You can count on occasional absences from your classes. Illness, teething, new babies, sick sibling, morning sickness, new house, repairmen, sibling field trips, travel, inclement weather, take their turns throughout the year in every family. You can easily build into your lesson plans accommodations for absences with the techniques presented in this coursework, while providing just what those in attendance need.

For example, you might treat the first Rhythm Activity and Tonal Activity of your lesson plans as the “feature” meter and tonality. Present each as if you were introducing it for the first time, contrasting them later in the class with a different meter and tonality. The following week, “introduce” a new meter and tonality in that prime spot, and “review” the previous meter and tonality in a later point in the class. This technique assures that the “new” meter and tonality will be kept alive in the musical mind, reinforcing what the children experienced the week before, while serving to “introduce” the meter and tonality to the children who were absent the week before. You might alter somewhat the content in that meter, like “introducing” Dorian in Duple meter and “reviewing” Dorian in Triple meter, or “introducing Duple meter with macro/micro beats and “reviewing” Duple meter with a few divisions thrown in, but essentially, you are taking two weeks to “present” a meter and a tonality, reinforcing aural content for children in attendance, while providing appropriate content for those missing a class.

Similarly, introducing Rhythm Dialogue in Duple meter, for example, with a microphone one week, could be followed the next week by Rhythm Dialogue in Duple meter with telephones, or, by Rhythm Dialogue in Triple meter.  Knowing that children will respond most immediately to Rhythm Dialogue in Duple meter, there is merit to using the same meter with a different prop with children bridging to interactivity, whereas those further along the way will be comfortable with Rhythm Dialogue in either meter and can pick up comfortably after a week of absence.

Designing lesson plans to “introduce” a meter, tonality, or type of activity, and “review” last week’s meter, tonality, or type of activity is simply good lesson planning, both to keep content alive in audiation and to accommodate absences. Maintaining this practice through each rotation of meters and tonalities across weeks, with all levels, provides a rich experience for all, even after they have been “introduced” to a meter, tonality, or activity through multiple weeks and terms.