Starting Music Reading with Children

When my young students start learning to read music it usually becomes their favourite part of the lesson. Initially they learn rhythm reading using animal names like “dog” and “birdie” from the wonderful book “The Rhythm Train” by Dana DeKalb. The children LOVE using this book so much that we use it as a fun break activity during lessons. Each rhythmic unit has a character name and a cute picture. For example, a quarter note is “dog” and 4 sixteenth notes are “al-li-ga-tor”. The children read rhythms in chunks instead of as individual notes, which makes reading faster and easier.

I have used The Rhythm Train with children from age 3-12 years but I think it is best used around age 5-9 years. Although the book is aimed at young children, I have also used it successfully with some young teens. Often, years after a child completes the book we still use the character names to refer to the various rhythmic units. Instead of talking about “that group of notes with the eighth note followed by the two sixteenth notes”, we can talk about the “grass-hop-per”.

I sell the Rhythm Train books as digital downloads so they are easy to access from anywhere in the world.