The Heart Chart: A Rhythm System You Can Count On!
Laurie Zentz, Creator



The Heart Chart came about just like most effective teaching tools usually do, in a classroom with real children! As a young music teacher I was searching for a clear, effective, child-friendly way to explain beat and rhythm to my elementary music students. In a large public school setting, I saw my classes only twice a month, traveling room to room, and they were not retaining the lessons on rhythm that I was presenting in the traditional ways I had learned in college. The Heart Chart emerged as a concrete representation of the beat and how rhythm is most commonly grouped. It bypasses abstract names for the beat and calls the beat "the beat". It also represents rests as silent beats, instead of a place to "stop" or pause the rhythmic motion.


I made a prototype and started experimenting. It worked! The students were drawn to its simplicity and asked for it again and again. And most importantly.... they remembered the concepts! I demonstrated the Heart Chart to my colleagues, and they urged me to make it available to all music teachers.... and so I did. Production began in my home office over 30 years ago. I am the only source for The Heart Chart, and with a busy teaching career I was forced to stop advertising years ago. It wsa too difficult to keep up with the sales since I hand make each chart. Since then I have sold hundreds of Heart Charts to teachers who heard about it from other teachers and on social media. Several school districts have bought them for every music teacher in their district and adopted it as part of the curriculum.


The Heart Chart is a 17" by 18" piece of finished galvanized sheet metal, designed with 16 quarter rests done in durable vinyl. The size is perfect for a typical classroom. The 16 foam hearts represent the "beat" and there are variations of the hearts that represent eighth notes and sixteenth notes. Children of all ages learn right away how to chant, clap, and play rhythms using the hearts and rests. The Heart Chart comes with a collection of traditional notation pieces including quarters, eighths, sixteenths, whole notes, half notes, and dotted half notes, so transitioning from the hearts to traditional notation happens very easily. All of the pieces are made of durable foam or felt and have magnets attached. The lesson plan book that comes with it is full of ideas for taking your children from reading the hearts to reading traditional notation. Teachers who use the Heart Chart daily have invented their own amazing games to go with it. It can also be used as a 4-line score for creating percussion ensemble pieces!


Once you use a Heart Chart to teach rhythm, you won't want to teach without it! This is not just a cute lesson or unit on rhythm. The Heart Chart will become the rhythm system that you count on daily!


The Heart Chart with the book and all of the manipulatives costs $99 plus $18 shipping. If you need replacement parts or an extra metal board, email me for prices.

Customized Heart Charts are possible!


Click here for an order form.



The Heart Chart Features
that make it unique





It uses concrete labels for the elements of rhythm​ - best for young thinkers who struggle with abstract concepts



It relates all rhythms to the downbeats​ and all downbeats are called "beat"



It leads into counting with the traditional number system easily​ with its 4 x 4 grid representing common time



It provides a solid foundation for deciphering rhythms when they get more challenging​



It progresses slowly with lots of creative repetition and each lesson turns out differently with student input​



It uses grouping and pattern awareness to foster rhythmic understanding, an essential element in good musicianship​







It avoids the unneccesary step created by assigning rhythmic names based only on the duration of the note (like ta and ti) instead of location of the downbeats.



It is a very effective, simple visual representing four measures of music. Your students have been clapping, patting and chanting the beat, now let them see what that invisible beat looks like!



It helps students learn to group and chunk rhythms into beats. Rhythms are created with combinations of notes that fill beats.



Kids do not need an understanding of fractions in order to label rhythms with numbers. Musical counting is not used for computation, but instead it shows movement across a line of music, follows the pulse, and marks the beginning of measures.​



It clearly shows sound vs silence anchored to the steady beat. Often rests are misinterpreted as a stopping point.​



When the students are involved in handling the pieces of the chart, moving them into patterns, and creating with them, each lesson evolves differently.​


And it works even when the technology fails you!



the heart chart in action



View some sample lesson plans



As a music teacher, it's rare to find a manipulative that you can use across the entire scope and sequence of your curriculum at multiple grade levels as a support for your teaching. The Heart Chart is just that! I've been using the Heart Chart in my classroom for over 10 years and at three different schools in varying demographics. I've used it in grades Pre- K to 6th as a steady beat and rhythm manipuativwe. Fifty-two percent of students in my current school do not speak English at home. However, they quickly catch on to using this system and are fully engaged! In this world of technology, The Heart Chart is a welcomed, hands-on helper!

NK, Kentucky







Using the Heart Chart with the accompanying lessons makes teaching beat and rhythm fun and successful. As both a visual and aural aid, it has such a wide variety of possibilities -- reading, creating, and comparing patterns, as well as decoding the sound of rhythms to match the chart. It will quickly become an integral part of any music classroom. And I know it has made an impact on my students because of the number of cards and letters of appreciation I have received through the years with drawings of hearts and notes on a Heart Chart!

AD, Florida







As a middle school band director I have benefited tremendously from feeder programs that use the Heart Chart as a regular part of their elementay music curriculum! I continue to use it in beginning band to solidify their rhythm reading skills. Students who come in without Heart Chart experience catch on quickly. I have also used the Heart Chart successfully with adult students while teaching courses to non-music educators. It's an amazing tool!

LR, Florida







The Heart Chart was an invaluable teaching resource for me as a beginning teacher. With the Heart Chart I no longer worried about the best way to teach my students rhythm and counting. If only I had learned this method in college!

JB, Pennsylvania





I love it! It amazes me to see how fast the children are picking up the rhythms and begging to do it each time they come to class. Thank you for making my music room sound so nice!

CR, Florida





Teaching as both a music specialist at school as well as a choir director at church, I've used the Heart Chart in both situations with great success for years! All ages really enjoy the lessons, even the adult choir!

VD, Florida







(c) 2025 Don Zentz



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