Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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While Pianodao has featured several books and series by my friend Paul Harris (you can explore my other reviews here), I can only scratch the surface of the more than 500 publications already to his name.
Harris’s latest looks set to become another classic, a standout publication that superbly fills a gap many of us didn’t quite realise existed.
Billed as “a workbook for developing a sense of pulse, rhythm, and counting”, his Play with Rhythm! is suitable for musicians of any instrument or genre, and can be used in individual or group lessons, or on your own at home. According to the publishers Faber Music,
“Suitable for players of Grade 2 (Elementary) level upwards, this practical workbook takes students step by step through a series of simple activities that will develop a real understanding of rhythm and awareness of pulse.”
Having perused a draft some months ago, and now the finished product, I think that this winning publication will quickly establish itself as an essential resource, so let’s take a closer look.
The rhythm revolution
Play with Rhythm! is a full-sized music book that sits snugly alongside the author’s Improve your sight-reading and other well-known series, and follows the typical house style for his workbook publications.
The glossy card cover is appealing, colourful, its stacked icon images tantalising. Within, the 48 pages appear on bright white paper, with attractive design elements that break up the content into manageable chunks. And while some of the rhythm charts in the second half of the book are quite complex, Faber Music’s thoughtful design adds impressive clarity.
In his Getting Started introduction to the book, Harris explains the importance of rhythm:
“A true understanding of rhythm is central to being musical, from lesson one onwards. By working through this book you will learn to know rhythm in a complete, methodical, practical, and enjoyable way.”
He goes on to list these reasons why rhythm is so important:
- Rhythm holds music together
- Rhythm holds a performance together
- It allows you to play confidently and accurately with others
- You’ll sight-read more easily and learn pieces more quickly
- It’s actually very good for your brain
I would argue (and I suspect Harris would agree) that piano players are at something of a disadvantage here, because we don’t necessarily play with other musicians routinely from day one of our piano journey. Much of the time, we depend almost entirely on our own inner sense of pulse, or else become the frustrated slaves of an electronic or mechanical metronome.
The rhythm revolution that Harris proposes with this workbook is one which could liberate pianists from this prison. And goodness knows, I’ve heard many pianists from adult beginners to more advanced musicians who could benefit from working through this material. Here at last is the key that could unlock more satisfying musicianship for many players.
The Paul Harris approach
As with so many of Harris’s titles, the workbook is split into Stages, and in Play with Rhythm! there are 16 of these, the first of which concerns pulse “as an idea, a knowledge, a concept, an understanding, an instinct.” Harris explains,
“You’ll get to know and understand it, and eventually sense it as part of your musicianship. But we do need a lot of physical practice to get to that point.”
Rather than relying on continual verbal counting, Harris encourages musicians to cultivate an instinctive internal awareness of pulse and subdivision.
The exercises here and in Stage 2 offer a powerful opportunity to get to really know pulse, and the rest of the book builds on this foundation, dividing the pulse (quavers) in Stage 3, and introducing the idea of a Virtual Internal Metronome (VIM):
“You will know pulse and its subdivision as an awareness, a concept that you understand. You don’t have to feel it physically and you don’t need to count it, it’s just something that will always be with you and will ensure you will always get rhythmic patterns. This is your Virtual Internal Metronome.”
In the many clapping exercises that inevitably populate the book, the Virtual Internal Metronome is presented in a grey box beneath each exercise, a visual representation of the internal sense of pulse and subdivision that the learner is hopefully coming to know well.
Similarly, Harris visually presents layered subdivisions to help learners comprehend aspects of rhythm that are often misunderstood, such as ties, rests, dotted notes, triplets, and compound time. Faber Music have made this chapter available as a free download to illustrate the point:
Harris supportively develops his logic through each Stage, and underlines each new skill with a positive “can-do” attitude:
- Stage 1: Getting to know pulse
- Stage 2: Putting pulse into practice
- Stage 3: Introducing the magical skill
- Stage 4: The volume control
- Stage 5: Putting your VIM into practice
- Stage 6: Ties? No problem!
- Stage 7: The secret to dotted notes
- Stage 8: Adding in quaver rests
- Stage 9: Developing your inner ear
- Stage 10: Layered subdivision
- Stage 11: More semiquaver patterns and volume control
- Stage 12: Introducing triplets
- Stage 13: Compound Time
- Stage 14: Adding more flexibility to your VIM
- Stage 15: How this helps with musical character and technique
- Stage 16: Creating a sense of movement
At the end of the final Stage, Harris enthuses,
“It’s been a voyage of discovery into perhaps music’s most fundamental energy force. With your Virtual Internal Metronome now installed and ready for use at any time, you should never be fazed by the rhythmic content of any music you are learning and performing. Your understanding and delivery of rhythm are one and the same thing.”
Closing thoughts
Paul Harris has an uncanny knack of producing game-changing publications which immediately impact the quality of instrumental teaching and learning for the better. Play with Rhythm! is undoubtedly one of his most important resources yet, and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
As a teacher of many beginner, elementary, and intermediate pianists, this book seems destined to become one of the most-used resources in my studio. Importantly, I believe it will also be one that my teenage and adult students can work with independently, such is the clarity of Harris’s delivery and Faber Music’s presentation.
When Paul first showed me an early draft of this workbook, I had a strong inkling that it would be an indispensable resource; having to wait a few months for the finished result hasn’t been easy! Well now here it is, and I highly recommend you check it out right away!
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