Rhythm Dialogue is conversation in rhythm. Like conversation in language, it is interactive; it is improvised; it is based on mutual understanding; and it develops an ongoing “storyline.” With language, a child is immersed in the mother tongue every day. A baby learns to understand the language before learning to speak it, and begins speaking through babble. Parent-child games such as “Peek-a-boo” set up the model for interaction, with time for an expected response. A little child’s smile or hiding in response shows awareness of the “game”—the process of dialogue, long before a verbal response.
Similarly, Rhythm Dialogue Activities set up the model for musical interaction in rhythm, with time for an expected response, and opportunity for musical interaction. A smile, hiding, excitement, movement, or rhythm babble in response demonstrates an awareness of the “game”—participation in musical conversation—however limited the response. Eventually, Rhythm Babble will evolve into precise rhythmic communication, just as language babble evolves into precision in speaking.
Rhythm dialogue gives the musical mind a chance to generate its own meaning, with the scaffolding of one who understands the “language,” responds to intended meaning, and models more developed skill at every stage. It invites rhythmic interaction between child and teacher, with the teacher setting up and maintaining the meter in support of the child and the musical narrative in process. The teacher offers basic patterns that define the meter and responds to an individual child’s attempts to deliver in the meter. Rhythm dialogue is on a neutral syllable without tonal, but with vocal expression as in conversation.
Delivering rhythm with the inflection of a question invites a rhythmic answer. As with “Peek-a-boo,” even babies understand that they are invited to engage. The teacher may need to simply leave room for the child’s response, until the child begins to fill the rhythmic space with more than a look of awareness. Even silence during the time for a child’s response supports music learning, as being in rhythm, it provides time for the child’s musical imagination to replay the pattern just heard.
A single “bah” from a child can be an attempt at rhythm dialogue and deserves a response in the established meter and tempo. A non-rhythmic attempt at imitation is a fine response, and an opportunity for the teacher to deliver the pattern the teacher thinks the child is trying to deliver, “clarifying” the pattern for the child. Accepting a child’s babble and responding to its meaning is just how a loving adult serves a child’s language development. If a child’s not-so-rhythmic response derails the meter, the teacher can offer a pattern with macro and micro beats that redefines the meter.
Coaxing children to respond is counterproductive. Simply extending the opportunity for response within the context of an ongoing rhythm narrative invites response, with the meter rather than the will in charge. A response from one child serves as a model for the more reluctant. Giving each child a turn, with or without a response, demonstrates non-threatening musical interaction with each, while sustaining the meter as the dominant force of the activity. Repeated experience with the various meters and with rhythm dialogue will ultimately draw the most reluctant children into rhythm dialogue.
Some children may repeat the teacher’s rhythms, some will contribute their own. Both are fine responses and part of the process of learning to dialogue rhythmically. The teacher responds rhythmically to each child’s offering with a pattern that reaffirms, clarifies, or adds greater rhythmic challenge to the ongoing narrative, without missing a beat. The entire experience becomes one of immersion in the meter over an extended time, accepting all responses within the ongoing rhythm narrative.
Language, including children’s verbalizations and praising children’s response, interrupts rhythm dialogue, derails the meter, and defeats the purpose of the activity. Non-verbal communication, such as an approving nod, or offering the hand as a microphone to invite individual response, is effective and keeps the meter in command. Modeling, interacting, and conversing in rhythm itself teaches rhythm far more than words.
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