When a teaching colleague asked me if I had any worksheets that were specific to triple time, I realized to my dismay that I did not! I know that when we first introduce triple time, it is easy for students to pause just after that third beat, producing 4 beats a measure. Though they may be counting out loud, students don’t often realize that they are doing this since they are only saying, “1, 2, 3, [pause], 1, 2, 3, [pause]…” I often demonstrate what they are doing and ask them if they can figure out what might be wrong.
Since prevention of this is always the goal, I thought it would be a great idea to add a number of progressive rhythm drills for triple time. You can find these under the Teaching Resources/ Rhythm Worksheets section which is under the Wendy’s Piano Studio tab. There are 6 new worksheets in order of difficulty:
- Triple Time 1 (quarters, halves, dotted halves)
- Triple Time 2 (same, but with more difficult combinations)
- Triple Time 3 (rests added)
- Triple Time 4 (eighth pairs added)
- Triple Time 5 (rests added)
- Triple Time 6 (most difficult)
If you have other ideas for rhythm drills that would be helpful in your studio, please let me know!
Thanks – I enjoy using your rhythm drills! BTW, when I have a student with the pausing problem, I tell them that their piece is haunted. It has a phantom 4th beat. I then have them play again, and I count aloud the first 3 beats, then whisper 4 in a spooky voice on the pause.
That’s fantastic! I’m definitely going to use that one. Thanks!
Thanks for these rhythm drills Wendy. They will come in handy. Love that haunted idea Laura. I’ll have to remember that one!
Wow, great timing! I just assigned my entire studio a sheet of relevant rhythm drills for them to finger tap/fairy clap/shoulder tap/forehead tap/knee tap etc or a combination, whatever the student chooses. Apparently students love to have some say in how they do it, and I don’t mind as long as they do it! 😀 Next week I’m going to ask them to choose their favourite rhythm and we’re going to compose a little tune using that rhythm.
Thank you so much for putting these up, Wendy!
Oooooh love that ‘spooky 4’ idea too 😀