The Eight Most Common Rhythm Figures

I find it fascinating that in my opinion there are only eight basic rhythmic figures in common time.

1.  quarter - quarter - quarter - quarter
2.  quarter - quarter - half--------------
3.  half ----------------quarter - quarter
4.  quarter - half---------------- quarter
5.  half----------------- half-------------
6.  dotted half-------------------quarter
7.  quarter - dotted half----------------
8.  whole--------------------------------

Once a student has been able to feel these rhythm proportions as well as read, write and play them, they can make the next step to see that the same combinations can be found when the common denominator is eight notes or sixteenth notes.

The trick for the teacher is to get them to tap the beat while clapping the rhythm.  One option is to have half the class tap the beat while the other taps the rhythm and then change parts.  When they really get the hang of it, the can count the beat while strumming the rhythm on the guitar.  There are lots of creative variation that you may be able to think of.

The main point is to make rhythm reading as simple as possible and to learn as quickly as possible.
By teaching these eight proportions, my students seem to grasp the idea of "reading figures at sight"
more quickly than other methods I have tried.

The final step is to teach ties and rests.  Nonetheless, the eight rhythm figures are still the foundation  of music in common time.

Silent Music Reading

What may you ask is "silent music reading?" It is the ability of students to enhance their compression and to develop fluency without the guitar in their hands.

Here is how it works.  Students are given a piece of music and a reference sheet that states the names of the notes and on which fret/string they are located.  For example low C is located at 3/5 (third fret/fifth string).  The goal is for students to place the alphabet letters and the note location on the paper at a rate of one note per second.  Put another way, students eventually should be able to tap their foot and enter the letters in real-time, and later the frets in real time, hence silent reading.  There is one more part - the students next need to insert tiny arrows between the notes indicating if the music is ascending or descending.  If the the music moves by a third (skip) they write "sk" above the arrow, if the music moves by an interval larger than a skip (leap) they should include an 'L" above the arrow.  Once students have completed this "pre-reading" process that proves their "comprehension" then they can learn the piece much faster than by other methods I have tried.

Important - this process must be practiced over and over 100 times until the analysis is completely automatic.  At that point this process can be removed.
Important - the process of reading music is a misnomer.  The students should learn the music so that it is "mostly memorized" measure by measure.  Therefore the music serves as a reminder more than something that is read at sight.