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Holiday Rhythm Cup Explorations

(41 customer reviews)

$38.99

Your holiday music program or recital is going to come alive with Holiday Rhythm Cup Explorations!

Holiday Rhythm Cup Explorations accompaniment tracks + book by Wendy Stevens | ComposeCreate.com

Orchestral accompaniment tracks:

Cup-tapping the holiday rhythms is 10x more fun with these! Listen to the tracks and get details here or get the discounted bundle in the options below:

Studio Use License – Fantastic value as this can be used for as many students as you directly teach!

SKU: SKU190 Categories: ,

  • Level: Elementary – Advancing
  • Contents: 3 pieces of intermediate holiday music (so it’s easy for you to sight read or have your advancing students prepare and play) plus 3 levels of rhythm cup arrangements to play during the piece!
  • Pages: 28 reproducible pages
  • Format: PDF instant download – After you click the link, it will go to your downloads folder!
  • Music Details: 2 secular (Deck the Hall, We Wish You a Merry Christmas) and 1 sacred piece (Joy to the World) to work with any mix of students!

The holiday edition of Rhythm Cup Explorations will be the highlight of this year’s group party, partner lessons, or music class! Another supplement to the fun, reproducible rhythm curriculum (Rhythm Menagerie, Rhythm Manipulations, and Rhythm Cup Explorations), Holiday Rhythm Cup Explorations takes advantage of “the cup craze” to re-enforce rhythms you’ve been teaching all year! And the holiday edition adds new elements like music to play while students tap, reaching and cup tapping each other’s cups, tossing cups, and more!

What’s included in Holiday Rhythm Cup Explorations?

This PDF resource includes:

  • 3 piano arrangements
  • Carefully composed cup tapping routines for these arrangements in 3 levels!

This means that you can have different cup tapping routines for your elementary, one for your early intermediate and one for your late intermediate students!

How difficult are the levels in Holiday Rhythm Cup Explorations?

Rhythm Concepts Covered:

  • Level 1 (quarter, half)
  • Level 2 (up through eighths)
  • Level 3 (sixteenths)

What pieces are included in Holiday Rhythm Cup Explorations?

Holiday Rhythm Cup Explorations contains 2 secular and 1 sacred arrangement:

  • Deck the Hall
  • We Wish You a Merry Christmas
  • Joy to the World

Holiday Rhythm Cup Explorations Accompaniment TracksTell me more about the Accompaniment Tracks!

Be sure to get the option that includes the beautiful, full-sounding Holiday Rhythm Cup Explorations Accompaniment Tracks because that’s going to knock the socks off your audience and your students! Sure, you can just play the piano music that’s included with the cup-tapping, but a piano is not the same as playing with an orchestra or band! These tracks are stunning and full-sounding. You can listen to samples of the tracks here.

How can I use Holiday Rhythm Cup Explorations?

There are many ways to use Holiday Rhythm Cup Explorations. Here are just some of them:

  • Group lessons
  • Holiday parties
  • Holiday programs
  • Classroom activities
  • Holiday recitals
  • Bring-a-friend lessons
  • The sky’s the limit!

Musicians of all ages love this resource. But don’t take my word for it, take a look at the picture of Sarah Reaser O’brien’s students below!

Students love Holiday Rhythm Cup Explorations

Edition

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41 reviews for Holiday Rhythm Cup Explorations

  1. Glenna O’Dell

    My teenagers have already started asking about a party (where we used Holiday Rhythm Cup Explorations) again this year. We had great fun with the games and the cups!

  2. Keri Salustri

    You’ve taken our favorite activity and made it even better!!! It’s the whipped cream and cherries on top of the best ice cream sundae! Way to go!!!

  3. Anonymous

    One of my students said about our recital with your Holiday Rhythm Cups, “I wasn’t really nervous. It felt more like I was having fun than playing at a recital!”

  4. Glenna O’Dell

    My teenagers have already started asking about a party again this year. We had great fun with the games and the cups!

