10/23/2026
One of the most critical music concepts I want students to grasp is the idea of beat vs rhythm.
The first step is to hear and feel the ongoing “heartbeat” (steady beat) in a song, which is consistent and never abruptly longer or shorter.
Then, rhythm is taught as “the way the words go.” The long and short sounds of a melody fit INTO the steady beat.
We use the icons to represent the even and consistent beat of a song, and the magnets to represent how many sounds are sung during each beat.
Here we transcribed Good King Leopold and students took turns making this rudimentary musical notation on the board.
Soon they will be ready to see written notation and they will have context for it!