Catherine Russell mini-course
Introduction and Purpose
Learners will regain a sense of confidence and usefulness with rhythm. This mini course is designed to help learners better integrate rhythmic practice into their ensembles. It can serve as a means to help students get better at using the standard counting system when addressing rhythmic concerns or issues within music, but it can also help to clear misconceptions with rhythms by integrating warm-ups which use difficult rhythms prior to playing classroom repertoire.
Performance Objectives
General Outcomes: Become more comfortable analyzing difficult rhythms and using them within the ensemble classroom as a guide on how to tackle more challenging rhythms within music.
Specific Outcomes: By the end of this course, participants will...
- Know how to assist rhythm reading using the standard counting system
- Know how to integrate rhythm reading into the ensemble setting
- Know how to use notational software technology to assist with rhythmic analysis
Unit 1: Standard Rhythm Counting basics
Objectives: Participants will....
- Review and demonstrate skill using the standard counting system.
- Practice using standard counting system with the tiered-level examples given.
Unit 2: Creating Original Exercises Using NoteFlight
- Objectives: Participants will...
- Create an account, navigate, and become familiar with MusicFirst's Noteflight software.
- Create digital (and/or printed) warm-ups for their ensembles to reinforce rhythmic practice
Unit 3: Analyzing Rhythms for Use in Scales and Repertoire
Objectives: Participants will....
- Identify areas of rhythmic difficulty within their ensemble repertoire
- Analyze the standard counting which will be used for those more difficult rhythmic patterns
- Choose scales which will help ease the ensemble musicians, by placing those difficult rhythms as the scale pattern
