Steady beat is the pillar rhythmic concept in music education.
Every other rhythmic element students experience is predicated on a contextual knowledge and experiential understanding of steady beat. If a student ever struggles with a rhythmic concept, we can revert back to look for behavioral evidence of steady beat competency.
This is the very first rhythmic element we work on in my Kindergarten curriculum. Here are some quick ways to get started with this element in your own classroom!
Preparing the Steady Beat
Before students learn to label the beat, they need to learn to experience it. We'll do that three ways: aurally, physically, and visually.
There are truly countless songs you could use for this! (I gave some of my favorites here.) For these examples I'll use Goodnight Sleep Tight and Chop Chop Chippity Chop.
Aural:
To prepare aurally we simply ask students to respond to the steady beat they hear.
They could respond through any number of activities but in this case we're swaying and chopping to the beat.
Physical:
As students are comfortable with the song and responding to the steady beat we can change the motion.
For Goodnight, Sleep Tight have one student rock a stuffed animal while the rest of the class keeps a steady beat on their laps.
For Chop Chop Chippity Chop, have students make a chopping motion with their hands.
You can get the sheet music and audio for both of these here, along with my other favorite songs for teaching beat!
Visual:
Use the icons below for Goodnight, Sleep Tight or Chop Chop Chippity Chop and have students point to the moon or soup pot as you sing.
At the beginning of the steady beat preparation students will use a single icon for pointing. Later, that single icon is replaced with a group of four.
Both are included here for you!
Presenting Steady Beat
Before presenting, review what students experienced in the preparation phase. You can even throw in some new ways to experience the beat!
This might include:
Singing the song while patting the beat on the knees
Singing the song while you keep the beat on a glockenspiel (for Goodnight, Sleep Tight) or woodblock (for Chop Chop Chippity Chop).
Singing the song while pointing to icons
Once you feel students have enough experience, you're ready to present as you sing your chosen song!
Easy peasy!
Practicing Steady Beat
Now for the fun part!
Aural
This is a very easy way to get in some classical music in your lessons. Play a song with a steady beat and ask students if the song has a steady beat.
Sousa marches work great for this. John Feirabend has also compiled a really helpful collection of steady beat songs you can check out as well.
Physical
Asking if the students if the song has a steady beat transitions very naturally to asking students to show you a way we can keep the steady beat.
Any large stationary movement will work well, especially marching along with the the Sousa marches!
Visual
For visual practice have students point to icons while singing known songs.
You can sing one phrase of the song and ask students how many beats they counted as you sang. At this point you can introduce the groups of four icons.
