Good question, Steven!

In the elementary music classroom, I have preferred to use other ways to say the rhythms, such as “ta” and “ti-ti,” because I didn’t feel like I spent enough time with them to really get them used to counting. However, with my private piano students, I taught them to count from the very beginning. “Ta” and “ti-ti” are more adaptable to a “wholistic” (for lack of a better term) approach, i.e. that I teach them to feel and experience the music before I teach them to read music… much like we learn language. Speaking before reading. But when I teach piano lessons, I teach reading right along with the piano skills. Does that make sense?