GETTING STARTED

WITH TAKADIMI
Kris VerSteegt
For Des Moines Public Schools
October 25, 2013
12:30-1:45
LEARNING TARGET:
I can describe the history of Takadimi.
FROM WHERE DID IT COME?

 Firstcame to America around 1950

through Jazz musicians who were
incorporating Indian traditional
music into their own improvisatory
style
 Takadimi is the name for a subdivided
pulse in traditional Indian music
 Indian traditional music is in no way
metric and is learned almost exclusively
through oral tradition
HOW DID THE PEDAGOGICAL SYSTEM
DEVELOP?

 Developed by Richard Hoffman,

William Pelto, and John W. White of
Ithaca College in New York for
classroom use
 Published as “Takadimi: A Beat-
Oriented System of Rhythm Pedagogy”
in the Journal of Music Theory
Pedagogy (1996, vol. 10)
HOW DID IT GAIN POPULARITY IN THE
U.S.?
 Gained attention with these
publications:
 MEJ, Nov. 2006 vol. 93/2
 MEJ, May 2007 vol. 93/5
 Kodaly Today by Michael Houlahan and
Philip Tacka (Oxford, 2008)
 Progressive Sight Singing by Carol
Krueger (Oxford, 2010)
AND IN IOWA?

 Tom Sletto of Drake University wrote A

Comparison of Rhythm Syllables and a
Recommendation in the Kodaly Envoy,
Spring 2011 vol. 11/3

 Carol Krueger made appearances with

ACDA and ICDA sharing her pattern
drills and her book “Progressive Sight
Singing”
LEARNING TARGET:
I can compare and contrast Takadimi with other
systems.
HOW IS IT LIKE OTHER SYSTEMS?
 Like natural language acquisition, it is a sound
before sight before theory system
• a progression of skills from echoing, to connecting
sounds with syllables, to connecting syllables with
symbols, to reading symbols, to writing and creating
with syllables and symbols, and finally, to a
theoretical understanding
WHAT OTHER SYSTEMS ARE IN USE?

 Kodaly’s traditional Hungarian system

 This system closes the vowel with an “m” when there is
a dot, rather than elongating the sound
 This system is durational and thus does not translate
well to cut time
 Other problems develop in compound meter

• What should we call that d ?

• Kodaly may have dismissed this complication because
compound meter is SO RARE in Hungarian music
ADAPTATIONS
 Many people have changed y to “tikatika”
“tidatida” or “tipitipi”
 “Tiritiri” in American English simply doesn’t work
 Some have changed how the dot is verbalized,
instead of closing of the vowel
 “ta-i ti” has been widely used for j e, but to do so
often leads to j e being performed as q n
 Most people recognize that an extra sound is no
better than a closed sound, and is probably worse
• Some say “tam ti” for j e and “ta-i ti” for qun (this is
theoretical again)
 Some say “ta-ah” instead of “too,” say “ta-ah-ah”
instead of “toom” and “ta-ah-ah-ah” instead of
“toe”
 What about Ed Gordon (James Froseth)?
 No extra sounds and no closed vowels for dots
 This system is ALMOST beat functional
o Thus, in cut time, h is “du”
 That’s okay! h has been “du” before

 But where is it NOT beat functional?

 Do we still have the d problem? Why or why not?

 How can we adapt y to be beat functional?
WITH SO MANY ADAPTATIONS…
 Everyone is doing their own thing
 For the right reasons
 But, the children never learn to speak the syllables
like a language
 Children often learn at least 2 systems,
sometimes many more
 I once had a kid say “that’s how we clap it in band!”
like this was a great epiphany

 Imagine if we could find something that worked

for EVERYONE and didn’t need adapted…
HOW IS TAKADIMI DIFFERENT?

 No extra sounds for dots

 No closed sounds for dots
 This system is TOTALLY beat functional
 Thus, in cut time, h is ta (as the beat note)
 That’s okay! h has been “ta” before

 Hey, that works!

WHY IS IT BETTER?
 It works easily in cut time, simple and compound
meters, asymmetrical meters and mixed meter
 Its sound before sight before theory approach
takes children seamlessly from known to
unknown (Pestalozzi)
 It is easy to borrow compound rhythms into
simple meter (and vice versa) as they share no
common syllables other than ta and di
WHY IS IT BETTER?
 Ta is ALWAYS on the ictus of the beat
 You aren’t asking kids to do theory when they are
decoding
 The “right” words just fall out!
 Sing Great Big House in New Orleans
 Sing Good King Wenceslas

 It is simple enough for elementary and yet complex enough

for secondary and beyond
 This system grows with the child: It is logical when
children are concrete operational and can get ever
more abstract as the children move into the formal
operational stage (Piaget)
WAIT!
 But “real musicians” count!
 Takadimi makes transitioning to counting in high
school VERY EASY (but this should be delayed until
the students can sing/speak, move, create, read, and
decode with the system (as counting is theoretical))
 Start with takadimi
 Add 1-kadimi, 2-kadimi etc.

 Transfer to 1e&a, 2e&a, etc.

 You can help!

 Count your kids in sometimes “1 & 2 & breathe (breath)”
 Ask your kids “on which beat of the measure is the ta dimi?”

