Books and articles that use, teach, or help explain Takadimi.
Resources included on this site:
Hoffman, The Rhythm Book. Smith Creek Music, 2009.
Hoffman, Pelto, and White. “Takadimi: A Beat-Oriented System of Rhythm Pedagogy.” Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy, 1996.
Other resources:
Bell, Elaine. “Using the Beat-Oriented System "Takadimi" with Elementary Music Students.” MM Thesis, Belmont University, 2006.
Elaine Bell explores the use of Takadimi with the Nashville Children’s Choir. She is a elementary school music teacher and has had great success using the system with her students ages K - 4.
Ester, Don, et al. “Takadimi: A Rhythm System for All Ages.” Music Educator’s Journal, vol. 93/2, Nov. 2006: 60ff.
Ester and his colleagues describe Takadimi and explain the benefits of using the system with all ages. Particularly, they focus on the pre-notational use of the syllables with young children.
Houlahan, Michael and Philip Tacka. Kodaly Today, New York: Oxford University Press, 2008
Houlahan and Tacka are internationally renowned music educators and Kodaly scholars. They believe Takadimi is the preferred rhythm system for use in a Kodaly-based music program. Central to their teaching is a believe in sound before sight--hearing and experiencing music before encountering music notation. Takadimi fits well with this philosophy and has become a key component of their method.
Houlahan, Michael and Philip Tacka. From Sound to Symbol: Music Fundamentals, Oxford University Press, 2008.
The title of this fundamentals of music text makes clear the authors approach: introducing and exploring the sound of music before connecting the sound with notation. Again Takadimi is a part of their method.
Karpinski, Gary. Aural Skills Acquisition: The Development of Listening, Reading, and Performing Skills in College-Level Musicians, Oxford University Press, 2000.
Karpinski draws together research in music theory and cognitive psychology with current practices in theory pedagogy to produce a invaluable guide for the aural skills teacher. He provides a thorough exploration of rhythm pedagogy along a summary of the several system available, and calls Takadimi, “the most systematic and comprehensive system of rhythmic solmization in use today” (81). He later states, “Although many of the preceding rhythm solmization systems aspire to represent rhythmic function, in Takadimi we have a functional system of rhythm solmization that most closely models the aural understanding listeners engage in when they apprehend rhythms in relation to pulse and meter” (82).
Karpinski, Gary. Manual for Ear Training and Sight Singing. New York: W.W. Norton, 2007.
Karpinski puts his years of research into practice in this excellent aural skills guide. Unlike many ear training books that are mostly exercises, Karpinski singing and listening as he carefully and thoughtfully unfold a method for developing aural skills.
Krueger, Carol. Progressive Sight Singing. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.
This sight singing text includes an explanation of Takadimi rhythm syllables. Krueger is a choral director at the University of South Carolina and has worked extensively with using Takadimi to teach rhythm in choral ensembles.
London, Justin. “A Psychological Addendum to ‘Takadimi: A Beat-Oriented System of Rhythm Pedagogy’” Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy, vol. 9, 1996.
In this article written as a companion piece to the original Takadimi article, London explores the psychological basis of rhythm learning, and how the beat-oriented and pattern-based nature of Takadimi fits well with what we know about how people learn and process rhythm.
