My son (age 7) likes playing the piano but struggles with rhythm and playing at a constant speed. He also loves computer games. When I make his practice like a computer game (winning points, getting to the next level etc) he concentrates much, much better - quite scary really!
Anyway, I was wondering if anyone has experience of using special computer games to help improve rhythm and timekeeping. Do such things exist and are they any good?

I remember a program called MusicGoals Rhythm but I'm not sure how good it is.... someone else might elaborate.

Son Airman took a while to develop a sense of rhythm. I'm all for "whole-body" learning to improve rhythm in speech, so I expect it works for music too.

Skipping is the best way I know to get a really good sense of rhythm! If your son can't skip yet, start out by holding both ends of the rope in one hand and beating it on the ground while jumping (not too fast!) or running and counting the rhythm out loud.

We used to make up all kinds of rhythmical chants while in the car. One I've used with other small kids is the breakfast food round. Each "player" names their favorite breakfast food, and we work it into a set pattern chant, e.g. 3 beats...

Child 1) Eggs'n BA-CON

Child 2) Corn-flakes *clap*

Child 3) Ooh! Yum! Sausage!

Child 4) Hot Choc'late milk

...repeat until delirium sets in.

Off topic I know, but my children tidy up much better when they make it into a 'computer'game. Not sure where they get it from really as they don't spend much time on the computer.
I wonder what else i could make it work for?

My youngest (5) has the same problem. As I understand it, its quite common for younger children to grasp and so should probably improve with age.

Have you searched on the internet for rhythm games? One site www.makingmusicfun.net possibly has rhythm games but I ma sure you'll find lots more.

I use a number of rhymes with my younger pupils and get them to tap their knees for the beat whilst they learn the rhyme. Walking the beat also works well because they learn to feel the beat. We then switch to tapping the rhythm of the words and when they can do both separately, I get them to tap the beat with one hand on one knee, tap the rhythm of the words with the other hand on the other knee - needs a short rhyme for this with repetitive rhythm.

eg.
Rain is fall-ing down x2
Pit-ter pat-ter, pit-ter pat-ter
Rain is fall-ing down.

Beat is on 'rain', 'fall' and 'down' then on 'pit' and 'pat'; 'Down' is worth two beats

How appropriate for today if your weather is anything like it is in London! About to go out and get wet!


Louise

Sigh............... getting on for seventeen years of lessons of all sorts starting at only just over a year (pushy mother - moi?), thousands of pounds, zillions of hours of expert patient brilliant teaching........... STILL no pulse whatsoever.

Is it too late to swap her for a model that works?

Give this site a whirl, it's pretty basic but it's free and may help:

http://www.therhythmtrainer.com/

That's actually pretty good It could do with a lead-in metronome tick though.

I have a slightly newer model in excellent condition. I believe it to be in full working order. In need of a few thousand spending on it to keep it current. I'll happily swap if you're interested

It might sound daft, but the dance mats are quite good for rhythm, especially if you encourage him to count while he's doing it.

I'm useless at it but Wii Music might help in this instance.

Thank you for all your tips. The RhythmTrainer website looks like just the sort of thing he would go for. It's always handy to have ideas for the car too.

I'm not sure about Wii music. We sometimes play it but I struggle to see the connection between whatever I do with the Wii remote and what happens on the screen (not sure that's a problem with Wii music though - probably just reflects my lack of Wii ability).

I hadn't thought about dance mats. I don't really know what they are or how they work but will investigate!

Thanks again

I have a set of animal flashcards which I bought from MES for £10 which I used with my preschoolers all the way through the adults that struggle with learning new rhythms

Each card has a colourful animal on side and then the rhythm on the other.

So for instance

Worm - one worm
Bee - one crotchet
Spi-der - two quavers
Caterpillar - four semis
Grasshopper - one quaver, two semis
Ladybird - two semis, one quaver
and there's one card with only a background with no animal - crotchet rest

There are 70 cards in the pack and it is intended as a classroom resource so the pack comes with instructions for use.

I use the cards alot to teach preschoolers rhythmic notation - at 18 months they can all clap each animal and string several together by the time they leave my preschool classes at 4yrs they can compose rhythmic patterns using these cards and clap as animals or with the notational side up.

I now use the cards to teach all my instrumental students sight reading rhythms - the distraction of the animals makes learning all the semi rhythmic patterns more interesting at grade 4/5.

The animals are also great for bowing exercises and scale patterns. It has been one of the most used teaching resources for all my students.

Just a quick note re MES - I just looked at their website to find some resources for younger children who need more help learning rhythms. They are not sending out any orders between 26th November and 16th December as they are relocating their warehouse. Seems a bit daft this close to Christmas but I guess there's never a good time to do this sort of thing!