  5. Anonymous

    One of my students said about Holiday Rhythm Cups, “We should have more recitals if they are like that one!”Addictive and kids of all ages love it.

  6. Phyllis Bowers

    My students had a great time doing “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” rhythm cups at our recital yesterday. It was so much fun!!!

  7. Faye Smith

    Wendy really understands what students enjoy and what motivates them. You cannot go wrong with any of her rhythm explorations activities. So, if you want you students to get better at rhythms and have fun doing it – use rhythm explorations!

  8. Susan

    My students rhythm has improved so much since I have been including your rhythm menagerie as part of their lessons. Last year when we tried to do some of your cup explorations and they were horrible at it but this year they are so much better. I was so thrilled to see this fun holiday cup activity. My students picked right up on it. Thank you so much.

    Rhythm is the hardest part about playing any instrument so any activity we can give them will help our students with what ever instrument they may play. In this way I feel I am teaching them more than how to play a song.
    I put 4 Stars because I do feel the material is a bit pricey since it is all digital.

  9. Tammy

    Our big recital finale was “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”! Students handed out cups to every audience member and led their families in singing and tapping while one student hammed it up on the piano. It was a blast!

  10. Heather Lucas

    My students tried out the Deck the Halls cup tapping and loved it. We chose about 9 students to perform this at our upcoming concert and they were wrapped to be the ones chosen to perform. They are performing on “Christmas present wrapped cardboard boxes” kneeling on the floor. It is looking like a great performance. Will be using some other pieces for Christmas camp, for sure. Heather

  11. Virginia

    This will be our second Christmas recital that uses rhythm cups. Neither my kids nor their families could imagine having this year’s recital without our rhythm cups. We love it. Thank you Wendy Stevens for this innovative way to make our recitals special. We love it

  12. Cheryl Bratsch

    I am using the rhythm cup tapping with my choir at church, students aged 6–11. Their rhythm is improving immensely as they enjoy the cup tapping so much. It is fun to have Christmas songs for tapping. We also used the America the Beautiful cup tapping song for a tribute song on Veterans’ Day weekend during a youth-led church service.
    The congregation loved it too! I am considering using it more with audiences at a carol sing and at piano recitals. Thanks for a great tool!

  13. Janet Dill

    I used this for our recital and group lessons.
    My students loved this and it promoted more practice!!
    Thank you again Wendy!!!
    I highly recommend!!
    Janet Dill BA Music Ed

  14. Jean Bostrom

    I love the piano arrangements and my students are going to have lots of fun at my piano holiday party with the cup activities. I am excited about this!

  15. Martha

    Thank you, thank you, Wendy! Holiday Rhythm Cups and Accompaniments was an instant hit with the students! It was even better for me–even the 14 year old student who hates to count joined in with a smile rather than a grimace. The cups are fun and the orchestrated accompaniments make such a big, impressive sound that the students can’t help but feel proud!
    Martha Roche

  16. Swan Kiezebrink

    Perfect for the holiday group lessons and parties! Easy to put together to sound great in one lesson, too!

  17. Sheri Schaffer

    Love, love, LOVE rhythm cups!! I just held a student mini-recital/fun day two days ago and we did two songs from this book. The kids LOVED it! We invited the parents in at the end of the workshop and I had red and green cups and the kids performed both pieces. The parents ate it up!! Wendy lays it all out so nicely – it’s very easy to follow. So glad I purchased this – I will use it for years to come! And the accompaniment tracks are fabulous!! Thank you, Wendy, for another phenomenal product for piano teachers!

  18. mathew.anna.v

    I just want to thank you so very much for coming up with such a neat idea! I’m so glad I bumped into the holiday cup rhythm. I bought it for our Christmas party but then realized that I had to go over it with my students at lessons before the party. Each one them is totally amazed at this fun activity! We just can’t wait for our Christmas party when all the students will tap together. It’s gonna be a blast!! I do intend to buy the rhythm menagerie and other wonderful stuff you have.

