Code Crackers - Rhythm Book 1 Sight-reading exercises to clap Hannah Haynes

The Code Crackers series is designed to offer students of any age regular, continuous practice in reading music. As all the exercises are intended to be clapped, it is suitable for use by students who are learning any musical instrument. The series deliberately features considerable repetition, to allow for consolidation of learning. There is an extensive notes section at the back of the book (reproduced in the Contents panel below), suggesting possible ways to make use of this series. Buy this music now    Score: £4.99

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Code Crackers sight-reading exercises to clap
Hannah Haynes

The Code Crackers series is designed to offer students of any age regular, continuous practice in reading music. As all the exercises are intended to be clapped, it is suitable for use by students who are learning any musical instrument.

The series deliberately features considerable repetition, to allow for consolidation of learning.

Hints and Tips.

1. Before you start clapping, scan through the exercise and ask your teacher about any notations that you haven’t come across before.

2. Note the time signature. How many beats per bar? What type of beat? More advanced students can also consider whether the exercise is in simple or compound time.

3. Identify any tricky sections. Maybe quickly try them out in your head. Also think about how fast you could comfortably clap the tricky parts and let that inform your count-in speed.

4. Note the double bar line, showing the end of the exercise. Also note any repeat signs and any additional markings, such as dynamics.

5. Count in (usually one bar), and begin the exercise at the same tempo as your count-in.

6. Once you have started an exercise, try to keep going, even if you make mistakes. If you find a page tricky, mark it with a star, so you can easily find it in the future, to try it again.

Suggested ways to use this series

1. Pick an exercise. You, as the teacher, clap the exercise. Have the student try to follow along by moving their finger along the music.

2. Pick an exercise. Clap alternate bars with your student, encouraging them to read the music and follow along with your part, and be ready to enter promptly at the start of“their” bars.

3. Choose a page. Pick an exercise from that page and have your student try to identify which exercise you are clapping.

4. Try some “duets”, where you clap one exercise from a page whilst your student claps a different exercise from the same page. If you have two or more students in class together, you could try trios or quartets. If you are attempting duets, trios or quartets using exercises that include dynamic markings, tempo markings or pauses, use this as an opportunity to discuss together any changes that might be needed to make the passages work well as an ensemble. For instance, pauses might need to be omitted, and dynamic markings might need to be adjusted to get a better balance across the group.

5. Talk to your student about the time signature of an exercise, and have them clap (or march in time to) the beat, as you clap the exercise as written.

6. Pick an exercise. Discuss the time signature and have your student conduct the beat for you as you clap.

7. Pick an exercise. Have your student look at the first bar. Have your student describe what they see, in great detail: the clef, time signature, dynamic markings and also the rhythm. For example, to describe the rhythm they might say, “There are two crotchets followed by a group of four semiquavers. The semiquavers are all beamed together.” You, as the teacher, write down exactly what they tell you. When they have finished describing the bar, together, compare what you’ve written down to the original.

8. Pick a simple exercise. Come up with some song words to fit the rhythm.

9. Pick an exercise. Pick a particular bar. Clap the rhythm to your student and have them attempt to write it down. With clapping, it can be difficult to distinguish between, for example, a minim, and a crotchet followed by a crotchet rest. Have an agreed signal that denotes a rest - such as putting a finger to your lips, or opening out your hands.

10.Pick a simple exercise to clap together with your student. Encourage your student to try to look a few notes ahead (memorising as they go), to allow them to look up sometimes - in the way that they would need to if playing in an orchestra and needing to watch the conductor. Clap together, and attempt to make some eye contact with each other, whilst continuing to clap.

11.Have your student try out the rhythms using drums or shakers, or, if appropriate, their own instruments. Pick any easy note. They need not play the notated F if this is tricky for them. On instruments where playing lots of repeated notes is difficult for beginners (such as harps) perhaps have the student tap the soundboard or equivalent.

12.Pick a simple exercise. The student is going to clap. You are going to conduct. Vary the tempo a little. See if your student can watch you and adapt their clapping to fit your beat.

13.Pick a simple exercise. Encourage your student to make a simple melody using the rhythm as the basis.

14.With a group, pick a page and treat it as a continuous piece of music rather than as a series of separate exercises. One student counts in. All students clap along together. At some point before the end the end of the page, the first student stops clapping. See how quickly the others notice and stop too.

15.Pick an exercise. You, as the teacher, choose a dynamic for that exercise. (It can be different from any dynamic that may be marked.) Clap (or play) the exercise through to your student. Have the student suggest an appropriate Italian term for the volume you clapped at e.g. pianissimo, mezzo forte etc.

16.Pick an exercise. You, as the teacher, choose a tempo for that particular exercise. (It can be different from any tempo that may be marked.) Clap (or play) the exercise through to your student. Have the student suggest an appropriate Italian term for the tempo you clapped at e.g. lento, andante, allegro etc.

17.Pick an exercise. You, as the teacher, will have the sheet music in front of you but the student should not be able to see the sheet music. Give a count-in and then clap the first two (or more) bars. Let the student hear the extract at least twice. Have the student attempt to clap the extract back to you from memory. If your student normally uses recall words (see later in the book), then encourage your student to add in their recall words as they clap the extract back to you.

18.Pick a very simple exercise. Challenge your students to try clapping some rhythms back-to-front (reading right to left)!

19.Pick an exercise. Have the student look at the exercise for a minute or two. Encourage them to hear the music in their heads. See how much they can clap back from memory.

20.Pick a four bar exercise. Cover up the final two bars of the exercise. Have your student clap the first two bars, and then have them improvise an answering two bar phrase.

Using Recall Words

In line with many musical methodologies, I have found it very useful with my own students to use words or sounds that “fit” particular notations. We then say these words (or sounds) as we clap. For example, we have a simple one syllable word that we use every time a crotchet is notated. We also have a two syllable word that we use every time we come across two quavers beamed together, and a four syllable word that represents a group of four semiquavers, and so on.

With beginners, I use these “recall” words exclusively at first. Later on I start to introduce terms such as “crotchet” and “quaver”, but only once a student has a confident sense of how each note value (or common grouping of note values) sounds.

With my students who are no longer complete beginners, I use both terminologies. If we want to be able to easily “hear” how a rhythm sounds, we use our recall words to try it out. On the other hand, if we want to describe a rhythm to each other, then we use words such as“crotchet” and “quaver” and so on.

Having recall words for groupings (such as four semiquavers beamed together, or for a quaver beamed together with two semiquavers etc), encourages students to look at the music as a series of mini musical “packages” rather than purely as individual notes. I have found a number of benefits to this including speed of reading, and ease of memorising.

If this is unfamiliar but appealing, please note that there are many well-established existing schemes (sets of recall words/sounds) available to use. Alternatively, if you did wish to invent your own recall words, be reassured that in the Code Crackers series, new note values and patterns are introduced very gradually. This means that if you start at book one and progress through from there, there is very little “inventing” needing to be done on a week-by-week basis.

Title:	Code Crackers Rhythm Book 1
Contents:	Sight-reading exercises to clap
Composer:	Hannah Haynes
Instrumentation:	Any
Level:	Progressive
Format:	A5 Landscape Stapled
ISMN:	9790570463886
Our Ref:	SM0671
Publisher:	Creighton's Collection
Edition/Year:	First Edition 2022
Origin:	UK