A Novel Approach to Teaching and Learning Rhythm, Part 1

By Andy Ziker

When I was 13 years old, my drum teacher taught me the rudiments and, more important, how to groove. He had an encouraging way about him, always smiling, and he taught me about the importance of developing my own style. However, when I read and played music, I never completely understood what I was doing, even though my teacher patiently demonstrated how it was done. I paid close attention, but some of the time I was guessing.

Years later, I was teaching drums at a music store in Mesa, AZ, but not with a high level of success. I was a graduate of the Arizona State University School of Music, was gigging professionally, and was teaching 4^th grade at an elementary school. How was it that I could teach 30 energetic nine- and ten-year-olds effectively, but have difficulty teaching drum students one on one?

One day I found myself transfixed while watching a Rod Morgenstein drum clinic at the music store. Rod was playing a drum solo, much of which was over-the-bar and polyrhythmic, while he counted quarter notes out loud the entire time. After he played that amazing solo, he said, “Drumming is not rocket science. If we are drummers, then naturally we should have complete command of and become experts in rhythm. Anything less than that is a cop-out.” It hit me that I had somehow learned to understand rhythm through repetition and memorization, but I had never sat down and thought it through. In turn, I was asking my drum students to do the same. I needed to do something about this. At the same time, my fourth-grade students were struggling to learn the concept of fractions, so I found this to be a perfect moment to experiment. The kids didn’t mind at all becoming test subjects. I focused on the time signature of 4/4, and I hung up the following poster.