"Here is an instru-

ment called a
shaker.”
“And here are some
• maracas, another
Latin American
instrument."

"Nice."

43
“
hythm is very
important to
percussion
instruments.
•
Different styles of
music have different
rhythmic patterns."

44
"What is rhythm?"
asked Davka.

"Rhythm is sounds
and silences over a
•
period of time."

"Huh?"

45
• "When I played a percussion
instrument you heard both sounds and
silences.
Sometimes the sounds came fast and
other times there were longer periods
of silence. This pattern of sounds and
silences form rhythm."

46
• "How do you know which patterns to
play? Do you make them up?"

"There are many different rhythmic

patterns. Many of them are repetitive.
This repetition makes it easy to dance
to those rhythms. Rhythmic patterns
however don't have to be repetitive."

47
• "Play me some examples."

"OK. As I said, many rhythmic patterns

are dance related. This one is the cha
cha."

"The cha cha is a Latin dance. Rhythm

is very prominent in Latin dances. Here
are some other Latin dance rhythms."

48
 "What's that?"
asked Davka.

"That's the
• beguine."

"I like that one a

lot." said Davka.

49
• "Here's another nice one. It's called
the bossa nova."

"And here are some faster ones. This

one is a rhumba."

"And here is a samba."

"And now the merengue."

50
"And of course, the
tango.”
•
"Are rhythmic
patterns only
Latin?"

51
• "No. All cultures and nationalities have
rhythmic patterns. Here are some
American examples. First, the always
popular swing rhythm."

"My mom and dad like swing." said

Davka

52
• "If they like swing they will also like
these rhythms. Here is a Dixieland
rhythm."

"Here is a jazz ballad."

"And here is a jazz waltz."

53
• "Do you know any hip rhythms. You
know, new stuff, not the ancient." said
Davka.
"Sure, here's some hip hop."

"That's cool!" exclaimed Davka. "Your

family really does get along."

54
• "Yes. That's the beauty of rhythm. We
can mix and match into any pattern
with any member of the percussion
family. Here's an example with a little
bit of everything."

55
• "That's really neat! You can really mix
rhythms together and they get a long
and sound well together." exclaimed
Davka.

“Knock knock!”

56
• Danny and Davka looked at each other.

• “Who’s there?” they both asked.

• Davka and Danny opened the door.

57
 Danny smiled. At
the door were
guitars, violins,
cellos, trumpets,
• trombones, clarinets,
saxophones, a piano,
and all the other
instruments of the
orchestra.

58
• "We found you." said Paulo the piano.

"I got lost." said Danny. "This is my

friend Davka."

"Hi." said Davka.

"I've been teaching Davka about the

percussion family of instruments."

59
• "Nice." replied Olivia the oboe. "It's
getting close to concert time. We
should be leaving soon."

"Let's all play some music for Davka.

She's been very nice to me."

60
"OK!" the entire
orchestra yelled.

"We'll play you a

•
song and we promise
to come back and
visit you."

61