This page allows access to written instructions for parents or piano teachers looking to teach their children without the student video lessons.
Click here to access the Student Lessons in video format
This lesson should be preceded by:
Preliminary Lesson 1
Preliminary Lesson 2a
Written Instructions
This lesson can all be done in one sitting with a musically experienced student. Please be careful not to rush a student through too much material. Go at their pace. Lesson 2 is a good lesson to break apart into two lessons. It’s a lot of material to cover.
I offer multiple recordings below for learning purposes. If you are a teacher, I highly recommend playing music on the piano for your student that fits the examples. Allow your student to hear YOU play, not my recordings.
One final note. If your child has studied Tonic Sol-fa using the influence of John Curwen, they will likely not need the detailed lesson written below. Below will be a good review and should be thoroughly tested, but it will likely not need to be taught.
c.) Time.
Aim of the Lesson: To help the pupil to recognize pulse, accent, and measure in the music that he hears.
- Pulse – We have to find out what it is in the music which tells us how to march or clap.
Preparation:
Talk about the steady pulse we hear in music. What is the child’s experience with the term in its musical sense.
Method:
Let the student listen to something with an even tick or pulse or beat.
- the tick tock of a clock
- a heart beat
- the rhythm of a washer or dryer
“In all music there is a throb which we call the PULSE of the music. It was because you felt that throb in the tunes I played that you were able to march in time to them. The music itself told you how to march.” (page 42, 31st edition.)
Let’s practice marching to some music with a strong pulse.
Let’s determine whether these tunes have a fast or a slow pulse.
“N.B. The sense of rhythm is rarely altogether wanting, but it may be more or less acute. The child may be accustomed to marching and doing exercises to music at school, and be an expert. If so, he can go straight on with the lesson on time; but if there is any difficulty he must remain at this stage until his ear is so far trained that he can march or clap independently of the teacher’s help, taking his tempo from the music alone. PULSE is the foundation fact of all that we call “time” in music, and if the child cannot feel the pulse it goes without saying that he cannot realize accent and measure and the various developments and modifications of rhythm.” (page 42, 31st edition.)
The sense of rhythm is not something you can force or cram into a child. It must be developed, and it’s okay if it’s a slow process. Without a sense of rhythm, the child will not understand relative values of notes. The symbol of a quarter note, for example, will have no real meaning to a child who cannot feel the pulse in a piece of music.
b.) Accent.
Some pulses we hear in the music are stronger and louder. This force that we hear on some pulses is called ACCENT.
You can illustrate this with a simple nursery rhyme as well.
Hickory dickory dock!
The mouse ran up the clock;
The clock struck one,
The mouse ran down,
Hickory, Dickory, Dock!
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall;
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again.
c.) Measure.
These strong pulses or accents, that come in a consistent and repeating pattern, seem to measure out the music. They are kind of like fence poles holding up a really long fence. The time between hearing one strong accent to another is called a MEASURE.
d.) Comparison of measures.
Sometimes we hear the pulses as STRONG, weak. STRONG, weak. etc. This music is written with two pulse measures.
Sometimes we hear the pulses as STRONG, weak, weak. STRONG, weak, weak. STRONG, weak, weak. etc. This music is written with three pulse measures.
Play several tunes contrasting the two kinds of measures from above. Repeat this exercise in this lesson or following lessons until the child can readily distinguish between them.
Sometimes we hear music written in four pulse measures. STRONG, weak, WEAK, weak. STRONG, weak, WEAK, weak. STRONG, weak, WEAK, weak. etc. Some children may not recognize the third pulse as a bit stronger. That’s okay. Be content if he can hear one strong pulse followed by three weaker ones.
Summary:
- A pulse is a throb which we hear in music.
- Pulses are even and regular like the tick of a clock.
- If the pulses are not even we cannot march to the music.
- An accent is a strong pulse in a group of weak ones.
- Accents come regularly too, and seem to measure out the music.
- A measure is the time we feel from one strong accent to the next.
Homework:
- Practice naming the sounds on the piano using variations on the following suggestions: Find all the Ds. Find all the Fs. Find all the As. Find some high pitch Cs. Find some low pitch Bs.
- Listen to music looking for the strong pulse. Determine which type of measure you hear. Two pulse, three pulse, or four pulse.
Prepare for the next lesson here: Intervals.