Music – rhythm – play. Opportunities and questions of rhythmical improvement among first grade students

Abstract

Looking for opportunities to renew the methodological background of music lessons, our research group elaborated a rhythmical improvement program. The target group of the program is the first grade students of elementary school because it is the most sensitive period of the development of rhythm abilities. In addition to the development of the rhythm abilities our aim is to improve the motivation and attitude of children towards music lessons and to have a positive influence on academic performance. According to Hungarian and international research the development of rhythm abilities correlates with cognitive achievement. The three-month pilot study of this program was held in the last school year and we built our experiences in a more complex seven-month program. In this study we present the theoretical background of this complex seven-month rhythmic program and the developmental aims of the curriculum. After analyzing two textbook’s rhythmical tasks we present the basic principles and the tasks of our experimental program of rhythm abilities.