Rhythm is fundamental to what we do as musicians, but some students really struggle. I find that the most common problem is students focusing so much on playing the right pitch that they forget to play in time! When that happens it’s crucially important to draw their focus back to rhythm: it’s the backbone of everything we do.
Back in the early days of my teaching career I was looking for a resource to help my students focus on rhythm. After a bit of Googling I uncovered Rhythm Menagerie by Wendy Stevens. I fell in love with it and I’ve used it ever since. There’s a whole generation of young students wandering around Frankfurt, Germany who’ve learnt rhythm via Wendy’s creative and fun resource.
Working progressively through the elementary note values, Rhythm Menagerie gives students loads of opportunity to experience rhythm in lots of different ways, including:
playing the rhythm with both hands
playing the rhythm with their body
playing the rhythm on the piano in creative ways
It’s great fun and the wacky animal drawings and puns—some of which are really bad (sorry, Wendy!)—make it even more entertaining. Check out the previews below for a sample.
But what I love to do most of all is to use it to start a composition.
Note: the previews here are for the “North American version” which use the ‘quarter note, half note, whole note’ terminology, but you can also get a version using the alternative terminology, ‘crotchets, minims, semibreve’ etc, for the same price. Just select “International Version” in the checkout.
Composing with Rhythm Menagerie
It’s really simple to get students composing with Rhythm Menagerie. By focusing solely on rhythm, Wendy has created lots of space for us to add all the other musical elements. Here’s my method:
Clap through the rhythms on the page
Get the student to choose their favourite rhythm
Ask them to pick a pitch for each rhythm note. It’s best to:
restrict them to a scale (or pentascale). Pick one that’s relevant to their lesson and suggest that the tonic (“home note”) of the scale should probably be the final note
if they struggle to remember what they’ve composed, ask them to write the note names above Rhythm Menagerie score
Once they’ve completed the exercise, play their new melody to them
Ask them if there’s anything they’d like to change
Give them the following homework:
practise playing their melody ready to perform it next week
neatly write out their melody in notation
This can be a one-week project, but you can also extend it further by adding an accompaniment, writing lyrics, adding a contrasting second section… the only limits are their imagination!
Pretty cool, huh?
Rhythm Menagerie is just one of Wendy’s rhythm resources. There’s also Rhythm Manipulations for intermediate students, and the Rhythm Cups series. The method above works with all of them!
Good to know:
You can also access accompaniment tracks for each of the rhythm books, which give you a chance to practise ensemble playing with your students, and help your student to internalise the rhythm when practising at home. Find out more here: