In an earlier lesson we talked about how important drumming and rhythm were to African music. Rhythm gives music its driving force. Even in a song that doesn’t use percussion instruments, there is still a beat that keeps the music going.
Rhythms can be broken down into smaller units that we call “measures.” You can have songs with a different number of beats in each measure. Musicians look at something called a “time signature” to tell them how many beats are in a measure. That’s the top number in a time signature. (The bottom number tells us which kind of note gets one beat. Think fractions: a bottom number of 4 is a quarter note, a bottom number of 2 is a half note, etc.) Here is an example of a time signature:
Of course, the best part about rhythm is actually playing it yourself. We play a lot of different instruments in class, and many of them are rhythm instruments. These instruments are part of the percussion family, the group of instruments you play by hitting them in some way. (We’ll learn more about instrument families next week.)
Here is a game that lets you make rhythms using different sets of percussion instruments, played by some animated creatures. Each set has a different number of beats in the pattern. Can you count how many beats there are in each pattern? (Hint: look for the vertical lines.) Make up your own rhythms for each set of instruments by clicking on the dots to have an instrument play or rest on that part of the beat. Which sounds did you like best? Which number of beats felt the best to you?
This is another game from the people who developed the Kandinsky game we played last week. The game is found here:
https://musiclab.chromeexperiments.com/Rhythm/
BONUS QUESTION: This is an imagination question: What do you think each of the creatures playing the instruments are?
IMPORTANT NOTE FOR TOMORROW’S LESSON: For the Friday, March 27th lesson, you will need something to drum on. If you have an instrument like a drum or tambourine you can use that, but a box, bowl, pot, table, chair tray, or even your legs will do. We’re going to make some rhythms together tomorrow.
Mr. Steve's Music 