Rhythm is more immediate for children than tonal. Children of all ages are more apt to respond rhythmically than tonally, leading one to believe that singing is far more intimate than chanting, perhaps more threatening. Children’s ease with rhythm serves music learning, as rhythm is the foundation for all music learning. It also provides a model for tonal learning.
Rhythm and tonal are very different, though learning rhythm and learning tonal are similar processes. We have to be careful to accommodate tonal’s unique idiosyncrasies, while looking to rhythm to guide us in exploring tonal. The more we get into developing rhythm and tonal audiation, our own and our children’s, the more roadblocks we find tonally when following the rhythm model. On the other hand, the rhythm model demonstrates ease that can be found in tonal as well, if we are willing to stray enough to explore the unique qualities of tonal as it differs from rhythm.
Children’s ease with rhythm may indicate that rhythm is easier or more accessible, but it also demonstrates that learning rhythm is as natural a process as learning language, when immersed in an appropriate “sound environment” that includes interactivity with one more skilled than the learner. Tonal can be just as natural, if we view rhythm and tonal as fraternal rather than identical twins.
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