students with a variety of examples to help them hear and conceptualize the rhythm pattern.
The first three lessons in cycle one featured single step movements while the fourth and fifth lessons utilized a multi-step combination that was repeated. Cycle two, and the first lesson in cycle three, also drew upon multi-step combinations to highlight the rhythm pattern, which were repeated. In cycles three through five, it was necessary for me to include more complex tap combinations, several of which contained additional beats before and/or after the principal rhythm pattern.
Terminology for tap steps can vary among dance studios, so I utilized the online dictionary, United Taps, to unify the terminology for the combinations. The website also includes video demonstrations of several of the steps and combinations that I employed, so the students in the study had an outside resource to practice the steps further if they desired.
Cycle 1 Lesson 1 – Step, Stomp, Brush, Spank, Scuff, Toe Tap
The first cycle, included eighth notes and quarter notes with their equivalent rest values, appearing in various combinations. The first lesson in the study was based on the following choral works: Haydn’s “Achieved is the Glorious Work” (Figure 3.1), and Randall Thompson’s “A Girl’s Garden” (Figure 3.2). The tap pattern most closely aligned was a set of four, single sound steps, as shown in Figure 3.3.
Figure 3.1. Haydn's "Achieved is the Glorious Work."
Figure 3.2. Thompson's "A Girl's Garden."
Figure 3.3. Four single-sound steps.
I began with several, single-step movements to acquaint the students with common tap steps as they would be used in future lessons. I selected six different tap steps to introduce this opening lesson: step, stomp, brush, spank, scuff, and toe tap, all of which generate a single sound. Howell (2011) describes step as, “A placing of the front
part of the foot firmly on the floor, taking weight; always executed on the ball of the foot unless otherwise noted” (p. 4). Stomp is defined and described as, “A step on the entire flat of the foot that bears no weight” (p. 4). The third tap step used in lesson one, brush is defined as:
A one-sound kicking movement, in any direction. With the knee in a flexed position, strike the ball of the free foot against the floor, raise the leg in the air until the knee is straight. This applies when the brush is executed in a forward movement. A brush may be executed in any direction, but basically it is forward or backward. (p.1)
Howell describes a spank as, “A one-sound backward kicking movement. With the knee in a flexed position, strike the ball of the free foot against the floor, raise the leg in the air until the knee is straight” (p. 4), and he describes scuff as, “A heel movement executed in the same manner as a forward brush wherein the back edge of the heel strikes the floor in a pendulum-like movement” (p. 4). The final tap movement included in the lesson was a toe tap, which Howell classifies as, “The striking of the free foot to the floor in any direction that bears no weight” (p. 4). The students learned this step by bending the knee and striking the toe of the foot to the floor behind them.
The students performed the rhythm pattern a total of ten times. The first six times, the students said the name of each tap step as they executed the movement. The first time saying “step, step, step, step,” the second time uttering “stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp,”
followed by “brush, brush, brush, brush,” subsequently “spank, spank, spank, spank,”
next with “scuff, scuff, scuff, scuff” and, finally, “toe, toe, toe, toe.” After the students
had a physical sense of the rhythm pattern, they then tapped the rhythm a seventh time and counted the rhythm by the beat numbers, “1, 2, 3, 4.” Next, I visually presented the rhythm pattern on the classroom Smartboard, as shown in Figure 3.4, and had the
students execute the rhythm two more times. The first time, the students only saw the tap syllables printed underneath the beats of the rhythm pattern and spoke the syllables while tapping the rhythm. The second time, the students saw the counts displayed underneath the rhythm pattern and were asked to count and tap the rhythm at the same time. Finally, the students were asked to select the tap step they most preferred using in this lesson and to tap and count the rhythm a final time while reading the rhythm on the Smartboard.
Figure 3.4. Rhythm as displayed on Smartboard.
This became the instructional model that I used throughout all the lessons of each cycle. The students first learned the tap steps or combination as I modeled the
movement. Once I felt that the students were comfortable with executing the steps, I instructed them how to count the pattern aloud. The students were then asked to count, while concurrently tapping the rhythm pattern, to aid in internalizing the rhythm pattern.
After practicing the counts in this manner approximately five times, I displayed each rhythm pattern on the classroom Smartboard and then the students tapped and spoke the rhythm, first with the tap syllables and next with the counts as they read the notation.
This instructional model was intended to provide the students with multiple ways to perceive rhythm: feeling, hearing, visualizing, and verbalizing.