David Newell

The Simple Rhythmatician (Tenor Saxophone/Clarinet - Upper Register)

The Simple Rhythmatician is a breakthrough in the study of rhythm - guaranteed to produce rhythmically confident and independent musicians!

APPLY rhythm theory through performance.
REINFORCE and assess progress with rhythm worksheets.
HAVE FUN composing original rhythms and tunes!

The Simple Rhythmatician will have your students playing in cut time without confusion from the very first page of the book! The focus is 100% on rhythm - no new technical challenges are presented. Students will become confident performers in multiple time signatures, opening up a whole new world of repertoire.

Students are ready to begin The Simple Rhythmatician when they are secure in the performance of eighth notes in 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4 time. The Simple Rhythmatician can be used in conjunction with ANY beginning band method.

The Simple Rhythmatician is essentially a music theory book, but one with a very narrow focus and a unique format. No part of the book deals with clefs, note names, key signatures, scales, intervals, and the like. The focus of the book is entirely on rhythm. The book is a rhythm theory book, but one with a significant difference. This is a theory book that students play.

Students read rhythm theory, and they demonstrate their cognitive understandings as they complete worksheets and write both melodic and rhythmic compositions. But unlike other music theory books, this one goes a step beyond reading and writing. Young band students using this particular book also pick up their instruments and they play the theory as they are learning it. The theory comes alive through sound. This unison band method approach allows all of the students to immediately put theory into practice. Generally speaking, students learn what they do more profoundly than they learn what they read and write. The learning is in the doing.

For more information, please refer to ''An Introduction to The Simple Rhythmatician'' found in the right sidebar of this page (under Sample Pages).