Rhythm and Tonal Patterns – the building blocks of music.
In every class I will do a series of both rhythmic and tonal patterns – short rhythmic phrases or little snippets of melody. These patterns are the basic building blocks of music (simple duple and triple rhythm patterns and simple major/minor tonal patterns). I pull these patterns directly from the folk songs we sing together. I ask everyone to echo me as a group. As our comfort level dictates, I invite individual children to come take turns. Some children delight in this activity, while others don’t want to have anything to do with it. Take heart; at this point, it really doesn’t matter what your child does with patterns in class. Much more important is what they do in the comfort of your home, or in your car. Think of the pattern work we do in class as a model for you and your child to play with patterns at home.
Through playing with rhythm and tonal patterns your child is building his/her own musical vocabulary. Just as language is learned from sounds to words and later to writing and reading, so musical understanding begins first with musical patterns and develops later to an understanding within a wider musical literacy framework and which operates on many levels.
In our baby and toddlers classes, I use neutral syllables (ba ba) for both the rhythm and tonal patterns. The Cycles/Music Makers students are now using solfege (do re mi…) and Gordon’s rhythm solfege ( du-de, du-de). Later in Music Makers (ages 5-6) because of their early exposure to the patterns and ample time to play with these patterns, children will easily recognize these patterns in written music!
Create your own simple patterns (tonal and rhythm) and play an echo game with your child. Ask your child to make-up their own patterns and have you or another family member echo their pattern back. Build upon your patterns as your child become more confident with the game. Have fun!
