Sound On

Find out which of these popular sets of rhythm syllables is most helpful to music students!

In The Beginning

Students first learn rhythms by hearing them performed in tunes. By learning to perform the tunes along with the rhythm patterns that make up the tunes, students begin to audiate rhythm. Once students can demonstrate their achievement by singing and playing rhythm patterns on a neutral syllable (such as “bah”), they are audiating rhythm at the oral/aural level and are ready to move on to the verbal association level.

Verbal Association

The human brain is all about neural connections. The more connections there are to a given thing, the better the brain can work with that thing. By providing music students with a set of rhythm syllables as tools to connect with sound, you will facilitate the students’ ability to perform and understand rhythm accurately.

1 E & A

The system known as “1 e & a” is time keeping mnemonic device based on notation. It is geared mainly towards usual duple meter, making no accommodation for combined meters. The numbers do not help students audiate macrobeats and microbeats. For example, counting 1 2 3 4 5 6 in six-eight time steers students to interpret microbeats as macrobeats, instead of feeling the lilt of the meter. This leads to a mechanical sounding performance.

Du De

The rhythm system known as “du de” is based on beat functions and has no ties to notation. If you are familiar with “movable do,” consider: movable du. The system works in any kind of meter: duple, triple, combined, usual and unusual, paired and unpaired, etc., and any style. No music theory is required in order to understand it. Macrobeats are always called “du.” Microbeats are “du de” in usual duple, “du da di” in usual triple, and “du be” and “du ba bi” in unusual meters, so a student knows what the meter is just by the syllables being used. Divided microbeats are called “ta.” By differentiating between meters, macrobeats, and microbeats, the du de system helps students audiate rhythm, and thus accurately perform and understand it.

Du is pronounced like “doo,” de like “day,” da like “dah,” and di like “dee.”

Examples:

Winner: Du De

Du de is most beneficial system for students because it is based on beat functions, differentiates macrobeats, microbeats, and meters, and can be learned with no knowledge of notation. Even if you grew up with different syllables like Kodaly or 1 e & a, try a beat-function based notation system like du de, or make up your own! Your students deserve it.

Like Spice

A rhythm syllable system should not be used all the time on an entire tune, but rather just on short rhythm patterns. Eventually, the syllables will be audiated unconsciously and only brought into consciousness when the student is faced with an unfamiliar or complex rhythm.

Help From High Places

This entry would not have been possible without the wonderful teachings of Dr. Edwin Gordon, Dr. Christopher Azzara, and others. For more information on du de, read Dr. Gordon’s web article on Rhythm Content Learning Sequence, and check out his book Learning Sequences in Music. You can also check out some of my other entries, such as How People Learn Music and 25 Ways To Improve Your Music Program.

An article on Kuro5hin titled If We Taught English the Way We Teach Mathematics… starts out:

Imagine that your only contact with “English” as a subject was through classes in school. Suppose that those classes, from elementary school right through to high school, amounted to nothing more than reading dictionaries, getting drilled in spelling and formal grammatical construction, and memorizing vast vocabulary lists — you never read a novel, nor a poem; never had contact with anything beyond the pedantic complexity of English spelling and formal grammar, and precise definitions for an endless array of words. You would probably hate the subject.

This got me thinking. Using language learning as a model for “how things should be done” is very common in the field of music education.

How people learn language…

1. You listen to a lot of language being spoken.

2. You babble.

3. You start to speak some words and eventually sentences, with meaning.

4. You learn to improvise a conversation.

5. You learn to read by matching symbols with words you already know.

6. You learn to write by transcribing symbols for words you already know.

You go on to be able to improvise writing, etc. Notice how notational symbols aren’t even involved until step 5, as they have no inherent meaning - they are given meaning by the person.

If language was taught like music is taught…

1. You look at some simple words and sentences.

2. You learn to decode the symbols for words and sentences.

3. You learn to pronounce the words and sentences while looking at them (”reading music!”).

Most music programs in the states stop there. Notice how meaning is no where in the picture. Imagine how someone who learned language like this would sound when “reading aloud” - probably dull, lifeless, and mechanical, as they wouldn’t know what the words meant, so they wouldn’t know where to put emphasis or how to phrase to convey meaning. They would probably not be able to improvise a conversation. They might be able to write some words, but they probably wouldn’t know such basics as “sentences start with capital letters and end with periods.”

Music Education

While music is not a language - it does not have a grammar, it DOES have syntax; the order of “words” (chords) and rhythms in the context of meter and tonality is what gives music meaning.

Math Education

Math education in the states is a lot like music education in that children spend all their time learning to manipulate and decode symbolic notation without actually gaining any insight or meaning into the mental process of math (or music). Math students rarely learn to mathematically “visualize,” and music students rarely learn to audiate (the mental process by which people give meaning to music).

The Fix

Both fields need a serious overhaul! This can take place at the teacher education level. I know of some music educators (Dr. Edwin Gordon, Dr. Christopher Azzara to name two) who are committed to reforming music education.

There must be some major math researchers out there who are studying how people learn math and are committed to reforming our education practices. Does anyone know who they are?

