RHYTHM LESSON 8 - Reading Notation

By the time children are in second grade, they are ready to read rhythms in actual notation. To make the transfer I always let them know that they are ready for the real stuff now and that it is going to
be fun and easy for them because they are so good at everything we have learned up to this point. My kids all knew that 2nd grade meant reading real music and 3rd grade meant we would play recorders. They looked forward to these experiences.

So let's begin by making the transfer. We are going to begin with the easiest of music as we did with the icons: quarter notes and 2 eighth notes - Ta and Ti-Ti. Let's start by comparing our first chart with the same chart using notation:

Cut out each line of music and have the children help you find the matching pairs. You do not need the words for this exercise. Then read and clap the notation until they are used to Ta and Ti-Ti. Now cut out the individual notes and see how many different sets of notes you can make using groupings of Ta and Ti-Ti. Stick with groups of 4s as we have been doing. You can also have the children write their own sets of notes using just these two choices. They should be able to read and clap each sets.

There are 12 possibilities. If you choose to print and cut out the notes to create the different sets you will need 26 quarter notes (Ta) and 22 eighth note groupings (Ti-Ti).

RHYTHM LESSON 9 - Notation with rests

It is now time to add rests to our music. This is basically the same lesson as lesson 8 but it includes the quarter rests. The addition of the rest means there are a lot more options for grouping the notes in sets of 4. Just a reminder that the rest gets one beat just as the quarter note does. Whenever the children are reading and clapping music it is important that the rest be "felt" even though there is no sound.

For this lesson you may want to add instruments for variety. I always told my kids that preparing for the instruments would make us successful musicians so we read and clapped the music first to be sure we were ready to transfer it to instruments.

Once again you can cut the strips out without the words and let the children find the matching pairs. Then print and cut out individual notes and rests and let the children find new ways to group them into sets of 4. Use these to create a musical piece to play. I created 26 different groupings.

Any of the groupings you create are in sets of 4 which means they are in 4/4 time signature - 4 beats to a measure. The children can play these patterns along with any number of songs that are in 4/4 time. Here are some suggestions:

Yankee Doodle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CObFQznhls

Rainbow Color song https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pt2DCGYzSsc

Wheels on the Bus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nKBKPcycFE

Row, Row, Row Your Boat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYLKEePMvIU

watch?v=zI9OaTJyg_Y

Dance Myself to Sleep https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQmut5GI7-k&list=AL94UKMTqg-9DC1_3UPjnhZVQhZ2NCqrzH

Honker Duckee Dinger Jamboree https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tdv5uuYrTKQ&list=AL94UKMTqg-9DC1_3UPjnhZVQhZ2NCqrzH

RHYTHM LESSON 10 - The Rhythm Band with Notation

Now that the children have transitioned to music notation we will go back to the Rhythm Band Lesson and play the instruments while reading music notation. The music is a little more difficult now. You will still see patterns where two different instruments are playing opposite of each other. You will also see that we have added half notes. These get 2 beats and are read as "Ta-ah". You will also see a quarter note with two slashes through the stem in the tambourine music. That indicates that you shake the instrument on those notes. So the tambourine has two strokes: tap and shake.

We'll use the same pieces of music that we used before and I will suggest some other pieces that would work as well. The music is in either 2/4 or 4/4 time signature. These are called duple time and can be adapted to any piece of music that is in duple time and has a strong beat and a good tempo for the children. So if you have favorite pieces of music that would work, please feel free to adapt. When you play along with a piece of music you will be able to feel if it works.

At the end of each instrument's music you will see two lines with two dots in front of them. This is the repeat sign. Each instrument repeats the same musical pattern throughout the piece of music.

The Soldier's March - Robert Schumann 55 seconds Duple time 2/4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7ouYmyW3vo

Alte Kameraden 3 min 11 seconds by Andre Rieu and The Johann Strauss Orchestra. Duple Time 4/4 - You can stop at the end of the first section which is at 38 seconds. OR to have some real fun with this music play that first section and then get up and march until the timer gets to 1 min 55 seconds and then play again until 2 minutes 25 seconds and then march until the end. It is such a fun piece of music. If you play the piece and watch the timer, when it gets to 1 min 48 seconds, Andre plays a little bridge that tells you to get ready - it's time to play again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVwsDhNNLtw&list=PLC5BA7A434C98F6C2