If you enjoyed last week’s Quick Fix Summer Solo, you are going to love today’s rockin’ tune that reinforces quarter rest rhythms.
As a composer, I love quarter rests. They represent the first major symbol that can finally bring some real melodic variety to primer music.
But they don’t come without their problems. Little kids definitely struggle with quarter rest rhythms.
Fortunately, today’s Quick Fix Summer Solo provides a unique introduction to quarter rests that should set students up for future success.
Why Quarter Rest Rhythms Cause Confusion
Quarter rests seem so simple. How hard can it be to “play” one beat of silence?
As it turns out, it can be quite hard.
Until quarter rests are introduced, students always have an action to perform for every beat in a measure of music. Whether it’s playing a quarter note or holding a half note, their body is engaged with the production of music.
When quarter rests arrive, students then must learn to do… nothing. Of course, this is the tricky part, because they aren’t really doing “nothing”.
While the physical aspect of their performing may be on hold for one beat of silence, their brains need to be completely engaged. They need to count that one beat of silence accurately. And this is easier said than done.
On top of that, quarter rests are like a very early introduction to syncopation. And while they do not create true syncopation, there is still that syncopated pull that can cause troubles for intermediate students.
Conquering quarter rests, therefore, takes practice. And that practice should revolve around helping primer piano students develop their inner beat.
And that is what we hope to accomplish with today’s Quick Fix Summer Solo.
How To Use Quarter Rest Rock
Today’s piano solo, Quarter Rest Rock, should be used as an introduction to quarter rest rhythms.
Because it is an introductory piece, we have composed it in a way that puts complete emphasis on the quarter rests.
To do this, we have replaced the bass line with a rhythm line. While a student will still perform the music on the treble staff with her right hand in C position, when it comes to performing the measures on the bass staff (the rhythm line), she will use her left hand to knock the quarter rest rhythms on the fallboard.
By removing bass staff notes, the student is relieved of the pressure to read notes and can focus solely on performing the quarter rest rhythms and feeling the beat.
Before You Download Today’s Quick Fix Tune
Technical exercises should be a part of every piano lesson. But, because these exercises are generally short, students complete them fast and then run out of daily material.
This, however, does not happen when using Andrea and Trevor Dow’s Technical Exercises For Note Reading Success, Book One.
This resource for primer piano students contains 226 technical exercises that are designed to work out your students’ fingers and, most importantly, improve their note-reading skills.
Click here or on the cover below to learn more.
Download Today’s Quick Fix Piano Tune
Quarter Rest Rock is our second Quick Fix Summer Solo. To download our first Quick Fix Summer Solo, read this post.
Quarter Rest Rock is a six-line piano piece for primer students. As mentioned previously, the bass line has been replaced by a rhythm line to create a rockin’ quarter rest rhythms experience.
Click here or on the image below to download Quarter Rest Rock.
My students have troubles with quarter rests on the first beat of the measure.