A Year of MMG: Tempo Cards

Compared with my last pair of posts, this one will be much simpler, though the material is just as useful for musicians of all types!

The Tempo Cards are lots of fun.  For one thing, if you've never heard a three-year-old pronounce "Prestissimo," you're missing out.  It is really amazing how quickly they pick up the words, even with lots of syllables in a foreign language!

As with any new knowledge base, it's important to start slowly.  I usually begin with five cards: the two slowest (Largo and Lento,) the two fastest (Presto and Prestissimo,) and the one in the middle (Moderato.)

For a much older student, I might use linguistic hints ("largo" means long in Spanish, and "lent" means slow in French; "moderate," of course, means centrist in English.)  For a younger student, I just use letters: "M for Middle, and M for Moderato.  Moderato goes in the middle!  Now, can you find the two slowest tempos?  They both start with L . . . "

It's very important that the student see there is a fairly large space on either side of Moderato -- large enough for three cards.  This way, they know that we will continue to add cards to the list.  And a little suspense is fun for everyone. 

Once they seem to have those five, we play games, usually Fine and War.  War can get tedious with only five cards, so I make it more interesting by changing the winning card every time there's a war.  For instance, we may begin by saying the fastest card will win, so Presto beats Lento and Prestissimo beats Presto.  But then we both throw down Largo, so after the war is completed, we switch to the slowest card winning.  Now Lento beats Presto and Presto beats Prestissimo.  It sounds a little confusing, but the students catch on quickly and it keeps them on their toes (and also keeps one person from capturing all the cards quickly, prolonging the game and the learning!)

At the next session, I usually introduce Vivace and Adagio, which add to the pairs at either end.  We repeat the learning process, playing a few rounds of Fine and War.

Finally, I introduce Allegro, Allegretto, Andantino and Andante.  These pairs go on either side of Moderato, and it can be tricky to grasp the meaning of the suffixes "ino" and "etto."  Both mean "small," so "Allegretto" means "a little bit fast," hence, closer to Moderato.  Similarly, Andantino means "a little bit slow," so it goes closer to Moderato on the other side. ("Andante" actually means "walking," a fact that older students find interesting.)  Students will nod and say they understand this, but then they'll put Allegretto above Allegro or Andante above Andantino.  Make sure to take plenty of time practicing with just these five cards -- playing Fine, Five Hiding (where Moderato is zero points, Allegretto and Andantino one point and Allegro and Andante two points) and War.

Once the student knows all the Tempos, he may be ready to play Fine and War with all 11 cards, but more likely he will need more practice with smaller sections of the list.  I usually pull out four or five cards at a time, mix them up, and have the student add them back to the list in order.

That's really it!  The only other thing I strongly recommend is to incorporate these words into the music lesson as much as possible.  "I love your Largo tempo, but maybe we could try Adagio this time?"  Or have a child play a very familiar piece, and as she's playing, vary the tempo by putting different Tempo Cards in front of her.  The more applicable the knowledge, the better the chance of permanent retention.