Ellie's Blog

I am very passionate about bringing the joy of music into the lives of the children and adults that I work with. I have been teaching for 50+ years and I hope to continue for a long time.

To "lap-slap" a rhythm you take the rhythm of the left hand and the rhythm of the right hand and you slap them out on your thighs VERY SLOWY while saying something like:  right - left - together - left etc. Then you gradually work up to full speed.

This year my student Joe's recital piece has four different sections with very complex rhythms. He tried the "lap-slap" technic that he learned several years ago and again it helped him a lot.

Here is an audio of Joe first demonstrating the four different rhythm sections and then playing the entire piece.