Why are there mostly 5 beats on the blue jello cards?

I just want to know why the first set of blue jello cards are in 5/4 time. It just seems strange to me seeing most music theory teaching methods start in 2/4, 4/4 and then 3/4. I was just wondering what the reason behind this is! Thanks, Anna

Hi Anna -

Thank you for your email and your interest in Music Mind Games. Yours is a good question. I did not choose the meters you listed since I want the students not to be biased to any of them. Part of the Music Mind Games philosophy is to keep the students' minds open to the many possibilities that music notation offers. I believe that whatever children learn first leaves an impression. In this case if they learn 4/4 first, the other meters may be perceived as a little odd, different or even difficult. Take 9/8 for example. Instead of thinking "that's really hard!" I want them to be curious, fascinated and have learned the tools to figure it out.

Yesterday one of my students, also named Anna, age 12, noticed one of her new pieces, "The Harmonious Blacksmith" by G.F. Handel is in 24/16 in the one hand while the other hand is in 4/4. She was instantly curious. I gave her a few clues and then she figured it out. "Wow, that's way cool," was her reaction. She even told me why she thought Handel hadn't written both hands in 4/4. The reason? If it was in 4/4 there would be strong and weak pulses and Handel wanted each of the 24 sixteenth notes to be played evenly. Makes sense to me.

Back to your question: The cards mostly have 5 beats because 5 beats fit nicely on a rectangular card. However, there are some blue jello cards with a variety of beats with as few as 4 or as many as 8 beats. In addition to learning to say and sign the rhythms, we play games by counting the beats or identifying which beat the rests are on. They like that game and it's easy since many of the blue jello words are one beat and the ones that take up more beats are spaced exactly right so they can figure it out themselves.

Many theory methods teach rhythm, note values and time signatures at the same time. I believe this is too many things at once for the beginning music student. So I divide each of these tasks into its own subject areas using different games. This way I can really tell if they understand each aspect of reading rhythms before combining them.

Later, when we learn meters, I find they are more open-minded and accepting of the variety of meters possible. This philosophy carries throughout the Music Mind Games method. For example in the rhythm playing cards games sometimes it's the biggest value note or rest that "wins" and other times it's the smallest or even the dotted rhythms or the quarter note values that win. As I believe it's important for us to raise our children without prejudice to others, I weave this into Music Mind Games as well.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to explain this to you.

With best wishes,

michiko

Thanks for the explanation, it makes great sense. Thanks again, Anna