• Count aloud
• Sing

A great way to emphasize the pulse, as well as duple subdivision, is to add hand percussion when counting or singing the exercises. For instance, a shaker played in eighth notes (down on the beat, up on "and") helps students maintain a steady pulse, gives them an audible reference point for the "and" (unlike patting a foot) and helps them correctly place 8th and 16th notes. Plus, adding a physical action helps reinforce the mental concept. Shaker eggs are an inexpensive way to get each student involved with hand percussion - musicity.com is a great source for a variety of music supplies and accessories.

With FLASHTRAX you can also have students:

• Clap or tap the rhythms
• Play on a single pitch
• Play or sing on a scale – change pitches each measure, repeating the top note. Since each exercise is 16 measures long, this returns to the tonic for the final measure. Sing using a neutral syllable such as "dah" or use solfeggio syllables.
• Change pitches in the scale (major, minor, chromatic, etc) with each note – but it won’t necessarily come out even!
• Assign a different scale tone to particular note values or combinations
• Be creative! Keep it fun and interesting! It becomes a game when you challenge them to do more than just count rhythms. Students enjoy working on rhythmic reading with FLASHTRAX!