While surfing the forum at the Gordon Institute for Music Learning (an excellent resource for music education professionals), I came across this informative post by Mr. Michael E. Martin titled 25 Ways to Apply Music Learning Theory to Traditional Instrumental Instruction.

Music Learning Theory

If you’re not familiar with Music Learning Theory, I wrote about it in Overhauling Teacher Education and How People Learn Music. But these 25 steps will help any music program become more successful! If you would like to learn more about Music Learning Theory, try Eric Bluestine’s book The Ways Children Learn Music.

25 Ways to Apply Music Learning Theory to Traditional Instrumental Instruction

1. For the teacher: Learn to sing the melodies and bass lines for 30-40 tunes found in beginning instrumental method books. Sing them at a musical tempo, and with characteristic rhythms. Teach students to sing and then play these melodies and bass lines by ear.

2. Establish tonality and/or meter before students sing or play.

3. Have students sing everything before they play.

4. Have students move in a variety of ways to the music they are learning.

5. Teach students to audiate the harmonic context of the music (resting tone, bass line,

and harmonic functions).

6. Teach students to audiate the rhythmic structure of the music (macrobeats and microbeats).

7. Remind students to audiate what they are going to perform before they perform it. If you are not sure they are audiating, have them sing it and have them move to the large and small beats in the music!

8. Teach students to take the preparatory breath in the tempo of the music.

9. Develop musical independence right from the start. It is each student’s responsibility to play in tune and stay in tempo.

10. As much as possible, avoid placing tapes or dots on the fingerboards of the string instruments. They may assist hand posture. They do not assist audiation.

11. Sing and play for students, not with them.

12. Hear each student sing something alone and play something alone in each lesson.

13. Teach major and minor concurrently. Add Dorian and Mixolydian songs as well.

14. Teach duple meter and triple meter concurrently. Add songs in unusual and combined meters as well.

15. Help each student develop a vocabulary of tonal and rhythm patterns that he/she can recognize and perform.

16. Teach students the proper names of tonalities (major, minor, Dorian, etc.) and meters (duple, triple, unusual, combined) and how to recognize them by ear.

17. Develop proper posture and instrument position.

18. Spend the first three to six months playing by ear, before introducing music notation.

19. After introducing notation, spend the first half of every lesson or rehearsal playing by ear.

20. Play the same song in many different keys. Play the same song in different tonalities (major, minor, Dorian, Mixolydian, etc.)

21. Improvise.

22. Do the first concert without notation.

23. Use tonal and rhythm syllables based on function, not note names or note values.

24. Sing while placing your fingers for the correct pitches.

25. Play recordings that demonstrate characteristic tone quality and style.

Brought To You By…

The list is authored by Mr. Michael E. Martin (co-author of Jump Right In: The Instrumental Series for Strings) as well as Dr. Christopher Azzara and Dr. Richard Grunow (authors of Jump Right In: The Instrumental Series), and is Copyright 2004 GIA Publications, Inc.

Teacher Education programs – that is, when someone goes to college to become a teacher, are relatively successful in the United States. Students attend classes on learning theory and educational psychology, which are strongly geared towards how people develop language and analytical skills. So everything’s cool… right?

Enter Music Education

The problem with Music Education college programs is that they “outsource” their educational psychology learning to the college of education. Unfortunately, the way people learn music is very different from the way people learn language and analytical skills. So most people who go to college in a Music Education program never gain insight into how people learn music. They may learn some techniques in so-called “methods” classes, but a sequence of learning objectives wholly appropriate for musical environments is rarely found.

What I Got

My Bachelor of Music in Music Education degree is actually 75% of a music performance degree + 75% of a non-music degree in education. The only “purely” music education classes I took all fell under the guise of techniques for teaching early childhood/beginning band/jazz ensemble/clarinet/etc. A comprehensive examination of Music Learning Theory was more than sorely absent. Music Learning Theory should have been the core of my studies.

What Needs To Happen

Music Education programs in colleges need to stop outsourcing their learning theory studies to the college of education. They need to bring all of their learning theory instruction “in house,” and make Music Learning Theory the core of every degree in Music Education. So called “methods” classes need to be exchanged for real methods classes, emphasizing above all the order of instruction; not just what to do, but most importantly, when to do it. Lastly, all teacher education programs (not just music) need to focus on bridging the gap between theory and practice.

People have become complacent with the idea that college cannot prepare a student to be successful in “the real world” of music education. Why should we settle for this? Music Education professionals need to work hard to improve the quality of their teacher education programs.

Heal The Wound

Even if Music Learning Theory wasn’t the core of your collegiate studies in music education, you can make it the focus of your studies now. Take professional development classes and courses from (links go to their GIA event calendars) Dr. Edwin Gordon, Dr. Christopher Azzara, and Dr. Richard Grunow, or get your administration to bring one of these educators to your facility for professional development. Share the cost and knowledge with neighboring school districts and music programs. Browse and ask questions on the forums at the Gordon Institute for Music Learning. Check out Jump Right In, a music education method, to see Music Learning Theory applied in practical ways. Read Eric Bluestine’s book The Ways Children Learn Music for a palatable written introduction to Music Learning Theory. After you have become acquainted with the elements of Music Learning Theory, read Dr. Gordon’s book Learning Sequences in Music.

Now get busy!