Rhythm & Tempo Excerisie For Piano Teachers

In these exercises you will learn about writing rhythms and using different tempos. Last week we looked at some rhythms and thought about what rhythm does to make music more interesting. On your teacher worksheet you will find some short melodies. Can you decide what sort of feel these rhythms have?
To make it easier, you have a choice of:
1. Largo – an Italian word musicians use for music for a slower tempo or speed.
2. Moderato – another Italian word which means at a normal tempo – neither fast
nor slow.
3. Allegro – which is Italian too, and which means a fast and bright tempo.
Write either Largo, Moderato or Allegro at the beginning of the piece in the box.

There is no right or wrong answer to the examples. The reason for this is that often the rhythm cannot tell us whether the music is fast or slow. This is why we tell musicians the speed or tempo of a piece of music at the beginning. This lets the musician set the beat in his or her head before playing.

The first example could be either Allegro, Moderato or Andante, depending what the composer wanted. So could the second and third examples.