Learn Together

Practicing musicality and finding the beat of a song trains your ear for dancing, singing, and playing music! Plus, it’s a great way to practice counting.

Materials

  • Computer, tablet, or phone to watch the videos
  • Space to move
  • Your body
  • Your listening ears

Move Together

Musicality in dance is expressing the rhythm of notes from an instrument, through our bodies. Whether it’s the classic boom-clap of pop music, or the melody of a singer or lead instrument, there’s rhythm in every instrument in our music.

When you’re listening to a song, you may notice a beat. Beats are recurring sounds in music often created by drums or percussion instruments. A beat might make you want to tap your toe or clap your hands. The beat of the music can be fast or slow, but it is often consistent the entire song. Most songs have 8 beats, or counts, in a phrase. This means that you can count to 8 over and over in the song. 

Let’s practice hearing a beat and clapping to the rhythm:

  1. Sing the classic song Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.
  2. Now sing it again, and clap to the beat. To do this, clap on the bold syllables below! You should count 4 beats for each line, and 8 counts per sentence or phrase:
    • “Twinkle twinkle little star,
      how I wonder what you are.
      Up above the world so high,
      like a diamond in the sky.
      Twinkle twinkle little star,
      how I wonder what you are.”
  3. If you want to count in half time, you can pause on beats 2, 4, 6, 8, so you only clap to 4 counts in the whole phrase. 
  4. Next, let’s stomp our feet to the beat of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Alternate your feet by stomping your right foot on all the odd counts, and your left foot on all the even counts. 
  5. What else can you do with your body to show the beat?

Follow along with Ajna dancer as she dances to the beat! First we will dance to Discowale Kisko and then we will dance to Dil Chori.

  • Watch the videos, practice counting to 8 over and over, and follow along with the dancer’s moves!
  • Do you notice she changes her move in the first video after count 8? She sometimes even changes her move after count 4!
  • In the second video, what is your favorite dance move? Show your family!

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