The first rhythm patterns they learn are at the most basic level of rhythm content, namely, macrobeat and microbeat patterns in duple meter. They soon encounter these same basic patterns in the songs they learn to sing, play, and read. Solfege, not letter names. Students learn the letter names of musical notes at the theoretical understanding level of inference learning. That level should be preceded by extensive experience audiating tonal and rhythm solfege while singing and playing by rote or from notation.
Instrumental students learn to associate tonal syllables with specific fingerings in different keys.
They also play songs and tonal patterns in different keys, establishing an early foundation for development of transposition skills. In addition to a teachers manual and a variety of student books, the series includes compact disc recordings of 300 tunes students can use to develop their rote song repertoire. Improvisation Musical improvisation is a uniquely fulfilling form of musical expression and an essential component of comprehensive music learning. To improvise is to demonstrate understanding of music in much the same way as the ability to rephrase a paragraph in one's own words is a measure of language comprehension. Musicians who improvise bring greater understanding through audiation to the music they listen to, perform, read, and write.