Rhythm Game Roundup

I like games, and they can be a great motivator in band class. Rhythm is one area of fundamentals that is particularly effective when gamified. Today I'll share some sample games I use with my first and second year students that are simple, fun, and helpful.

All of these games make use of the rhythm pages at the back of Essential Elements 2000 (books 1 and 2), but other rhythm pages would work fine as long as they are laid out similarly. It's nice that the EE book pages have a consistent four bars per line and progress from less to more difficult.

One other common piece of the rhythm games is the use of a metronome or some sort of background track--the drum loops in GarageBand can be particularly effective if you choose loops that emphasize the subdivision of the rhythms you are working on.

Rhythm Chain

There are two or three teams--usually I use instrument families (woodwinds/brass) or sections. On each team's turn, students take turns playing one measure at a time in sequence. The goal is to play the longest stretch of measures without any mistakes. Once a student makes an error (wrong rhythm, rushing/dragging, etc.), their team's turn is over, and they earn one point per correctly played measure.

Variations: students play more than one note per measure of rhythm, or each student plays the next note stepping up a scale.

Rhythm Finder

For this game, I give the students a range of measure numbers to look at (as much as a whole page). I perform a measure (usually twice) and the students write down the measure number on a piece of paper. I sometimes do this game in teams (or with partners) to help weaker students. After every five rhythms, I stop and have students check their work.

Variations: To make the game more challenging, I'll improvise a melody rather than playing a single pitch for the measure.

Rhythm Tic-Tac-Toe

Invented on the last day of school this past year, Rhythm Tic-Tac-Toe could also be called Rhythm Bingo or Rhythm Connect Four. You need two teams that are roughly equal in musical ability.

Draw a 4x4 grid on the board and label each row with measure numbers corresponding to a section of the rhythm sheet (i.e., pick four lines from the sheet). Teams take turns with one student at a time selecting and playing a measure from the board. If they play it correctly, mark the square for that team. The team that gets four in a row first wins.

Variations: Play until the whole board is complete. Make students play more than one note for each measure. Increase the tempo on the metronome.

Concert Type vs. Audience Size

Each time a concert rolls around, I wonder what the audience is going to look like. Here is some data*.

View fullsize

*okay, I made up the data

MMEA Performance

This blog entry is over four months late!

One of the highlights of this year at school was a performance in February at the Minnesota Music Educators Association Midwinter Clinic by the Symphonic Band. Last year's Symphonic Band recorded two pieces (Caprice by William Himes and The Fire of Eternal Glory, James Curnow's arrangement of Shostakovich) and I found out about the band's acceptance in the middle of the summer. Right away, I started planning the program...but when the year started, I found that a number of students, including all of the 9th graders I had expected, would not be in the ensemble I was left with an ensemble of 36 instead of the mid-40s, and several sections were short players. Add to this that all three double reeds were new to their instruments this year, and I knew the ensemble had a ways to go to be ready.

From the start of the year, I tried to impress upon the group the need to make every note count. We had to play everything with meaning and precision, and we couldn't do this without truly listening. A performance early on in the year (on Halloween) for the other 7th and 8th graders helped put the group in a concert mindset, and our first evening concert in November got some of the works for MMEA ready. As I thought about the program more, I knew we needed to do some special things to make the program meaningful.

First, I had planned all along to write a new piece for the band. This had to wait until December and my winter break...more on that later. Second, I asked saxophonist Greg Keel if he would be willing to appear as a soloist with the group, and he agreed. I had one piece in mind for him as an improvisor and set to work trying to find another. The first, Lissa Fleming May's Reflexão e Dança is a Latin inspired tune that calls for the ensemble to create its own arrangement of the improvised section. Later, I found Basin Street Barbecue, a version of a big band chart for concert band. Greg sounded fantastic on both, and the students really enjoyed having him at the school to work with them on improvisation and having him play with us--as several students put it, he made them feel professional.

Because I waited until December to write a new piece for the band and because I didn't want to overload the program with difficulty, I kept the new work on the easy side. It's called St. Croix Valley Overture. Its not quite ready to post yet, but I hope to get to it within the next week. I was making edits up until the week before the performance and didn't finish all the tweaks I'd like to make it look nice.

Take a look at the final program. While not the most challenging program for a middle school band, it represented a significant accomplishment for the group and the school. For a band of 36 non-auditioned students in 7th and 8th grade to go to the state music convention and make the program sound good is impressive, and I was proud of the students.

Preparing for the MMEA performance pushed the ensemble farther than it has ever gone in technique and musicianship, and it remained one of the most memorable events for all the students through to the end of the year. Perhaps later I'll reflect on how the preparation impacted our rehearsals for the rest of the year.