Thursday, August 21, 2008

Rhythm Lesson #2

Lesson 2: Learning Meter






Learning Objective:


Children will be able to clap different meters. It is important to learn about meters because understanding a meter is one of the beginning steps to reading music.


Instructions:


Explain to your child what a meter is by telling your child that in most music there is a pulse, and some pulses are stronger than others. When you have a pattern of strong and weak pulses, you get a meter.There are 3 common meters (A Creative Approach to Music Fundamentals, Duckworth):


1. Duple meter (one strong pulse and one weak pulse, first line)

2. Triple meter (one strong pulse and 2 weak pulses, second line)


3. Quadruple meter (one strong pulse and 3 weak pulses, third line)






Copy the image above onto paper and show it to your child. Tell your child that there is an accent under some of the notes distinguishing the differences between the meter patterns. (An accent is a musical mark telling the person reading the music that the note should be stressed more than the other notes.) Now clap the 3 examples with your child. Every time you see an accent under the note, clap a little harder. After clapping the examples with your child, explain to your child that by doing this exercise, he or she can feel and hear the differences between the meters.


Assessment:

Can your child clap all three examples with the accents? If not, help him or her until they can.





Adapting to younger children:


Clap your child's hands for them to the 3 examples shown above (make sure you stress the accents.) By doing this your child will be able to feel the difference between the meters.

10 comments:

Marie N. said...

I've seen dh use this technique with our kids. Not so much with our 11 yo any more, but still fairly frequently with our 6 yo.

Erica said...

My little one just learned to clap in the last couple of months, so any kind of clapping game is a hit with her! I'm sure my boys would enjoy this exercise, also! :o)

Claremont First Ward said...

I think even I can teach this to my children. Thanks!

Belinda said...

As a musically challenged mom, this is great info to use with my daughter - thank you!
ps: stop by my blog, you have an award waiting for you:)

Mandy said...

I am going to do this with Lauren. I think she will really enjoy it!

MamaGeek @ Works For Us said...

What Angie said! Thanks for sharing.

Kacey said...

Thanks for checking out my blog! I'm so glad you did because I was able to read yours & learn something new - thank you! I can't wait to teach this to the kiddos!

amanda said...

love it - beans just learned to clap last week. she has one hand flat and one hand in a fist!! and says "clap. clap" every time you say yay!!

i love baby claps :)

Mozi Esme said...

I've been having fun clapping the time to music with my baby. I like the way it's described in this post!

Michelle Alley said...

THis is great!