Friday, May 8, 2015 by Lisa Barwell | Uncategorized

We've been busy in the studio this spring!  One of the projects we did, in private lessons as well as group classes, was to create a rhythm tube.  I'll show you step by step how we did it:

First, I cut some paper towel tubes lengthwise.  You'll need one paper towel tube per student.

Tape the tube inside and out to make it secure.  It needs to be about 1/4" smaller than its' original size so that a toilet paper tube fits on the outside of it.

Cover the tube with paper.  I let the students choose different colors to make their tubes bright and cheerful.

Next, it was time to write rhythms.  Students chose different color strips for writing their rhythms on.  They used the bottle cap notes and rests to create their rhythms before writing them.  We were then able to talk about spacing out the notes and rests correctly (ex. half notes get more space after them than quarter notes).  For students who did this in their private lessons, we usually did one or two strips (three to six rhythms) per lesson until we were finished.  For those who did this project in their group classes, we did as many as we had time for.

This is our finished product!  After writing their rhythms on the strips, I taped them to toilet paper rolls that I had previously cut in half.  You'll need five toilet paper roll halves per student.

After finishing the tubes, we were then able to spin the rhythms strips around to create different rhythms to clap or play and count.  Several of my students enjoyed doing this activity with the metronome!  It was the perfect opportunity to learn about using a metronome in a fun, easy way!

Max thought the tube could have another use!  Creativity is wonderful!