Music In Our Lives
An Interactive Music Program for Older Adults
Lesson 7
The focus of this lesson is to introduce the audience to the different rhythms used in music. The next lesson will focus more on the rhythms of popular show tunes, so this lesson is just to get them acclimated to the different types of notes (quarter notes, half notes, etc.)
Supplies Needed:
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Computer with speakers
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Metronome – this may help you keep time as you go through the different rhythms, but it does not need to be loud enough for the audience to hear. It is not critical to the lesson, but if you have a metronome or metronome app on your phone, this may be helpful.
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Copies of rhythm sheets (click this link to download)
Looking at the Different Rhythms
Before teaching the lesson, speak about how integral rhythm is to a piece of music – give an example of a song that would not sound the same without the rhythm. Hand out the rhythm sheets. Start up the metronome at a slow pace (perhaps 60 beats per minute). Discuss each note and type of rest on the sheet with them, describing the appearance of the note, saying how long the note is held for, and then clapping the rhythm to the metronome with them.
For example, tell them that a quarter note looks like a colored-in circle with a line sticking up and counts for one beat. Then clap every beat with the metronome until they get the hang of how long a quarter note lasts.
Rhythm Patterns
The second half of the handout has some rhythms to try. Go through the rhythms, asking them to name each type of note. At the end of each line, clap the rhythm a few times. This will get them used to the idea of putting notes together. They may find this confusing at first, but by the end of the lesson, they will get used to the idea of naming notes and clapping the rhythms.
Afterwards, have them turn to the “Song Rhythms” side of the handout (last page) and clap the rhythms on that page. Ask them to guess what nursery rhyme is being clapped. When someone guesses it, play these recordings of the nursery rhymes and ask them to clap along to the tune. Click the links under the song names for recordings:
If you have time at the end of the lesson, you may wish to ask the audience members to think of some songs with distinctive rhythms. Tell them that this is a sneak peak of the next lesson.
