Ester, Don. Sound Connections. “Takadimi Overview.” 2005.

 

SUMMARIZE:

Ø       Intro

·         Takadimi is rhythm pedagogy designed by three music theorists

·         Kodály educators are adopting this

·         Fulfills National Content Standard #5 through dictation, notation, reading

·         Imperative for teacher to have complete understanding of Takadimi to avoid misunderstanding

Ø       The Challenges of Teaching Music Literacy

·         There are many, many approaches to rhythmic counting, and often multiple ones are used in same school system – problem

·         Common Sense Principles

-          Best for student learning to have one tone-syllable and one rhythm-syllable system for K-12

-          Because of how people migrate, best to use same system nationwide

·         Not practical nationwide (anti-American way, academic freedom), but can happen locally

·         Those who teach primary and secondary prefer counting but use both

·         Counting is better for older kids, Kodály for younger, so teachers struggle to find transition

Ø       The Importance of Sound Before Symbol

·         “Sound before symbol” has been fundamental for > 200 years

·         But in methods practice, almost always has notation first

·         The plethora of visual notation overwhelms the first-time viewer, and gets very confusing

·         Should learn how it sounds/works first, before seeing what it looks like

Ø       The Learning Sequence

·         First, students learn to echo what they hear

·         Second, learn to connect sounds to syllables

·         Finally, learn to connect syllables to symbols

·         Fundamental goal – connect sound to sight

·         Audiation – “hearing and comprehending in one’s mind the sound of music; thinking sound”

·         Must internalize sound or sound pattern before notating or even reading it

·         Effective rhythm and tonal syllables facilitate notation into sound and vice versa

Ø       The Importance of Beat-Oriented Rhythm Syllables

·         If sound introduced first, then designator of beat needed – unique syllable for downbeats

·         Each unique division of beat gets its own unique syllable, consistent across meters

·         Quarter note in 2/4 aurally is same as dotted quarter in 6/8 and half in 2/2, so should all be same

·         Otherwise, hinders sound-to-symbol learning

·         Takadimi, thus, has evolved into a particularly elegant system

Ø       The Takadimi Syllables

·         Takadimi syllables are beat- and metric-function-specific, not symbol-specific

·         2/4 and 2/2 sound exactly the same, so syllables are the same

·         Three superior reasons for Takadimi:

-          Can be used with youngest learners (who may not even know concept of counting)

-          Distinct syllables for simple and compound meters (dual proficiency from start)

-          More accurate representation of duplets and triplets (with di midpoint of both)

·         Also allows for easy switch to beat-counting with 1, 2, 3, etc. instead of Ta

·         Makes transition to instrumental/choral ensembles easy if students already are familiar with it

·         A comfort with this may make rhythm reading instruction unnecessary, allowing more time for concentration on playing techniques

Ø       Becoming a Proficient Practitioner of Takadimi

·         Teacher has to be assertive about wanting to learn and use Takadimi in order to become fluent

·         Give it practice, it’ll become easy pretty quickly

 

DISCUSS:

This is a very interesting article.  It almost convinces me to use Takadimi.  And I mean that seriously, not sarcastically like it sounds.  If I decide to use Takadimi with my students, this is an excellent argument as to why and how.  However, I’m still not totally convinced that it is the best idea.  Regardless of research data, I am not totally convinced of even the idea that sound must come before symbols.  I grew up using the counting system for as long as I can remember, and I never had any trouble with it or saw it causing any problems.  Maybe that’s because I’m a math guy (800 on Math portion of SAT) and so it just makes perfect sense to me to add the rhythms like that.  I certainly do intend to attempt to become proficient at Takadimi, however, because one day I may decide to use it, and I certainly don’t want to snub anything I’m being taught just because I may not totally buy it at the time.