Hello! Wow, what a month this has been so far. My kiddos had an awesome spring recital, we visited New York (which I absolutely LOVED), and my son graduated from high school! Things are finally starting to settle down but the summer months tend to go at a more relaxed pace than the rest of the year, don't you think? I hope that you have amazing things planned for the next few months; picnics, pool outings, concerts in the park, hikes, etc.
Okay, so I have decided to do a series on how I teach time signature to my students, especially my younger ones. I'm not sure yet just how many parts there will be to this so I'm adding "Part 1, Part 2,....." so I can easily refer back to certain entries if needed.
The first thing I do when introducing time signature is I have my students look at the numbers stacked above and below each other at the very beginning of their songs. I share with them that this is a HUGE concept in music. That it's the foundation/framework from which all songs are built upon and that we will be spending a few lessons on understanding what it all means. I'll share with you in later installments the activities I use to bring home the idea of time signature being the foundation/structure of all musical pieces.
I have found that associating hand gestures with certain musical terms helps my students remember the names. Here is a short video of how I help my students remember time signature.
After we go through the hand gesture a few times, we are ready to talk about the top number and what it means. I introduce the numbers of the time signature separately during different lessons, not all at once. This helps reinforce the numbers better. So I tell the student that we will be focusing on the top number this time around. I ask them what the top number is. They say "4". I tell that that this means there are four beats not notes in each measure. We head on over to a table where I have a rhythm sequence laid out for them like the picture at the top of this entry. I then show them what they'll be using as "beats" to prove that there are actually four beats in each measure.
I bought these plastic gems at the Dollar Tree a while back! We used them as our "beats". I then have my students look at the notes in the first measure and place the number of beats each note receives underneath the given note. We then count the number of beats total for the first measure. My students quickly see how the top number of the time signature relates to the combination of note values in each measure. I then have them add the beats to the rest of the measures like the picture below.
I was working on this activity with one of my students, Mateo, who just turned five. What a personality and might I add sharp as a whip! He quickly understood the relation between the top number of the time signature and the combination of note values in each measure. I gave him an activity bag filled with quarter, half, dotted half (accidentally added them in, Oops!), and whole notes as well as the blue gems, and bar lines (purple popsicle sticks) to take home with him so that he could work on this during the week. I added a "3" and "2" as well to allow him the opportunity to change the amount of beats he wanted in each of his measures.
Next lesson comes and we're reviewing the top number at the table. I then change the number of beats per measure to a "3" what happened next blew me away! In my 20+ years of teaching children of all ages I observed that most 4 year and young 5 year old children need to completely reset an activity from square 1 in order to complete the next task. Not Mateo! So I change the "4" to a "3" and instead of doing what most kiddos his age do, he simply took out what he didn't need from each of the measures and added the note values that he wanted. On top of that, I had accidentally left some dotted half notes in the take home bag. Mind you, I hadn't formally introduced this note to him but his parents said that instead of ignoring it, he was fascinated by it. So much so, that he even drew one on his own and added it to his rhythm sequence. What?!
I say this to my piano parents all the time, I LOVE teaching piano because of their kiddos. Mateo and all of my students inspire me to be the best teacher I can be for them. They certainly keep me on my toes! Until next time when I share how I teach the bottom number of the time signature, piano blogger signing off.......................
