*sigh* I know, after witnessing her burning passion for learning, I just want to help her in anyway I can. And I know it will be hard because it's a problem related to brain development, and not enough research has been put into it over the past 10 years. Honestly I don't know what to do, the last thing that I'm thinking of considering is telling her that she might not be able to play the instrument at all, but by then the only question that would be left on my part would be when to tell her. *sigh*
How about trying her on some simple boogie, ragtime, swing, jazz or pop ? Can she play a boogie bass in rhythm ? Something with a reasonably fast, driving beat, which leaves no time to falter. Does she listen to, and enjoy such music ? Can she dance to it ? Move to it ? Sing with it ? Clap her hands to it ? The sound of a metronome is about as rhythmically exciting as a clock.
Rhythm has to start physically, not conceptually. Start with flowing movements into a tap and a long continuous drawing back of the hand in preparation for the next one. If the student can't do this movement, take their wrist and move them on their behalf so they can feel. When this is mastered, make it sharper but accent AWAY as much as down into the tap. The up movement needs to be as sharp and rhythmic as the tap itself. Too many students feel an empty sense of waiting and they lose the physical flow before the next tap. Accenting the up keeps a sense of ongoing physical rhythm.Only when these kinds of things have become physically natural is there any hope of conceiving rhythms properly on a purely internal mental level.
Can you give me some clarifications on this? I'm really interested in your suggestion.
I'm introducing my friend to the keyboard, and after some basic lessons. I found out that she has NO SENSE OF RHYTHM AT ALL. Like this guy,https://www.nbcnews.com/health/body-odd/cant-feel-rhythm-you-may-be-beat-deaf-f1C6437334She has no timing whatsoever, as a test, I told her to clap her hands according to the rhythm or pulse of the several songs I played for her, and she can't sense it at all. Her clapping is all over the place which means she can't really feel the rhythm.She could however, perform better if I clap along with her, but over the duration of the song she slips into her own beat anyway.I would like to know if any of you guys here have encountered this kind of problem before? and how did you manage around it? What is your advice on this matter and how exactly is it cured or solved?
Every music conservatory in the world requires two years (four semesters) of the following rhythmic training:https://musiced.about.com/od/lessonplans/p/dalcroze.htm
Mine certainly didn't. I'm not knocking it as I have no personal experience of it- but both it and yourself might be taken more seriously if you didn't pluck facts out of thin air.
The sentence should have read: Every major music conservatory in the world "now" requires two years (four semesters) of the following rhythmic training:1) Find one that doesn't, and 2) you crown yourself the reigning expert on everything and you have no training in Dalcroze, which has been around for over a hundred years!
Which bits? It's really just a matter of you moving them, if they can't feel it at first. And making sure everything flows. It doesn't work if they tap and then stop and wait. Feeling the away movement to be rhythmic makes it more likely that returning for the next tap is also rhythmic.
Every music conservatory in the world requires two years (four semesters) of the following rhythmic training:https://musiced.about.com/od/lessonplans/p/dalcroze.htmWhy? Because, for well over a hundred years, it works! Earl Wild was taught this at Carnegie-Tech, when he was 13 years old.Please go to their website https://dalcrozeusa.org/ and find a time and place for their next introductory course. Your student is NORMAL!!!And, you are a great teacher for seeking a solution for this very common problem.
I don't really understand, but I feel like it's very important, please clarify your instructions because I'd like to use your guide, what is this 'away' beat you're speaking of? How do we perform this and everything you just said physically?Thanks
It's simply a rhythmic movement away, between taps. I don't know how else I can describe it. Sometimes pull away sharply like a beat in itself and sometimes flow gently away ready to flow into the next tap. Basically, it's about staying in motion so you're not stopping the physical flow and trying to judge the next tap intellectually. It needs to start with continuous physical flow.
I see, so it all comes back to tapping and clapping, is that it?
Yes- but specifically in a way where movement flows as much away from beats as towards them.
Try walking or marching to a tune.
Tiny, in size but not stature, Hope College (Holland, Michigan) requires one year of Dalcroze Eurythmics taught by Charles Aschbrenner. This pianist, with two degrees from Illinois and Yale, studied under Nadia Boulanger and Adele Marcus. He knows most everything there is to know about the concept/science of rhythm PEDAGOGY!!.Dalcroze is a solution, developed and taught over a hundred years, which is readly available to you and your student.
So, will teaching her drums work or not?