99 Putting It All Together: Melody and Rhythm

It is important to become comfortable with notating and performing advanced rhythmic techniques before combining them with pitches. We need to develop a kind of two-track mind that can recall how to navigate a melodic line in terms of implied harmony and intervallic relations, and remain adept in different types of more advanced rhythmic devices.

These include:

• Successfully identifying and notating and/or performing syncopation

• In performance, seamlessly transitioning between simple and compound meters, understanding from the composer’s notation whether the beat or the note value should remain constant

• Understanding hemiola and other “rhythmic play”

• Confidently identifying and notating and/or performing in irregular meters

In all cases, remember that truly mastering these concepts will only come when you are equally adept at:

• Visual identification on a printed page (what they look like)

• Audiation of how they sound when you look at them

• Translating what you hear into what you write

• Performing them successfully through strong conducting and sticking to a tempo and beat