Elementary Music Concept Corner: Rhythm Vs Steady Beat

This is the first step to students learning how to read and write music that a lot of people take after teaching steady beat. Let’s break down teaching rhythm vs steady beat from a Kodaly perspective.

Prepare

The key for teaching students steady beat vs rhythm is for them to be able to identify between steady beat and rhythm and which is which.

Kinesthetic:
You want students to be able to show the beat or the way the words go in a variety of ways. This can look like tapping, clapping, and moving. They should be able to switch back and forth between the two. A great way to put it in their feet is “walk vs tiptoe” (you could say running, but then…well you know). For example, if you play a pattern of ta ti-ti ta ti-ti (rhythm only, no syllables) on a drum, students should be able to translate that into movement in their feet while saying “walk tiptoe walk tiptoe”.
They should also be able walk with a steady beat and tap the way the words go to a song they know in their hands.

Aural:
A great activity is for students to be able to hear patterns and be able to identify what they heard. Play for them either beat or the way the words go. They should be able to tell you which is which. Have students decode patterns into words (Ex: long short or walk, tiptoe). Use songs students know and ones they don’t as they get more comfortable.

Visual:
Using steady beat icons, students can tap the rhythm of the words (for example, if a beat has 2 sounds, they tap that icon two times). After they have been able to demonstrate this which steady beat icons, then rhythm icons can be introduced.

A great question to use when you are asking students to identify is, “Are these the same or different?”

Present

How do you know they are ready?

• Students can keep a steady beat.
• Students can tap/clap “how the words go” on known songs.
• Students can identify songs they know when hearing only the rhythm.

Pick a song they know well, can say very easily, and is only ta and ti-ti rhythms. Isolating parts of songs is easier when students are older. Some good ones are Engine Engine, Bee Bee Bumblebee, I Climbed Up the Apple Tree, See Saw, or Quaker Quaker. I personally am a fan of Bee Bee because the rhythm varies by line and it’s one we do very early in the year.

When you present, make sure you include kinesthetic, aural, and visual cues. A great way to do this would be to sing a known song that the students can correct perform, have them clap or pat the beat while they watch you tap the icon notation.

• Ask students to identify the pattern they heard and if it was the beat or the way the words go.
• Have students tap the beat and say the words.
• Have them tap the way the words go and say them.
• Have students tap the way the words go while thinking the words silently (inner hearing).

Tell them:

• The “way the words go” is called “rhythm”. This is what musicians say.
• Repeat tapping the rhythm and saying the words as well as tapping the rhythm while thinking the words.

Practice

Early practice should look like late prep. But the students know the name. In particular with steady beat, there isn’t really a new portion of practicing reading/writing it so practice for steady beat can consist of similar activities.

• For this one, make sure you show icons again and ask them what it shows as well.
• Practice reading rhythms with various icons.
• Have students write rhythms with manpiulatives. Erasers, bingo chips, or small manipulative are great. I wouldn’t bust out popsicle sticks since those look like stick notation.
• Bring out the instruments and play rhythms to songs, known and unknown as well as patterns that students create or write out.
• Go back to that tiptoe/walk activity. Switch between beat and rhythm.
• Write rhythms then play them.
• Play unknown songs for them (using ta/ti-ti patterns only) while you sing. Ask if students if you played the beat or the rhythm.

I hope this has given you lots of ideas!