Other than breathing there is no subject as sorrowfully neglected as counting. Counting is not only important for knowing where you are in the music and playing correct rhythms but it increases the coordination of the lips, tongue, fingers and air. Many professionals know what fraction of a beat they are on at all times - even when counting rests!
Demand that your students count everything but the most basic drills.
There are many systems for counting and we do not believe that one is superior to the other. Some people count one-ee-and-uh-two-ee-and-uh and some people count one-two-three-four-two-two-three-four.
We also believe that a system is important for counting long rests. The average student has trouble counting 20 measures of rest and as we know sometimes we get much longer rests. How to keep the mind from wandering?
There are two systems we advocate and use. One is simply counting to the music. Don't just count numbers in your head, make them follow the music.
Another very useful method is to have a system that counts on your fingers. We use our left hand for counting ones and the right for counting tens. We start with straight fingers and curl them to count. We start by curling our left pinky for one, the pinky and ring finger for two, etc. until all five fingers are curled. For six we uncurl our thumb, for seven we uncurl the index finger, etc.
When we get to ten we have all straight fingers on the left and and curl the pinky on the right.
Eleven is the pinky curled on both hands. Twelve is both pinkies and the ring finger on the left hand.
When we get to one hundred (gotta love those classical symphonies) we use our feet. This gets us counting too 299!
When you get good at this you can keep track even when you get distracted.
Demand that your students count everything but the most basic drills.
There are many systems for counting and we do not believe that one is superior to the other. Some people count one-ee-and-uh-two-ee-and-uh and some people count one-two-three-four-two-two-three-four.
We also believe that a system is important for counting long rests. The average student has trouble counting 20 measures of rest and as we know sometimes we get much longer rests. How to keep the mind from wandering?
There are two systems we advocate and use. One is simply counting to the music. Don't just count numbers in your head, make them follow the music.
Another very useful method is to have a system that counts on your fingers. We use our left hand for counting ones and the right for counting tens. We start with straight fingers and curl them to count. We start by curling our left pinky for one, the pinky and ring finger for two, etc. until all five fingers are curled. For six we uncurl our thumb, for seven we uncurl the index finger, etc.
When we get to ten we have all straight fingers on the left and and curl the pinky on the right.
Eleven is the pinky curled on both hands. Twelve is both pinkies and the ring finger on the left hand.
When we get to one hundred (gotta love those classical symphonies) we use our feet. This gets us counting too 299!
When you get good at this you can keep track even when you get distracted.