 Etc.
LEARNING TARGET:
I know how to get started with Takadimi.
HOW DO I GET STARTED?
 Change immediately upon returning from a
break (winter or summer break would work best)
Don’t start Monday! 
 Start by just having the kids say the syllables
and play games with the syllables
HOW DO I GET STARTED?
 Then have kids translate known songs and
rhymes into the syllables
 Do this for many lessons for older kids, longer for
youngers kids
 A puppet is useful when beginning, but should be
taken away when no longer needed
 Dip dictation
 Hey Ho! Anybody Home?

 NOTE: Songs are easier than poems

 But they need to do BOTH
HOW DO I GET STARTED?
 When 80% of your kids can translate accurately,
they are ready to try unknown materials
Come, butter, come
Come, butter, come
Peter’s waiting at the gate
Waiting for some buttered cake
Come, butter, come
 Again, poems are harder
HOW DO I GET STARTED?
 When 80% of kids can translate UNKNOWN
material into Takadimi, you know they are ready
to SEE notation
 Use the time signature and bar lines all the time
 Each time they see notation, have them begin by
echoing and end with reading
 Demonstration—flash cards
HOW DO I GET STARTED?
 Play lots of games with reading
 Black Snake
HOW DO I GET STARTED?
 Play lots of games with reading
 Turkey Poker (q n Q h)
 Are You Smarter than the Music Teacher? (q n Q)
 Rhythm Hop (q n)
HOW DO I GET STARTED?
 Use plenty of masterworks for reading.

@ q n|q q |q n| q q |
q n|q q |q n |q Q |

${n n n q |n q n q |n n n n|n n h }
{n n n q |n q n q |n n n q |n q h }
HOW DO I GET STARTED?
 Don’t forget to write!
HOW DO I GET STARTED?
 Don’t forget to write!
HOW DO I GET STARTED?
 Don’t forget to write!
HOW DO I GET STARTED?
 Don’t forget to write!
WHAT ABOUT MY OLDER KIDS?

 Start with q and n

 Move faster but remember the 80% rule!
WHAT COMMON PITFALLS SHOULD I
AVOID?

 Spend PLENTY of time working conversationally

with the rhythms before presenting an associated
symbol
 ALL students should be able to accurately translate
into Takadimi—speech, poems, and songs they have
never before heard—before they are shown the
syllables they are speaking
 Cobbler, Cobbler
WHAT COMMON PITFALLS SHOULD I
AVOID?

 Never label isolated symbols with written

“words” like “ta” “tadi”
 In cut time and compound time, the beat note looks
different but still sounds “ta”
 Introducing compound early can help kids realize that “ta”
is the BEAT not the PICTURE
 If you feel you must label, make sure you are also showing the
time signature and bar lines making your labels “true”
WHAT COMMON PITFALLS SHOULD I
AVOID?

 Delay cut time until much later (at least age 12)
 If you sang this, what does it sound like in Takadimi?

 Yet, this is how this song usually appears in choral

octavos
 Confusing for concrete operational children (ages 7-11)
 Some teachers have their kids sing cut time as if
NOT cut time to avoid the problem
 This is a bad idea
 Then “ta” is no longer just beat but also the division

 “di” is no longer the division, but the subdivision, etc.

WHAT COMMON PITFALLS SHOULD I
AVOID?

 Children can’t say as much as you can, at least not a

first
 M.M. 120-136 for simple meter, divided beat, slower when
subdivided
 M.M. 96-120 for compound

 Going too slow will change the ta = ictus of beat

connection
DON’T MAKE THE SAME MISTAKES I DID…
 Change everything at once. Trying to keep some
things (like synCOpa) while changing everything
else will make conversing in ta language
impossible and rob them of the ta=ictus of beat
connection
 There is nothing wrong with teaching grammar
(theory), just don’t teach it until the kids can read!
 Be sure to delay syncopated or dotted rhythms in
simple meter until well into your sequence
 Otherwise they will perform n as eq or je
 Those all say “ta” “di”
WHAT CURRICULAR MATERIALS ARE
AVAILABLE?

 Conversational Solfege by John Feierabend uses

beat-function syllables and a sequence that
delays dotted rhythms and syncopation
 I HIGHLY RECOMMEND taking his Conversational
Solfege class (available in many places throughout
the U.S. each summer)
 Conversational Solfege also teaches elements of
compound meter early in the sequence, which is
consistent with American Folk Music*
 John uses Gordon/Froseth… you could easily use Takadimi
WHAT CURRICULAR MATERIALS ARE
AVAILABLE?

 Progressive Sight Singing by Carol Krueger is

filled with patterns and drills appropriate for
older beginners through college level
 This book is not repertoire based, it is pattern based
 Makes a great addition if you already have loads of
repertoire you love but have better things to do than
recreate patterns and drills
 Makes a great addition for ensembles looking to
develop rhythm reading skills (and solmization skills)
 She adds what she calls patschen but looks like…
 Tempo must be significantly slowed (ta=ictus?)
 theory
IS IT PERFECT?

 There are no syllables beyond sixteenth notes

 The vowels of takadimi are okay, but I would
prefer an “oo” vowel for choral tone
 A few consonants are troublesome for wind
 Taka works for double-tonguing on some instruments
 “mi” (simple) and “va” (compound) don’t tongue at all
(labial)
 “Takida” sounds a lot like “takadi” and is easy to
confuse
DID WE HIT THE TARGET?
1. I can describe the history of Takadimi.
2. I can compare and contrast Takadimi with
other systems.
3. I know how to get started with Takadimi.