I have a confession to make. I LOVE YouTube. Seriously, I really love YouTube. I rely on it in my music lessons. Do not get me wrong, I could operate without it; modestly I could say I could operate quite well without it. However, I love sprinkling a little YouTube magic in my lessons. Instant access to so many amazing things.

For this post I want to focus on using YouTube as a tool to practice known rhythmic elements. I started making videos for this purpose and oh my, was I slow! I worked out how to make them…probably in a way that would make many of you laugh, but it worked. I shall not get side-tracked, this is not about making the videos, it is about using them. I think it is all about applying your pedagogical knowledge to this handy little tool. So, come up with as many ideas as you can for using these clips. The kids love them. They are quick, the students are reading, they are performing in parts as they keep the beat yet NOT perform the rhythmic pattern performed on the drums.

If you would like to see me chat about it, check out this Teaching Tip Tuesday

As a side note, I’d love you to go to https://www.youtube.com/user/CrescendoMusicEd  and subscribe and don’t forget to ring that bell so you get updates when I post new videos.

By no means exhaustive, here is a dot point summary of the activities I mention in #TTT34
• Clap
• Clap with Rhythm names
• Each element using different body percussion
• One half do tas one half do ti tis
• Play on untuned percussion
• Play on tuned percussion with given notes (eg G and E) as a group
• Play on tuned percussion individually using any notes
• One slide each child around the group
• Alternate half class – every second slide
• Say all the rhythms backwards
• Create gross body movements for each slide

I’d love to hear your ideas in the comments below.