Can rhythm be taught? I hope so. Both of my kids are very excited about their competitive cheer and competitive hip hop teams, and my youngest added ballet to that recently. The kiddies want to dance; the parents lack the necessary genes. But I firmly believe that talent and ability only change your starting point; hard work, determination, passion, and not letting that starting point stop you determine the finish.
If my kids want to be dancers, then dancers they shall be. So, where should a rhythm-less parent start? Googling rhythm activities for kids got me a lot of what their violin (Briana) and piano (Abigail) teachers do - read some sheet music and clap out the beat. We do that, and we do it well. The kids have been in various music classes since about 1 year old, mostly for fun and socialization, and both read music well for their ages.
The problem is, the kids are like me. I am a master chair dancer. If you see me dancing in my seat, you might even think I'm quite good (on a good day). Unfortunately, if I have to get the top of my body to talk to the bottom of my body... well think Elaine on Seinfeld. So my kids can clap out rhythms with the best of them, but I wanted to work on two other things: 1) Hearing the beat in the music (versus reading it) and 2) Getting the whole body to connect to the music together.
So I looked to the pros. I sent the girls' hip hop coach an email asking her if she thinks there's a way to teach the girls to hear the beat of music, and she came back with so much more than I expected! Yay!
Here's what we've been doing all month to hear the beat and dance to it.
1) Car Ride Clap Outs
In the car when a song comes on the radio, I told the girls to clap to the beat. At first they were off a lot, especially with songs that had dramatically different music (though usually the same beat) in the chorus than the verses. Much to my excitement though, they got quite good at it.
So I shook it up. Some days we'd listen to pop, some days 90's hip hop, some days country, some days opera, some days 70's rock. Long after the few days that I requested it, I'd hear tiny hands clapping along in the back seat regardless of genre. And when I say "long after", I mean it. It's been a month since we started and they still love doing that, and do it all the time.
So I shook it up again. I asked them to clap and count out the 8-counts. That was harder because they had to think about the beginning and ending of the music's phrasing. They caught on quickly, and the best was hearing them debate where the 8-count started. Usually they waited until the start of the chorus to mark it, but now they can usually jump in after hearing a few bars of the song. We also tried rocking their heads to the beat with and without clapping. Clapping, rocking their heads, and counting out the 8-counts...that was sort of like patting your head and rubbing your belly, but we had a giggling good time trying.
2) Dance Party Divas
One of the things that their hip hop coach told me that I found most intriguing was that it actually is a lot to ask kids their age to process to say 1) hear the beat, 2) isolate a body part, 3) move that body part to the music while 4) separating the vocals and essentially ignoring them. A suggestion that she has was to find music that reinforced the activity to make it easier in the beginning.
We had an afternoon dance party
-tapping our feet to Footloose
-shaking our hips to Shake Your Hip by the Rolling Stones
-doing tendus (ballet term for when your feet start in a position and then go out to one side and back in then to the front and back in, etc.) to Hot Feet's Sedation
-dancing our arms to Garth Brook's The Dance
-jumping to Kris Kross's jump
-rocking our bodies to Rock Your Body by Justin Timberlake
-and shaking our bones to Bad to the Bones by George Thorogood
Other song suggestions from their coach - Hip Hop Hooray by Naughty by Nature, Happy Feet, Hot Feet, and Shake Your Hips by Lou Ann Barton.
My biggest discovery - it's all but impossible for me to isolate my stomach only and rock that part of my body. Guess belly dancing is out for me. Sorry hubby :)
3) Getting Out of Sync
Another thing we did, to various songs in Georges Bizet's Carmen, is to have the kids clap out different timings to the beat. This was another awesome suggestion by their coach. We'd turn on Habenera (Love is a Rebellious Bird)...you know the one that goes la-dee-da-da-dee-da-da-da...and tell Briana to find the beat and clap it. Then I'd have Abby assume Bree's beat was quarter notes, and I'd have Abby clap out the half notes. So Abby would clap every other time Briana did. The kids were amazed to see that both still kept the beat. Then we'd try it on another song and reverse the roles. Most of the time, though not all, they didn't converge, but once in a while they would eventually both clap one of the rhythms.
4) Choreography
Finally, yep once again on the suggestion of their awesome hip hop coach, I had them pick songs and come up with their own choreography, four eight-counts each, and come put on a show for my husband and I. Once they got started they wanted to do whole songs instead so I okayed it though I think there was ample improv after the beginning.
The downside - both came down with a crazy amount of child-done performance make-up, though they did a much better job with make-up application than I could've at their age.
The upside - both listened to the beat of their songs, made and remembered choreography, and danced to the beat.
Abby danced to Wildest Dreams and Bad Blood by Taylor Swift. Briana danced to Style and Bad Blood by Taylor Swift. Then they danced a couple of songs together all on-beat improv. Taylor rules our house right now.
Abigail is the official master of the wave! Briana loves the high leg kick while dancing, walking on her toes, and shockingly did the worm. Both of my kids employed that clap I've been talking about as part of their routines, and both liked to kick high and then drop dramatically to the floor.
