One of the on-line discussion groups in which I sometimes participate is currently addressing the question of how to instill rhythm in young piano students. It is a subject that seems easy until you talk to people who have survived the nonsense delivered to young impressionable sensibilities in the name of truth.
The irony is that just yesterday I was revisiting the third movement of Mozart's only G major piano sonata, a movement that bored me to tears when I was 12, and when all I knew about rhythm was determined by numbers and barlines. Now, oh my goodness, I detect its real subject matter! That innocent 3/8 is full of diminutions, augmentations, conflicting LH and RH meters-- hard, hard, hard! Fun! Fun! Fun!
