Rhythm Cup Explorations with Wendy Stevens
Rhythm Cup Explorations is an exciting rhythm phenomenon popular among students and teachers! Wendy Stevens visits the-piano-studio.com to take part in our Conversations series, in which we sit down with various piano luminaries and chat about what interests them, what they’ve learned, what they’ve taught to others, and their areas of expertise.
About Wendy…
Wendy Stevens is a music composer, lecturer, teacher, and owner of composecreate.com. Wendy holds a Bachelor of Music in Piano Pedagogy and Masters of Music in Theory and Composition from Wichita State University. She taught theory at Wichita State University and often adjudicates for music events in the area. She is also an active church musician. Some of her favourite activities include composing and giving presentations on creativity, composition, business matters, and technology.
We are excited to interview Wendy about her experiences on teaching rhythm to her piano students and find out how she created the Rhythm Cup Explorations series.
Wendy Stevens on using her tools to teach rhythm to struggling students…
1) What inspired you to create Rhythm Cup Explorations? Can you provide some background on its development history?
It all started with Rhythm Menagerie. Rhythm Menagerie is actually the core, reproducible rhythm training book that was inspired by my own students’ lack of interest in counting and their rhythm weaknesses. I began to wonder why in the world there was not a book out there that taught rhythm as a foundational skill? Since rhythm is fundamental to every piece of music, why do we not teach it independently so that students can be proficient at it and then have it transfer to all their pieces? Why do we insist on teaching rhythm to kids while at the same time teaching them note reading, fingering, dynamics, and tons of other things? That’s too much!
Rhythm is fundamental. Rhythm by itself is fun. Becoming proficient at rhythm helps every piece of music we play. So, why wasn’t there a book out there that treated rhythm as fun and fundamental? That was where Rhythm Menagerie began!
Rhythm Manipulations is the second book in the reproducible series. It picks up where Rhythm Menagerie leaves off, but the activities are geared toward older students, though younger students love them too.
So Rhythm Cup Explorations 1 and Rhythm Cup Explorations 2 was just a natural outgrowth of that. When Anna Kendrick made her Cups Song famous, I knew that working with cups was going to be a hit. But it wasn’t because Anna had made it popular. If that were the only reason, then Rhythm Cup Explorations would be over by now. It’s because Anna hit on things that are fundamental to what kids love. They love movement, they love novelty, they love making noise, they love playing together, and they love rhythm!
2) In your experience, what are some of the challenges that students have with rhythm? How do the Explorations solve these challenges?
Children don’t like to count. It’s just too abstract and doesn’t really meet any fundamental needs they have, nor does it connect with any part of what they like to do. That’s just one of the challenges!
In addition, if we want children to be rhythmically proficient, we need to get the rhythm in their body not just in their head. Therefore, what I did in Rhythm Menagerie and Rhythm Cup Explorations is more about putting the beat in their body. Yes, they are encouraged to count, and probably should always do this when they first learn the rhythm. The idea of moving cups around, leaning this way and that, jumping up and down (as in Menagerie), sliding the cup during the half note, these are all ways that we are putting the beat and rhythm in the body, in our larger muscles, which produces much better rhythm learning than merely counting.
3) How did you develop the notation that you use?
Lol. Trial and error. No one (including me until I get into the project) ever knows the thousands of small decisions that you have to make in developing a notation system. I tried to envision and predict how kids would interpret the symbols and then I tested them on students. Most of the time, I got it right, but not always. That’s why I tested it. It was a difficult task for sure!
4) Can you give us an overview of the process you follow when you are developing a rhythm cup pattern?
Well, first I determined the level. Then I determined what my parameters were (like whether I was using quarters, halves and rests, or just quarters and halves). Then, most important to the process, was envisioning the students at that level. Kids who are 7 cannot do the same complicated things that kids at age 12 can do at top speed. With those things in mind (remembering that I’m only looking back at the process and not telling you that I always went in this order), I then created the rhythms, usually with a cup. But if I was in a hotel room or in the car waiting for someone, I’d use my fist. 🙂 I get funny looks when I’m developing a product like this!
5) Do you have any success stories or testimonials about the Rhythm Cup Explorations that you would like to share?
