Taking a new look at developing students’ ability to read rhythm patterns and full measures.

When we learn to read our spoken language, we quickly move from deciphering each letter’s individual sound to recognizing first the basic letter groups and the sounds they make to recognizing full words.

That’s why children can learn the difference between words like cough, enough, through, thought, thorough, bough, and rough with repeated usage. When we encounter a letter combination or word we have never seen, we still might have to resort to phonetically “sounding out” until the word becomes recognizable, but we quickly incorporate that word into our vocabulary if we come across it a few times.

Music students very quickly grasp the basic note values, like learning the sounds made by individual letters, but often they do not have the same level of success with rhythmic patterns that they do with written language. Even with the most basic rhythm patterns, they try to give each note its correct value before even beginning to consider the next note - like reading a word by sounding out each letter individually! Learning to count is NOT the same as learning to read rhythms. The relationships created by note groupings, and the rhythmic flow, are frequently very late in developing as students learn to read.

Flashcards don’t compel students to move forward in time as they read – even with the best rhythmic method book, their eyes can stay on the measure until they have played it all, still reading one note at a time. Photographic slides and computer slideshows require accurate manual advance, synchronized to an external metronome. And none of these methods is suitable for a student to work on this critical skill alone.  

By incorporating DVD technology FLASHTRAX addresses these issues. Exercises are presented a single measure at a time, and the measures advance automatically, perfectly in time with the click track. Each measure disappears before the end of the bar, the next measure appears, requiring students to perform from memory the end of one measure as they read the beginning of the next. Students develop the ability to recognize patterns of note groupings and complete measures as they improve their ability to read ahead.

Unlike computer programs, FLASHTRAX is simple to use, as TV’s and DVD players become more common in rehearsal rooms. The longest exercises take just over a minute – use 1-3 exercises per day without taking a large block of rehearsal time.  

FLASHTRAX works with almost any size group, instrumental or vocal, and individuals can use it as effectively as ensembles!

Randal W. Box ● Box Music Service ● P.O. Box 6 ● Arrington, TN 37014 ● 615.395.7018 voice - fax

randy@flashtrax.net

www.flashtrax.net