Dotted notes. They’re easy to sing, to clap back and play but…when dotted notes show up in repertoire, it can stop players of any level in their tracks.

The goal of Connect the Dots is to demystify dotted note values by isolating them and relating them to familiar tunes.

Holiday tunes or carols are adorned with dotted notes and offer up festive opportunities to boost confidence in understanding and reading dotted notes. 

The activities featured in this resource are carefully sequenced. You know your students best so use the suggested activities that suit your students’ needs.

There’s extra resources and ideas to reinforce the concept of dotted notes so that you can spread Connect the Dots activities throughout December private lessons, or include them in holiday group classes and even plan a winter break camp around them.

Takeaways

• A rigorous and unique overview of half notes, quarter notes and 8th notes and their dotted values.

• A brush up on meters and their time signatures.

• An understanding of how dotted notes decorate rhythms because they highlight the off beats (within certain contexts.

• Observations of how dotted notes make the rhythm of a tune “ragged,” slightly off center, asymmetric, unequal and/or—most would say—more interesting.

• An understanding that a dot by a note indicates that the note value must be divided into three parts instead of two.

• A method for plotting note values into charts which visually explain rhythms and builds confident counting skills.