Oh goodness, yes! Every week, and almost every day I get very kind e-mails from teachers describing what wonderful things are happening to their students rhythmically when using Rhythm Menagerie and Rhythm Cup Explorations. I hear from teachers who are using it with their teen students and can’t believe how effective it is. Music teachers are using it in schools all over the country! We have teachers using it all over the world and all ages of people are enjoying it: college students, residents of retirement villages, etc. I’m humbled but thrilled by its impact!
One teacher told me about a boy that came with his mother and 18-month-old sister to lessons.
Imagine a large country kitchen with a heavy wooden rectangular table, a mom holding an 18-month-old toddler on her knee, a ten-year-old boy (who hates music by the way), and a teacher explaining.
“Within minutes we were laughing, giggling, tapping cups, tapping the table, and passing them around, the toddler clapping his hands with glee shouting ‘tap tap tap tap tap’ and all of them saying, ‘Do it again!'”
What fun that an entire family of such wide age differences can enjoy that together!
I also had a more recent comment left on the blog that made me tear up as well:
“I teach a weekly music theory class at a prison. [Rhythm Cups] was a big hit from day one. I couldn’t get them to stop playing. I wanted the inmates to have an opportunity to perform, so I ordered the Holiday Book. Starting in September, we practiced ‘Joy to the World’ and ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas’ for many weeks. We had one opportunity in December to perform for a large crowd of inmates at one of the church services. They performed superbly and attracted additional interest in the class.”
There are lots more stories and one only has to ask around, but I love the comments that students make like this one:
“I never like rhythm, especially when we have to count and clap our rhythms– but this is fun!”
6) Is there such thing as being “rhythmically-challenged”?
Absolutely. Some kids are just born with more of a natural bend toward rhythm. So some students have to work a lot harder and longer at getting rhythm inside their body. Rhythm Cup Explorations 1 and Rhythm Cup Explorations 2 as well as Rhythm Menagerie and Rhythm Manipulations are for these students and for students that are rhythmically proficient too!
7) Do you have any suggestions for implementing Rhythm Cup Explorations in studios and lesson time?
Sure! I like to tell teachers that even doing just 2-3 minutes of Rhythm Menagerie or Rhythm Cup Explorations with students each week (and sending them home with the page to practice…which is what is great about the studio license) will make a huge difference in their students’ rhythm abilities.
You can also pull this out when students have forgotten their books or you have extra time.
This is also great to use when students bring their friend to lesson or you have a bring-a-friend day to advertise your studio. Your student can learn the rhythm by counting and figuring it out, and then they can easily teach their friend by rote.
And of course, Rhythm Cup Explorations is a slam dunk win for any kind of group class.
8) What are some unique ideas that you have heard from studios that are using your program?
Oh my. Lots of teachers are doing unique things with it. It’s really fun to see. If you are looking for ideas to implement it, I have an article on my website composecreate.com called 10 ways to use Rhythm Cup Explorations in your studio.
Sara Campbell at sarasmusicstudio.com did an entire incentive program with cup decorations here.
My own student, who is left handed, challenged me to completely shift which hands I normally tell people to use. She made me do it with her, holding the cup in my left hand and tapping with my right. This was quite a shift for me and I loved the challenge!
This is one of the most creative ways a teacher has put together the Rhythm Cup pages:
Another way to use Rhythm Cup Explorations: Barbara Stepp told me that every time a student passes one of the lines in Cup Explorations they get to put some jelly beans in a “community cup”. At the end of a pre-determined timeframe, each student who participated gets to make a guess at the number of jelly beans in the cup…winner gets a prize.
I literally have scores, if not over a hundred different e-mails showcasing the creativity of teachers using Rhythm Cup Explorations! I love that it’s just a starting point for their creativity!
9) What’s new?
Every year I bring out pieces that involve audience cup tapping AND piano music! So, here are a few holiday pieces that have come out that show some of the newer ideas that build on cup tapping:
Also, here’s the newest YouTube video introducing the new Rhythm Cup Explorations 2 Beats: (Accompaniment)!
Important Links
If you want to read more about Wendy Stevens, please visit her website here.
To purchase Wendy’s rhythm books, here are the direct links:
Many thanks to Wendy for sharing her rhythm enthusiasm with us!
August 2016
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