I used to teach a student who I will call “Rhythm-less Robbie”. For Robbie, the performance of a piano piece was a race through an obstacle course… the notes were his obstacles and the double bar line was the finish.
With this “racer mindset”, Rhythm-less Robbie believed that the goal of a piano performance was to reach the end of a piano piece as quickly as possible while hitting all of the correct notes… which, of course, also meant ignoring any and all half notes and whole notes.
When I thought of it, I couldn’t really blame him… Rhythm-less Robbie was a skilled little athlete, and any extracurricular activity he had ever done, other than music, always involved getting to some “goal” faster than an opponent.
For my competitive little Robbie, I had to find a way of reinforcing the idea that playing a piano piece is about more than just hitting the correct keys… it’s about hitting the correct keys, at the correct time, for the correct amount of time… it’s about style, not speed.
Turning Piano “Style” Into A Competitive Sport
Rhythm-less Robbie’s speedy piano performances were the result of a natural competitive streak… so I worked with this, rather than against it.
I explained to him that a piano performance is more like a snowboarding competition than a downhill ski race.
Yes, you want to get down the hill, and yes, you want to conquer all of the obstacles… but snowboarding, unlike downhill skiing, is also about how well you perform on each of those obstacles. It’s not about speed, it’s about style.
The idea that holding the correct note for the correct number of beats was akin to a well executed snowboard spin seemed to “click” with Robbie.
He understood that the way he played the notes in a piano piece was as important as which notes he was supposed to play.
Cranking Up The Competitive Streak
Once I had hammered home that Robbie could be “competitive” on the piano without blasting through a piece at hyper-speed, I turned his piano pieces into a student-teacher competition (I wouldn’t do this with every student… but Robbie thrived on competition).
The Over-Under Half Note Game
Robbie loved playing off-the-bench piano games at the end of his piano lessons. So, I explained to him that he could increase the amount of time we spent playing these games if he earned points during a “piano piece challenge”.
The premise was simple: before Robbie would begin his piano piece, I would fold a piece of paper in half and write my name on one half and his name on the other. Then, he would play his piece while paying close to attention to the note values within the piece.
If Robbie held a half note for two beats he earned two points, if he ignored a half note, I earned two points. At the end of the piece, I would tally up our points. If Robbie won, the difference between the point totals represented time added for off-the-bench game play… with each point counting for a select number of seconds (say… 15 seconds).
So, for example, if Robbie beat me by 8 points, he earned two extra minutes of game play. If, instead, I beat Robbie we would simply keep our regular game time.
Obviously, I believe very strongly in off-the-bench game play, and while I wanted to play on his competitive streak, I did not want the activity to have negative associations, nor did I want it to steal time away from our piano games.
It worked like a charm – and it continues to work even during the times that we take the “point-keeping” out of the equation. My Rhythm-less Robbie has become Rhythm-Master Marcus 😉
Do You Teach A Rhythm-less Robbie?
If Rhythm-less Robbie sounds strikingly similar to one of your students, we’d love to hear from you in the comments! How do you help your piano students pay attention to those “pesky note values”?
My rhythm- less Roberta is not athletic. She struggles with the concept of a steady beat, holding half notes about 1 1/2 beats while quickly saying 1-2. I’ve tried the clock as a steady beat for minutes and the metronome as a steady beat friend to help her , but I could use ideas. Thank you for all your wonderful comments!
With students similar to yours, I play a one or two measure section repeatedly by myself, then invite the student to join in with me an octave above. This also works for students with good rhythm who are learning a tricky rhythm. Good luck!
YES. I was going to leave a comment very similar to this, because I read this article with high hopes of finding ideas for my Rhythmless Roberta who also just plain doesn’t get it. Asking her to count doesn’t help, because she doesn’t count a steady beat. Counting out loud with her or playing with her kind of helps… but not when it doesn’t stick – I can’t count out loud with her at the recital! We clap together. We play the notes together. We play the rhythm on just one note. We’ve played on a rhythm instrument. The concept of a steady beat is just lost on her! Any ideas would be a HUGE help.
Love it!! I haven’t encountered a student like that yet, but I will keep this as a reference. What do you do when you have a transfer student who plays with rhythm, just not the correct rhythm– no matter how many times we go over something, she seems to just not “get it”. She is in her teens and I am guessing she has been playing like this for a long time. I am at a loss!
