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    The Rhythm Book: Studies in Rhythmic Reading and Principles
    The Rhythm Book: Studies in Rhythmic Reading and Principles
    The Rhythm Book: Studies in Rhythmic Reading and Principles
    Ebook269 pages1 hour

    The Rhythm Book: Studies in Rhythmic Reading and Principles

    By Peter Phillips

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    About this ebook

    This excellent textbook is directed to students and their teachers who want to further their mastery of rhythmic reading and notation. Through study of its principles, and through practice of the simple drills and exercises that occur throughout the book, readers can build the broad and fluent rhythmic vocabulary necessary for a good, basic understanding of music's essentials.
    Chapter by chapter, Peter Hampton Phillips, composer and educator, familiarizes the reader with the various signs, symbols, and units of rhythmic notation. For each area, he includes studies for playing and singing, and illuminating examples from nine centuries of music literature.
    The book includes a section on basic conducting technique and an appendix on sight-singing with drills that can enable singers and instrumentalists to "read ahead"; that is, to scan across the page, grasping new patterns as they appear. Other highly useful appendixes to this essential text demonstrate the principles of musical notation; illustrate a broad range of conducting patterns; list tempo markings in English, Italian, German, and French; and present typical problems and solutions of rhythmic notation.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDover Publications
    Release dateMay 5, 2014
    ISBN9780486144580
    The Rhythm Book: Studies in Rhythmic Reading and Principles
    Author

    Peter Phillips

    PETER PHILLIPS es catedrático de Sociología política en la Sonoma State University desde 1994. De 199 a 2010 dirigió el Proyecto Censurado, y ha presidido la Fundación por la Libertad de los Medios de 2003 a 2017. Como editor o coeditor ha publicado el anuario sobre libertad de expresión Censored (catorce ediciones); y el libro Impeach the President: The Case Against Bush and Cheney (2006). Enseña sociología política, sociología del poder, de los medios y de las conspiraciones. Ha obtenido numerosos premios entre los que destacan el premio al mejor libro político concedido por la Firecracker Alternative, y el premio al mejor trabajo contra la censura del PEN club (2008). Media, Sociology of Conspiracies, and Investigative Sociology. He was winner of the Firecracker Alternative Book Award for Best Political Book in 1997, the PEN Censorship Award in 2008, the Dallas Smythe Award from the Union for Democratic Communications in 2009, and the Pillar Human Rights Award from the National Association of Whistleblowers in 2014.

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      Book preview

      The Rhythm Book - Peter Phillips

      Subject)

      Introduction to the Dover Edition

      When many years ago I taught my very first Freshman Theory class, I received two immediate and challenging lessons. First, my students were very insecure in their understanding of and ability to read rhythmic notation. Second, I was not adequately prepared to deal with these problems. I devoted the next two years to the development of a practical method of rhythm instruction and, bolstered by appropriate research, incorporated this into my Masters thesis. In this, I adopted then current methods of language instruction, avoiding artificial systems and pneumonic devices. This method worked for a subsequent generation of students. Eventually it found its way into print and, happily, is now reprinted in this Dover edition. It exists for one reason only: not as an end in itself, but to help students become better musicians overall.

      Music is the art form that uses patterns of sound to communicate a range of emotions, sensibilities, states of being and concepts limited only by the potential of men and women to explore and know themselves. What H. C. Robbins Landon wrote of Mozart's music might equally be said of music in general: that this legacy is as good an excuse for mankind's existence as we shall ever encounter. Today we know Mozart's music because he wrote it down. He used several interdependent notational systems for recording pitch and rhythm, dynamics, tempi, expressive characteristics and instrumentation which today we are able to read and interpret.

      Of these elements, the most basic is rhythm. In Western music, rhythm is also the least studied of the elements. Why this is so is a mystery. Perhaps it is because rhythmic phenomena are elusive and hard for the student to grasp and assimilate, leading to overreliance on rote learning in the early stages. Perhaps, too, we are disconcerted by rhythm's dual attack on our senses: seen (read) and heard on the one hand, sensed and felt on the other. Finally, what may be most difficult to absorb— for it is very rarely taught in conventional music programs—is this:

      that each composition unfolds within a framework of interacting rhythmic elements, of which the most fundamental are beat and meter.

      This text deals specifically with the examination of these elements.

      PETER HAMPTON PHILLIPS

      March 1995

      General Suggestions for Practicing the Exercises

      concentration

      It is important to learn to read accurately the various rhythmic patterns and exercises in this course of study. These patterns and their variations are simple and can be learned without undue effort. But you must always be aware of what you are doing and should practice the exercises with care, for it is very difficult to change an incorrectly learned response to a pattern. You must instead program yourself to respond correctly to these patterns from the very beginning.

      speed and accuracy

      Practice slowly at first. Every person has a speed limit beyond which performance tends to become sloppy and inaccurate. Work within this limit and never allow your practice of an exercise to get out of control. (If you find yourself thinking about speed, you are probably going too fast.) Concentrate on accuracy and precision. You will be able to function well at fast tempi once the patterns and correct responses are learned.

      read exercises straight through

      Work straight through each exercise without stopping. Even if you make a mistake, keep on going to the end. (Professional musicians never stop once a performance has begun!) If a particular pattern proves difficult, complete the exercise, then isolate and repeat the troublesome pattern until it becomes easy to do. Then perform the exercise again to test learning.

      PART ONE: BASIC STUDIES AND READING TECHNIQUE

      Chapter I

      UNMEASURED EXERCISES

      Suggestions for Practicing the Exercises

      intoning and tapping

      Practice the exercises in Chapter I by tapping the beat with the left hand while intoning the syllable ta (short a as in father) as indicated. The procedure for tapping beats is to cup the hand and tap a table or desk top with the tips of the fingers - only the fingers should move. Always use the left hand unless directed otherwise. The usual hand designations of L.H. and R.H. are employed

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