Hello again!
Anyway, I spent the $200 for the package that is targeted for small school and middle school bands. It has to be one of the best investments I've made for the program so far. When the website says that RhythmBee works for everyone, they're not joking. The only people it won't work for are the students who refuse to look at the screen.
In case you're not sure what I'm talking about, RhythmBee is a flash based program that helps to teach rhythm. It starts, simply enough, by teaching posture and foot tapping. You set a tempo and students tap their foot along with a picture on the screen. You won't need a sound system for this, but you will need a computer and a projector. While the screen is going, you have the freedom of walking around the class and engaging individual students.
5th and 6th grade band are required classes in my district, so while some students were excited about band, others didn't like having to do this. I actually had some students complain that their foot hurt (laughable!). But the program paces itself really well. It goes one simple step at a time. First its the foot tap, then it puts a simple rhythm on the board and tracks which beat you're on while having the students say "Ta" when the tapping foot graphic or up and down arrows pass a quarter note. When it gets to rhythms with more than 1 quarter note a measure, it switches to numbers.
This helps them get the hang of following along in the music while tapping their foot. Eventually it stops tracking the rhythm with a box or foot tap, and uses just the arrows over the rhythm. Then you get to a point where the rhythm changes, and so on.
I have two beginning band classes, and both are heterogeneous. I used the countdown timer to signal the start of class. That's a nice feature. We started each day with RhythmBee, and pretty soon they were counting far beyond what they would need to know. That's still the case (which is how I like it). For example, we just hit lines that involve notes tied across the bar line, and they were counting those with high accuracy a month ago, or more. Right now they're counting quarter note 8th note rhythms in an exercise that typically lasts 2-4 minutes, with one half of the room counting one line and the other half counting a different line. And it all happens one step at a time.
There have been some challenges, but none that I can blame on the program itself. And perhaps this is better in classes where students have elected to sign up for the course, I don't know. As I walk around the room I have to refocus some students constantly. At the same time, I do like crouching next to them and counting along with them. Even if they're quiet, I can get close enough to tell that they're doing it. And for almost all the students, it eventually clicked. Maybe for all of them, actually.
Sixth grade came in not knowing how to read music at all. Everything they did with their previous teacher was done by rote. They really resisted music literacy, and even now there are still one or two who don't understand. I had hoped they would enjoy RhythmBee considering it's technological appeal, but that wasn't really the case. They didn't like tapping their foot, or sitting with good "band posture", or having to count out loud. But I forced them through it, and continue to do so. While it has been tough going, ultimately, they get it. When we hit a new line in the book, we start by counting the rhythm, and they can do it with 100% accuracy in 2-3 shots.
The 5th graders actually like RhythmBee, and they excelled. I am their only experience with band, so they had no preset expectations. While I still have to work to enforce good posture and foot tapping, they tend to count with gusto. The exercises where the class is split into groups really gets it out of them because all I have to do is tell them we're having a contest, and they go all out. They actually jumped ahead of 6th grade in counting abilities, and are probably still ahead in that department. They often count new lines with total accuracy in one shot. The only time we have to count again is when one person hangs over in a rest, or when I bust a student not counting. They're by far the most confident counters in my program, including the high schoolers, many of whom were not brought up with a counting system.
And to me, this is really the proof I need to confidently recommend the program. 5th graders, who still get recess at least once a day, get it. They all get it. A few of them got behind at first for not paying attention, but it eventually clicked for them, too. My sixth graders, who resisted learning music literacy, took longer to come around, but they get it, too. So I think their slogan, "Everyone gets it!", actually has been true.
The other thing I meant to say is that in the beginning, this was one of the only parts of the class that went well for me, because the rest of the time I was dealing with an instrument group at a time (leaving everyone else to kill time). This was a great way to start the class with everyone working right away, and doing something together.
So anyway, if you haven't heard of RhythmBee!, you really need to check it out. The website even has some demos for you to check out to get an idea, but trust me when I say the demos do not do the program justice. If you've been on the fence as to whether or not it is worth the cost of admission, I would say go for it. There are teachers who do a fantastic job of teaching rhythms without it, but for me the ability to work individually with a student while the rest of the class is engaged is something I can't imagine doing without this program.
I hope this helped! Thank you for reading, and until next time, take care!
Musically yours,
Mr. Cooper
PS. Just in case you didn't spot the links above, the web address is www.rhythmbee.com.
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