Music teachers too often assume that the way to get children to listen to meters and tonalities is to put a prop in their hands, and they tend to use one prop after another to “get children’s attention,” or “give them something to do.”  Witnessing the power of meter and tonality with young children, without anything in the children’s hands to distract them from the “aural toys,” can be a stunning revelation for the teacher.  When we awaken children’s natural attraction to meter and tonality, then the occasional prop takes on new meaning—not to get children’s attention, but to provide a tangible way to “play music,” to play with the meter or tonality.

The greater the immersion in meter and tonality without the distraction of props, the more props can be used as “musical instruments,” providing for each child to “practice music,” engage with rhythm and tonal babble, resting tone, and macro and micro beats. This kind of “practice” becomes more meaningful when children have had at least one term of classes with minimal props. Immersion provides the aural input. Props provide for interactivity, encouraging output. It can be counterproductive to use props for output before there has been sufficient input. Meaningful output is a result of meaningful input.

The occasional prop with a group of beginners can serve energy management, provide an anchor, or simply add variety. Trust the power of meter and tonality with young children, and that the longer you engage with a meter or tonality in any given activity, the more children will tune in, without the bells and whistles of props. Once children have had sufficient immersion in meters and tonalities, then use props to encourage interactivity— rhythm and tonal babble, engagement with meter, tonality, resting tone and macro and micro beats. Then props can serve their rightful purpose as “musical instruments” for young children.

Props can serve immersion with developed children, as the foundation is there for “playing music.” Immersion is always to be included in advanced classes. New content can be brought in through “playing music,” giving children the opportunity to assimilate new content in the aural structures already developed for meter and tonality. For example, children with a background in meters, who have experience with Macro and Micro Beat Activities, can engage with hammers or rhythm sticks while being immersed in more difficult rhythm patterns, offering a tangible way for them to fit those new patterns into what they already know.

The greatest advantage to props for immersion with children who have had significant input, is to stimulate music babble. Developed children are likely to engage with a prop or movement, chanting along or singing along with our Meter Chants or Tonality Songs, nonchalantly “practicing” the meter or tonality with each immersion activity. They are babbling rhythmically, for example, and babbling with the prop, but that is how they sort out, figure out, work out beat relationships. Ongoing immersion activities that stimulate music babble provide the springboard for one-on-one response, with each child engaging in immersion wherever he is in the process—whether just going along, babbling, chanting rhythmically, or fitting divisions into macro and micro beats. Children babbling with props in immersion can spontaneously demonstrate their development, cluing the teacher that they are ready for more difficult content.  

Stimulating children’s chanting or singing with immersion activities primes the pump for willing group response with Rhythm Dialogue, Resting Tone, Macro/Micro Beat, and Tonal Dialogue, which, of course, prepares children for one-on-one response.

Providing a regular opportunity for somewhat developed children to babble rhythmically and tonally—singing along or chanting along with immersion activities, while individually engaged with a “musical instrument,” on their own terms, is a wonderful activity in any class before one-on-one response, as children willingly deliver, “practicing” with their instrument, while playfulness is established, and the meter or tonality to be used for one-on-one response becomes well seated—both of which can be carried through Rhythm Dialogue, Resting Tone Activities, Macro/Micro Beat Activities, or Tonal Dialogue.