Rhythm practice is a daily part of my orchestra classes at all levels. Rhythm is one of the most basic music concepts, yet I’ve found that it requires more practice than just about any other aspect of playing for my ensembles. Bad rhythm causes all sorts of problems. Good rhythm solves and prevents all sorts of problems. Things I thought were intonation or tone quality issues resolve themselves once we establish good rhythm.
Incorporating rhythm practice into your daily warmups doesn’t mean you have to clap rhythms every day. There are several levels to overall good rhythm and lots of ways to practice them.
Internalizing Rhythms and Subdivisions
In order to play together as an ensemble, students must develop a good sense of pulse. They have to feel the beat together and once they’ve done that, they need to be able to subdivide that beat accurately in all different types of subdivisions.
To help my students internalize the beat and subdivisions, I have a couple different activities. I use these activities whenever I feel they’re needed, not necessarily in any particular order or with a specific skill level. They can be practiced daily or used sporadically as needed.
Silent Counting: Give the students some number, like 4, 6, 11, or even 20 or higher. Count off four beats out loud in a given tempo. After four beats to establish the tempo, the whole class says “One!” out loud and then everyone continues to count silently in their heads at the given tempo. When they reach the final number, they say it out loud. The goal is to have everyone say the final number at the same time. Students will try to cheat by tapping their feet or bobbing their heads to keep everyone together. I discourage that as much as possible.
Stay With the (Silent) Metronome: This activity is particularly helpful when the group tends to rush or slow down in a piece. Have the students play some scale, exercise or excerpt with the metronome at the desired tempo. Then play it again, but this time randomly turn down the volume on the metronome and then turn it back up to see if the group slowed down or sped up. Some metronomes have a setting where they randomly skip beats, so you could use that function as well. I prefer to do it manually because I have more control on how much of the metronome we hear.
Subdivision Activity: Put on a metronome. Have the students clap or play a unison note along with the metronome. Hold up fingers to indicate what subdivisions the students should play. One finger means play on the beat. Two fingers means two notes per beat, three fingers means three notes per beat, etc. Randomly change the subdivisions and see how long it takes the students to lock in.
First have the whole group play the subdivisions in unison. Once they can do that and change subdivisions accurately, split the class in half and use both hands to show different subdivisions to each half. This is a great way to practice playing polyrhythms, like two against three or three against four.
Counting Written Rhythms
I teach high school and almost all of my students have played for at least two or three years, if not more. Still, I am always surprised at how many of my students don’t understand how to count written rhythms. I don’t blame their other music teachers; I just think reading rhythms is a skill that takes a lot of time and practice. It’s easy for students to just follow along with everyone else without really understanding how rhythms work.
For at least the first half of the year, my classes work through a rhythm curriculum starting with the most basic quarter note and half note rhythms and gradually adding complexity until we can read just about anything. I use the rhythm curriculum from stringskills.com, along with rhythmrandomizer.com and my own supplemental materials that I’ve created. (You can find my warmup book here.)
I spend class time explaining how the rhythms work in each lesson as if this was the first time my students had ever learned it. We write in the counting together and practice counting and clapping. Never assume that everyone already knows this, even with the most basic rhythms. Many students have told me they never really understood rhythms; they just didn’t want to look dumb by admitting it.
With my more advanced students, we go back and do it all again but we move a little faster and I have them play it on their instruments. Adding the bow makes rhythm significantly more difficult. Students might be able to clap a rhythm correctly, but that doesn’t mean they’ll be able to play it on their instruments. That’s an additional level of difficulty that needs practice.
Sight Reading, Dictation, and Improv
Once I feel confident that my students understand rhythms and can play them accurately, we move on to fluency in rhythm reading as well as higher level skills, like dictation and improvisation/composition.
Sight reading: Ideally my students should be able to sight read almost any rhythm without my help. While we have a sight reading book of classical pieces that I often use, the rhythms in there aren’t tricky enough to challenge my students, so we sight read rhythms from rhythmrandomizer.com or the “Crazy Tunes for Rhythmic Reading” from stringskills.com. I also have created slide shows of rhythms that I’ll have my students play through.
Dictation: I teach AP Music Theory as well as orchestra, so I’ve become a fan of doing dictations with my students. It’s one thing to read rhythms correctly; it’s a whole new skill to hear a rhythm and write it down. I think it shows a deeper understanding of rhythm and it’s fun to do.
Improvisation: Recently I’ve started doing more improv exercises with my students, and rhythm is a great way to get students improvising more confidently. We’ll do one note improv sessions where they can use whatever rhythms they want but only on one note. We might do an improv exercise where they should include a certain rhythm somewhere in their melody. You could do similar things with composition assignments as well.
Good rhythm is essential for a strong ensemble, so make rhythm practice a part of your daily routine. You don’t have to spend a ton of time on it. A few minutes a day goes a long way over the course of a year. I usually only spend about five minutes on rhythm practice, but even within a few months I see a huge difference in how well my students play. Give it a try!