I ask them to make (out loud) is \u201cShhhhhhh,\u201d 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 \u201cpulse-wise.\u201d Drill them on both the \u201cdown\u201d 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 \u201cfilling in the gaps\u201d can be a big help in keeping them from rushing.<\/p>\n

\"\"In Section B<\/strong>, we introduce eighth rests \u201con the up-beat.\u201d Once again, we will use a \u201cslash\u201d to indicate that one of our four symbols should be silent (without sound). The sound I use is a \u201ctissel\u201d or \u201cts,\u201d 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\u2019s say we have a candle lit on a table and want to extinguish it but do not want to \u201cblow it out.\u201d 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 \u201cts\u201d sound, you react quickly and pull your thumb and pointer finger apart. W<\/span>ell, 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 \u201cinternalize\u201d its length, and the motion will no longer be needed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another thing to keep your eye on with section \u201cB\u201d is the \u201cdown arrow\u201d and a single \u201cdash\u201d can both be on the downbeat. <\/span>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 \u201ccurve ball\u201d at them and reintroduce the \u201cdots.\u201d Usually, the students get it correct on the first try, but it sets up reintroducing additional symbols and timelines from \u201cPart 1\u201d as we go down the page.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First, I encourage the word \u201csilence\u201d rather than \u201crests\u201d because the \u201cmiddle school brain\u201d will many times take it literally and \u201cgive their brain a rest\u201d. Silence is the \u201clack of sound\u201d but still must have a place reserved for its notation in all four of \u201c4 D\u2019s\u201d timeline velocities. A strategy that I have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":96,"featured_media":6998,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[247,246,420,254,419,418,417,416],"class_list":["post-7245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-bandworld","tag-bandworld-magazine","tag-counting","tag-learn-rhythms","tag-rhythm","tag-rhythm-games","tag-rich-moon","tag-richard-moon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bandworld.org\/magazine\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bandworld.org\/magazine\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bandworld.org\/magazine\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bandworld.org\/magazine\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/96"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bandworld.org\/magazine\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7245"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/bandworld.org\/magazine\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7250,"href":"https:\/\/bandworld.org\/magazine\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7245\/revisions\/7250"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bandworld.org\/magazine\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bandworld.org\/magazine\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bandworld.org\/magazine\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bandworld.org\/magazine\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}