Hypothesis Proven - Everything can be taught! Thanks so much for your help, Sam! This was fun and educational, the best combo of things.
Dance on this December! With practice you too can be All About That Bass. :)
<3 Pedigreed Housewife
If my kids want to be dancers, then dancers they shall be. So, where should a rhythm-less parent start? Googling rhythm activities for kids got me a lot of what their violin (Briana) and piano (Abigail) teachers do - read some sheet music and clap out the beat. We do that, and we do it well. The kids have been in various music classes since about 1 year old, mostly for fun and socialization, and both read music well for their ages.
The problem is, the kids are like me. I am a master chair dancer. If you see me dancing in my seat, you might even think I'm quite good (on a good day). Unfortunately, if I have to get the top of my body to talk to the bottom of my body... well think Elaine on Seinfeld. So my kids can clap out rhythms with the best of them, but I wanted to work on two other things: 1) Hearing the beat in the music (versus reading it) and 2) Getting the whole body to connect to the music together.
So I looked to the pros. I sent the girls' hip hop coach an email asking her if she thinks there's a way to teach the girls to hear the beat of music, and she came back with so much more than I expected! Yay!
Here's what we've been doing all month to hear the beat and dance to it.
1) Car Ride Clap Outs
In the car when a song comes on the radio, I told the girls to clap to the beat. At first they were off a lot, especially with songs that had dramatically different music (though usually the same beat) in the chorus than the verses. Much to my excitement though, they got quite good at it.
So I shook it up. Some days we'd listen to pop, some days 90's hip hop, some days country, some days opera, some days 70's rock. Long after the few days that I requested it, I'd hear tiny hands clapping along in the back seat regardless of genre. And when I say "long after", I mean it. It's been a month since we started and they still love doing that, and do it all the time.
So I shook it up again. I asked them to clap and count out the 8-counts. That was harder because they had to think about the beginning and ending of the music's phrasing. They caught on quickly, and the best was hearing them debate where the 8-count started. Usually they waited until the start of the chorus to mark it, but now they can usually jump in after hearing a few bars of the song. We also tried rocking their heads to the beat with and without clapping. Clapping, rocking their heads, and counting out the 8-counts...that was sort of like patting your head and rubbing your belly, but we had a giggling good time trying.
2) Dance Party Divas
One of the things that their hip hop coach told me that I found most intriguing was that it actually is a lot to ask kids their age to process to say 1) hear the beat, 2) isolate a body part, 3) move that body part to the music while 4) separating the vocals and essentially ignoring them. A suggestion that she has was to find music that reinforced the activity to make it easier in the beginning.
We had an afternoon dance party
-tapping our feet to Footloose
-shaking our hips to Shake Your Hip by the Rolling Stones
-doing tendus (ballet term for when your feet start in a position and then go out to one side and back in then to the front and back in, etc.) to Hot Feet's Sedation
-dancing our arms to Garth Brook's The Dance
-jumping to Kris Kross's jump
-rocking our bodies to Rock Your Body by Justin Timberlake
-and shaking our bones to Bad to the Bones by George Thorogood
Other song suggestions from their coach - Hip Hop Hooray by Naughty by Nature, Happy Feet, Hot Feet, and Shake Your Hips by Lou Ann Barton.
My biggest discovery - it's all but impossible for me to isolate my stomach only and rock that part of my body. Guess belly dancing is out for me. Sorry hubby :)
3) Getting Out of Sync
Another thing we did, to various songs in Georges Bizet's Carmen, is to have the kids clap out different timings to the beat. This was another awesome suggestion by their coach. We'd turn on Habenera (Love is a Rebellious Bird)...you know the one that goes la-dee-da-da-dee-da-da-da...and tell Briana to find the beat and clap it. Then I'd have Abby assume Bree's beat was quarter notes, and I'd have Abby clap out the half notes. So Abby would clap every other time Briana did. The kids were amazed to see that both still kept the beat. Then we'd try it on another song and reverse the roles. Most of the time, though not all, they didn't converge, but once in a while they would eventually both clap one of the rhythms.
4) Choreography
Finally, yep once again on the suggestion of their awesome hip hop coach, I had them pick songs and come up with their own choreography, four eight-counts each, and come put on a show for my husband and I. Once they got started they wanted to do whole songs instead so I okayed it though I think there was ample improv after the beginning.
The downside - both came down with a crazy amount of child-done performance make-up, though they did a much better job with make-up application than I could've at their age.
The upside - both listened to the beat of their songs, made and remembered choreography, and danced to the beat.
Abby danced to Wildest Dreams and Bad Blood by Taylor Swift. Briana danced to Style and Bad Blood by Taylor Swift. Then they danced a couple of songs together all on-beat improv. Taylor rules our house right now.
Abigail is the official master of the wave! Briana loves the high leg kick while dancing, walking on her toes, and shockingly did the worm. Both of my kids employed that clap I've been talking about as part of their routines, and both liked to kick high and then drop dramatically to the floor.
Hypothesis Proven - Everything can be taught! Thanks so much for your help, Sam! This was fun and educational, the best combo of things.
Dance on this December! With practice you too can be All About That Bass. :)
<3 Pedigreed Housewife
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