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Subdivide and conquer

As inconvenient as it is to teach by Skype or any other platform during the Covid-19 isolation, I'm finding small threads of silver lining. In this instance I'm speaking of pencil and paper work.
Two of my advanced students are entering high school this fall semester and they have been given  audition music for their seating. For snare drum they are to play a portion of Etude #6 from the Anthony Cerone book 'Portraits in Rhythm'. This book has become standard literature for concert snare drum since it was first published in 1966. Complicated rhythms, phrasing, metric modulation, dynamics, these are just a few of the musical issues that Mr. Cerone has advanced for snare drum education.
Understanding subdivision is one aspect for Etude #6. Written in 5/4 this piece contains everything from Half notes down to 32nd notes which can be intimidating to the young student.
For their assignment I had them write out the rhythm counting eighth notes as the beats (making 10 beats per measure)  they scanned the project and emailed them to me to check. For their next lesson we went over their assignment and they corrected any mistakes. They now could practice their part using a metronome set for eighth notes.
This of course gave me the idea of trying this with my younger students. I wrote out exercises with the first measure filled in as an example and they have to finish the remainder. This part I haven't finished so I'll have to wait to evaluate the results.

There are tons of this type of thing that band directors and private teachers use for their students. They are an excellent resource but by doing this for my own students, I am able to develop worksheets to address specific problems and needs of each student.

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  1. Far Side of FiftyJune 7, 2020 at 2:36 PM

    You are an awesome teacher!

    ReplyDelete
  2. RonaldJune 14, 2020 at 12:16 PM

    But how many teachers and even private instructors go this extra step? I wonder how many are doing it now? You continue to impress me, Li'l Brother!

    ReplyDelete

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