  19. Evgenia

    We have had a great time tapping with the Christmas carol backing tracks this week!! The backing track makes all the difference to make a fun activity amazingly fun. Students who are usually a bit distracted become all concentration! Thanks Wendy

  20. ML Brinkman

    I bought these to use with students in December group classes. I have used the regular Rhythm Cup books in previous group classes. Rhythm Cups are hands down students’ favorite part of group class. They were thrilled to have a Christmas edition!

    Since the Christmas Rhythm Cups are longer than the regular Rhythm Cup activities, I asked my students to work together to analyze the music, look for potential tricky spots, and come up with a plan to practice the tricky spots ahead of time. For me, this is a double win! Not only can I use Christmas Rhythm Cups to reinforce rhythm, I can use it to reinforce practice strategies, goal setting, and execution of a plan. With peer pressure added into the equation, students were much more willing to stick to the plan and be honest about their mistakes. “Oops, we need to try that again. It didn’t go so well.” “Okay, even though we got it right, let’s do it again to make sure it wasn’t an accident.” Etc.

    After students followed through with their practice plan, we used the backing tracks to go through the entire piece. I appreciated having tracks both with and without the piano part. On the first attempt, I used the track with the piano so that I could participate in the tapping and monitor how well students did. Then, on the second attempt, I played the piano part and used the track that didn’t have the piano. The students liked the challenge of staying together without my help!

  21. Nellie Broeksteeg

    Students enjoyed it. Good for the students to need their counting skills.

    NN

  22. shauna vartanian

    Students have fun and learn rhythm. Wonderful exercises!

  23. Deborah Toews

    I had fun using Holiday Rhythm cups with both my private piano students and my 2nd – 3rd and 4th grade school classes on the last day of music before Christmas. There is a level that will work with almost any group – quarters and halves only all the way up to 16th notes. The accompaniments add that extra spark and the slowest tempo is perfect for practice. Students wanted to keep playing and trying the faster tempos – a bit like working up the levels in a video game! Great motivation for rhythm work and team building.

  24. Jasmin Brackenbury

    I purchased the Holiday Rhythm cups for my Christmas themed month. The first year we didn’t do many, but this year was a real hit. The students loved the challenge and with the accompaniment tracks they felt very accomplished. They are worth purchasing and working through. Fun reasons to keep counting out loud!! Something every teacher wishes their students would do more often…..

  25. Erin

    I was looking for ideas for a Christmas party with my students (middle and high school age), and I happened upon your Rhythm Cup Exploration activity. What a hit!?! My students AND I loved the activity! It is a great activity to get students engaged in understanding and creating rhythm patterns, and it’s just a lot of good, plain fun!

  26. Mark

    This is the best fun ever. A fabulous way to inject some holiday fun into lessons as we wind down towards Christmas. My students are excited to play along with the backing tracks. We start on the slowest speed and work our way up to the fastest

  27. Lisa

    This is great for those classroom weeks right before Christmas break. The kids are “rammy” but I still want to have a quality music class that is fun! Challenging them to do well on the slower tempi in these songs, so we can go faster gets them excited!

  28. Cheryl Bratsch

    I love the rhythm cup music. I used it for our Christmas party and the students had a ball! Even my very youngest student caught on quickly and was able to keep up with the introductory level. Thanks for the great idea!

  29. Angela Jacobson

    This activity eas so much fun! I only wish i could have discovered them sooner so we could have used them longer. I used the Holiday rhythm cup tapping during our last week of lessons before Christmas break! It was such a fun change for the students and the advanced ones were able to do some of the level 2 and even 3 at slower tempos. I will definitely be purchasing the additional cup tapping method books and incorporating this rhythm study into lessons. Thank you sor such a fun resource!

  30. Vicki Duckworth

    Students and parents alike enjoyed their first cup tapping experience. I also introduced 4 public school teachers to the experience, and all 4 intend to order materials for their classrooms. Thanks for providing such fun material.

