Steve Reich's Clapping Music

I first discovered Steve Reich's Clapping Music a few years ago in my undergrad. Reich composed his work "Clapping Music," so that no instruments were needed. The only thing needed are the players clapping hands. This work is particularly challenging because it requires perfect analysis of rhythm. The rhythm changes gradually and suddenly, keeping the players on their toes, no pun intended.

The entire purpose of the app is to improve the rhythm of oneself. I find this very useful in the classroom and I create a competition out of it, especially in my percussion section. While this is not a multi player game, it does produce your score at the end, if you make it that far. A great way to get your kids involved is to have them report their score each week. Write these scores on the board and let the game begin. Because this game is so challenging, you will most definitely see different students taking the lead at different times. If you are finding that your students are discouraged because they cannot make it to the end, start with scoring just the first few phrases rather than the entire piece.

Once the students have mastered a majority of the piece on their own, introduce the actual score to them. A portion is shown below:

Now that your students have an idea of what each rhythm is like on its own, put them to the test. Can they play along with their classmates? Start with a metronome and go from there. 

From this example, you can see that even creating competitions with two or three students could be quite fun. Keep in mind that this is extremely difficult, so start slow and let them work their way up to a comfortable tempo.

References:

Deneuville, T. (2015, July 10). Clapping Music App: Get Your Reich On. Retrieved from https://www.icareifyoulisten.com/2015/07/clapping-music-app-reich/

Steve reich Clapping music score | Chamber Music Ideas | Pinterest | Steve reich, Music score and Piano sheet music. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/396176098447572591/