Rhytmic Patterns

To select which rhythmic patterns to include in your sample go to the “Rhythmic Patterns” tab panel in the “Setup” window.You can quickly access it by clicking on the “Patterns” toolbar button, or selecting it from under the “Setup” menu. Just check or uncheck the patterns that you want to include in your sample. Even though this is simple to do, you should be very selective about which patterns to include in your sample. If you are working with a first time beginner you should just include quarter notes. As the student makes progress you can gradually include eight notes and smaller divisions. You should not include new patterns until the previous patterns have been mastered.

While learning new patterns, I suggest you that you leave the “Use Same Pattern For Each Beat” checkbox on the “Options” tab checked. This will help you to concentrate on one beat pattern at a time. Rather then having each beat be a different rhythmic pattern (which can be confusing), each beat will be the same. For example, if you have just introduced eight notes, you will have a full measure of eight notes to practice with. This repetition will burn the sound or feel of eight notes into
the inner ear more quickly. Once the student has absorbed the eight notes you can then uncheck the “Use Same Pattern For Each Beat” checkbox. You can then reinforce the lesson by including both quarter and eight notes in the sample. This learning by contrast or comparison will further ingrain this needed sense of “two against one” deep into the player’s inner ear. Working like this will give your students a good body clock right from the start. Use this same technique when introducing triplets and sixteenth notes. The screenshots below illustrate this point.

(Superior way for learning new rhythmic patterns.)

(Inferior way for learning new rhythmic patterns.)

In conjunction with the “Use Same Rhythmic Patter For Each Beat” checkbox you should pay attention to the “Randomize Notes In Sub Beats” checkbox found on the “Options” tab. To aid you in learning new patterns as quickly as possible, I suggest that you leave it unchecked. If it is checked, each note of the pattern will be a randomized note. So instead of having four sixteenth notes that are middle Cs each sixteenth note will be a different pitch. While this is a good feature, it depends where you are in the learning cycle. Take a look at the below examples.

Example 1.

(More efficient way to learn new beat patterns)

Example 2.

Example 2 distracts the student from concentrating on just the beat pattern because they have to concentrate on playing the correct notes as well. While this is good if they have already mastered sixteenth notes patterns it is bad if they are just being introduced to them. The constant repetition found in Example 1 is more contusive to memorizing the feel of sixteenth notes.