  31. Dolores

    I purchased the Holiday Rhythm Cup Explorations to use with my Montessori music class of 1st-6th graders. It was very easy to use as a last minute plan for a holiday music class. It was great that it had different levels availability, so I could find something that worked for my beginners yet still challenged my more advanced students. I did not choose to buy the rhythm tracks, but realize it would’ve been nice to have them.

    5 stars!

  32. Janet Limoges

    My students all love doing rhythm cups. They love the break in the routine of our lessons and it’s making a huge impact to improve their understanding of rhythm in their piano playing. We are practicing now, in individual lessons, to cup to We Wish You a Merry Christmas and we will all join together to cup to this song at our Christmas recital. It’s adding rhythm and spice to make everything nice! Thank you.

  33. Rosalie

    All of my students, beginning on up, are absolutely loving this! We are having tons of fun and they are learning important skills at the same time.

    Thanks Wendy!

  34. Carol Peterson

    My students love Holiday Cup Rhythms and so do I! We also do Rhythm Menagerie, but the cup rhythms is something different! I will definitely be using it in a recital!

  35. Stephanie Kolacki

    I’m a private piano teacher as well as a general music/band teacher. I’ve been using these with my 5th/6th grade classes. They’ve been extremely successful and a lot of fun! My kids will be performing them at their book fair for their parents and classmates. I love the different levels for each song as well.

  36. Joan Witte

    I got this to use during my group class, and the students had a lot of fun tapping together along with the accompaniment tracks! I use Rhythm Cup Explorations 1 & 2 and My First Rhythm Cup Explorations in my private lessons, so the students were already familiar with the cup tapping techniques, making it very easy to learn an entire carol in just a little class time. I had my students divided by levels for the group classes, so it worked great to have multiple levels of difficulty that I could tailor to the students in each group. Thanks for another great product!

  37. Shirley

    My students and I are loving the Christmas Rhythm Cups! Students are thrilled to practice their parts at home! We are having so much fun….

  38. May

    My students performed Deck the Halls cup tapping at our recent Christmas recital, using the Level 1 rhythm to include everyone in the performance. It was a real highlight of the recital, so good to see everyone working together (25 students). Age range 4 years – 11 years.

  39. Amy Greer

    My studio class had a lot of fun with the cup activity! I would give 5 stars but I think it’s priced a little high for what you get. Super fun though–just wish there were more songs to last many more studio parties to come!

  40. Angela Jacobson

    I just want to THANK YOU again for the wonderful and fun resources you create!!! It is an especially busy holiday week as we are preparing for Recital this weekend and I am also in college finals. However, yesterday I decided to pull up the Holiday Rhythm Cup Explorations® download, pdf and mp3 almost last minute.

    It was so easy to find in my account on your website, and print off a few pages, and do an extra fun activity with the kids (since lessons are a little shorter with no new assignments to go over and only so much time to be spent on polishing for a performance in 5 or fewer days).

    I haven’t done these with most of my students before, only a small group got to do “Trepak” from Nutcracker Rhythm Cup Explorations® last year. It was a fun “no brainer” that made lessons really fun and different, and still valuable as far as learning. The investment last year was totally worth it-I will be pulling these out every year from here on out!

  41. Corinne

    My students enjoy the rhythm cup exercises we do regularly in the studio, so for fun, I ordered Holiday Rhythm Cup Exploration.  They have been such a hit!  We LOVE them!  It says a lot for the music that I can do them over and over with 24+ students without tiring of them (the students or the music!).   The student love trying to get it right at “andante, moderato or allegro”.  At our Christmas Musicale last night, the 4-7 year-old beginners performed We Wish You A Merry Christmas with rhythm cups.  It was a huge hit!  The little sister of some older students was almost in tears because she wanted so much to start lessons to have fun like that.   We’re all big fans of Compose Create resources like the Holiday Rhythm Cups.  I wouldn’t have tried them without seeing Wendy’s webinar about them.  Thanks, Wendy, for all the great music and resources. 

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