Table of Contents Reading and Writing Grooves
Reading and writing music has made it possible to:
organize rich and complex music structure for many size music ensemble
Play music that was written several hundreds of years ago, even if the musician has never heard the piece.
The downside of reading and writing music is:
Some musicians can not play anything unless they play exactly what is written down
Some musicians play the notes but because they are focused on the visual pattern, the don't really listen to the heart of what they are doing.
Our written system is so complex that many 'would be' players give up because they really can't figure it out.
This system has players stay grounded in physical experience. They are encouraged to move and to listen. As they learn to read and write they stay grounded in feeling the music.
This system starts with a set of symbols that can graspe intuitively even by a 4 year old.
Uses movement to feel the proportions of time.
And once students learn this box notation, student can readily learn to translated into standard notation.
Additionally this system is in line with the way time and pitch is notated with most modern digit audio systems.
Here is the overall sequence that this system uses.
Start with music games that develop attunement and core rhythmicity.
Learn to execute clean stops and starts:
Student then learn to create musical phrases:
Students Learn Some Specific Grooves and Pieces
While these preceding steps are being mastered, students learn:
Next Do 'Five Notes Compositions'- students compose their own simple 5 note rhythm. The whole group plays their composition.
Four Plus Four Duets- has two student each write one line then play the whole two lines together
Next extend the walking rhythm squares to eight notes.
Write these rhythms on the board.
Next we move to Walking Rhythm Squares Duet.
Two students play different rhythms in time with each other.