Here is a recording of impromptu rhythm reading with a Grandchild, 3 years 7 months, with Rhythm Reading Activities from CCS Class 10. He was initially more interested in playing with the microphone, but became distracted enough by the notation to engage in music reading. He was true to his three year old self, wanting to call the shots, directing which Rhythm Storybook to read and when.
There are a number of things in this recording to observe about this three year old’s musical understanding. You can hear that he is not quite ready to go back and forth from Duple to Triple meter, as he attempts one meter while his little musical mind is still with the other. Yet as the recording goes on, he seems to get more comfortable alternating meters, and demonstrates awareness of the process of setting up each meter aurally and visually before reading. The two little Rhythm Storybooks included only macro and micro beats, but he is obviously trying to work through a division pattern, which falls in place for him in Duple meter but doesn’t quite transfer to Triple meter. Still, his musical mind knows there is a similar pattern in Triple meter that should fit. Grammy’s response was much as it would be helping him to pronounce a word he was trying to use. You can hear him also play briefly with the relation of tonal to rhythm, apparently deciding tonal didn’t fit.
The child’s rushed tempo and lack of weight on macro beats in some sections is a function of notation distracting the musical mind. This child is usually securely in the meter and tempo when chanting without notation. It was almost as if he realized that he stayed better in the meters when he read with Grammy—he still needed the training wheels.
Just as with language, the child is “reading” what he knows rather than what is on the page. He is to the point of understanding that the print represents what he knows in sound, but does not yet understand the direct correlation. He is demonstrating “reading readiness” behavior. His proud delivery of the numbers he sees in the notation shows his awareness of the relationship between print and numbers, even though the numbers aren’t relevant to his music reading.
This unedited recording of nearly eight minutes captures the joy of reading music with a three year old who has the readiness through CCS.
|