Something that usually works for me is to play a C scale coming down in even quarter notes. I ask the student if they recognize the tune. They say no and I do it again. After a couple times I give them a hint that it is a popular Christmas song. I drag this out a bit. Ask anyone else who might be in the room. They still do not know it. I then play the first stanza of Joy To The World, explaining that it is the exact same notes. They did not recognize it before because I was not holding the notes for the right amount of time. We then talk about how if you do not play the notes for their right value, you change the piece and it is not recognizable.
Ooh, I like that like of the C scale being Joy to the World without rhythm! =)
Great idea Lauri! Thanks for sharing 🙂
That is a brilliant idea! I will definitely keep this one in the back of my mind for one of those moments that need an effective demonstration. Thank you!
Caitlin! Happy you found it helpful and hope it works for you when you need it!
You can also do the rhythm example on the opening pitch of Jingle Bells. Play the first 6 notes all quarter notes or all half notes and ask what the tune is. Then, play with the correct rhythmn and the student always recognizes it.
What would you do with a student who has a good sense of rhythm, and instead confuses rhythm and tempo? If a section is too slow/fast and I say so, my student will often speed up a slow section but slow down the section that’s the correct tempo — resulting in switching the incorrect and correct tempos! I know the rhythm is correct because half notes are still held twice as long as quarter notes, regardless of the speed. Help!
Sometimes students slow down on the hard parts and speed up on the easy parts. I might say all the parts have to be same speed. So we go to the hard part first and work on that. Then, with that tempo in their brain we go to the easy parts. Usually the two different speeds become one.
For a young rhythm less Robbie, he would pick out a shaker. Easter egg chicks, filled with different materials, rice, jelly beans, navy beans. Then we shake out the rhythm, ensuring all the correct values are there. Then he shakes for me, while I play, then I shake for him while he plays. Young kids love to hop around the room according to different note values that you flash at them.
So true Louise – tactile learning really helps
Sometimes I play jingle Bells as a waltz with all quarter notes to illustrate how unidentifiable a piece is when the rhythm is wrong. Or Happy Birthday with lots of inappropriate fermatas. This seems to get their attention and get them thinking about rhythm in a new way, rather than me just annoying them with learning to count.
This is a neat idea Lynn – thanks for sharing this!
All of my students understand from the very beginning of learning to read notes and rhythm that unless they can count out loud and play at the same time, they can’t pass the assignment. Having to audibly count the beat sets their internal rhythm and it is rare that students have to repeat an assignment because of incorrect rhythm. Most of the time, if the beat isn’t steady, they need to slow down just a little or there is an issue with technique. Usually working on one of those automatically fixes the rhythm problem. Tonight a first year student was playing in Memory of Wally and having problems with keeping the steady beat. We fixed her technique and she immediately played if flawlessly. It is a great way to encourage them to pay attention to technique and I love those “light bulb” moments when they “get it.”
This is brilliant. I have a Rythm-less Robbie in my studio and for the life of me I can not get him to keep a steady beat. These will be great to try with him tonight at his lesson. Thanks a bunch!
“Winning Rhythms” by Edward L Ayola is a 32 page book that teaches only rhythm concepts, from very beginner to about grade 4 or 5.
Each page has aprox. 10 lines of notes teaching the concept. The student can clap it, play it on whatever note they choose, or use a rhythm instrument to count it out. Works great !!!
They often learn timing patterns before they use it in songs.
As they get older they can start at the beginning with easy pages while learning to play with a metronome.
This is no help, but a hilarious memory of many years ago. I was “teaching” an adult friend, who played whole notes faster than sixteenth notes if she happened to be able to read the notes. I sat close to her on the bench and counted into her ear. This apparently annoyed her because she finally said, “Dorothy, why don’t you just count to yourself?”
I love the sports analogy that you used with your student. I definitely have one student in particular who will benefit from my using your method for communicating the importance of playing the music as written!
With several of my younger girls who, when using the primer level books, had really connected with the different characters who reappeared at various points throughout the books, I had hs come up with personalities (and yes, sometimes names as well!) for the different length notes. During the process of deciding “who” the different types of notes should be, each student was forced to take the time to truly differentiate between half-notes, quarter-notes, etc. Often just doing this was enough for them to recognize the different values of notes when they played the piece again. Whenever they would forget about holding a half-note for its full length, I would ask them to remind me what “her” name was, and what was special about her…
Obviously this only works with younger students, but I’ve been very surprised by how effective it can be!
This is a great comment Frances – thanks for sharing your inventive approach – I love it!… and you might be pleasantly surprised in January if you are a PianoBookClub.com subscriber as we are very much on the same page 😉