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A playful way to teach young children to read music is by doing a lot of singing or chanting of the rhythm patterns while keeping the beat through clapping, marching, or pounding on something such as the plastic top of a coffee can or on different percussion instruments. (Not only boys but especially boys appreciate ACTIVE, movement-filled participation.) In fact, with young chaps, we sometimes do more chanting and singing than ocarina playing. For instance, I usually have them chant a song with me as a rhythm pattern before they play it on the ocarina. This is done by chanting a long or short monotone syllable (bah, bah, bah) that corresponds to each musical note as we keep the beat by clapping or pounding the table. Chanting the song in monotone isolates and necessitates the reading of rhythm because students cannot use a familiar melody as a crutch to avoid reading the duration of the notes. Furthermore, after chanting a song in monotone, students are more able to concentrate on where the notes lie on the staff since they have already grasped the rhythm.