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Old 04-10-2008, 01:49 PM   #6 (permalink)
sedoniaraqs
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: cultural wasteland of the midwestern US
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I think there are a very few people who truly do not have any sense of rhythm.

In these cases, I don't think there is any way to train into them what is not inherent. I have only experienced one student like this in my life as a dancer. I worked with her in private lessons. We stomped the ground together. We drummed our tummies. We clapped and snapped our fingers. I loaned her a tambourine. I tried just percussive music, western music, nothing helped. She showed no improvement over a number of months of weekly classes supplemented with private lessons, even though I know she was trying hard and practicing at home. She moved quite nicely with fluid movements but her musicality was just about hopeless because she couldn't hear the beat.

I talked to an acquaintance who was a drummer and he agreed that truly rhythm-less people are rare, and they generally do not get better no matter what kind of training they have.

The phrase "he/she doesn't have any rhythm" gets misused alot. Most people who think they don't have rhythm really just haven't developed the coordination to do a certain kind of dancing or play a certain instrument. This, of course, can be rectified with training and practice.

Sedonia
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