Half the people using the trip let syllables are saying it tri pa let tri pa let, or one tri pa let two tri pa let or whatever totally wrong thing.
Yep. Many years ago, I actually had a short piece in
Modern Drummer espousing the use of "# trip let." Now, ironically, I myself don't even use that anymore for the reasons that you just listed plus a few other reasons as well.
Whoever came up with that one had to be either a vocalist or a violinist. It's no good for me for percussion.
Well, you nailed that one. It's from a vocal book published in the 1950's.
I mean, whose idea was it to teach that association as a fixed spot on the grid? I think they were overreaching.
I think people do tend to make various mental associations with a given concept. So giving a student a particular set of syllables that correspond to specific rhythms can help the brain to remember those rhythms. Some people refer to this entire idea as "rhythmic solfege."
The Ta Ka Di Mi version of "rhythmic solfege" is actually quite good, and even quite clever. You can learn the whole system online. The only thing it lacks is literal numbers. When I use it, I miss having the numbers, which is why it hasn't become my main approach.
I’ve actually been 1e&a-fying all my counting. It works great because it reuses familiar syllables.
Unless I'm reading you incorrectly, this seems to imply that you're actively making a change in that direction. I will genuinely be interested to hear how this goes as you see this in action with more and more students over time.
I can foresee some pitfalls that might potentially come up. For example, I wouldn't wanna be in the room on the day when a student is working on a measure of 8th note triplets leading into a measure of the figure that is "an 8th note followed by 2 16th notes."
I guess the count will literally be "1 & a, 2 & a..." leading into "1 & a, 2 & a..." Good grief.
But, the reality is, there simply is no perfect solution. None of the counting systems are flawless. All of them have their own unique limitations. The main thing is that the teacher understands the concept and can effectively communicate it to the student. From your posts over the years, I truly don't have the slightest doubt that you can do that.
Keep fighting the good fight of trying to figure out the best ways to conceptualize and teach all this stuff. That's really the only thing we can do.
Thanks for the response.
