Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Rhythm Training 1 involves the student with the TAP master curriculum developed by David Shrader. Designed as a self paced tutorial, the course depends on the students consistency of lab attendance to gain optimum proficiency. Non readers become readers. Students with previous sight-reading skills become improved sight readers. The 'Tap' method allows the student to internalize a broad range of rhythms by feeling them, not just comprehending them intellectually.
 

After the first initial class meeting, the course continues through the rest of the term in a lab format. Laboratory designations are determined in the first class meeting. Students are encouraged to use the lab as often as possible, and are recommended to follow a bi-weekly schedule. Material in this course is presented in notational exercises compiled in a laboratory workbook. Exercises are setup to correspond to locations on numbered audio tapes. All subject matter is presented to the student by the instructor on the audio tape. During lab activities, the contact instructor/lab technician may observe the student's progress and answer any questions pertaining to subject matter. The 'Tap' method provides an immediate response reinforcement, and furnishes a means for the contact instructor to receive a quantitative analysis of each student's progress. Lab technicians are available to administer operating instructions and maintain lab equipment.
 

• Loading the tape into the cassette deck that corresponds to the same written exercise from the workbook.
• Filing 'Tap' reports in alphabetical order by last name.
• Operating 'Tap' machine and tabulating accumulated scores.
• Logging scores of each performed exercise. Circle perfect scores.
• Establish student sight-reading level by placement test
• Reviewing progress from previous labs to determine weekly placement.

Procedures used to evaluate student progress will be presented at the beginning of the course, with clarification of the instructor's expectations. Competency and grades will be determined by accumulated lab statistics, attendance and results from final performance examinations. Each student must take a performance examination in the presence of the contact instructor to receive a passing grade.
 

• Develop rhythmic sight-reading skills
• Vastly improve sight-reading skills that already exist.
• Recognize the values of time signatures.
• Illustrate ability to read simple rhythmic patterns at various speeds.
• Develop proficiency at playing syncopated rhythms over a variety of musical backdrops.
• Illustrate ability to maintain a steady tempo.
• Apply understanding of written notation and rests. Prove facility at reading complex note groupings.
• Distinguish common patterns as they apply to specific styles of music.
• Acquire sight-reading stamina when reading longer passages.
• Develop eye-hand coordination vital to performance on nearly all musical instruments.