"Let us take our children seriously! Everything else follows from this...only the best is good enough for a child." Zoltán Kodály
There are many different approaches to teaching elementary music. I choose to follow the Kodály philosophy, which encourages active music making and musical literacy.
Zoltán Kodály was a Hungarian teacher, composer and philosopher who believed that music could be taught using the folk repertoire of a culture. He traveled with Belá Bartok around Hungary in the early 1900s to collect folk songs. After his travels, Kodály gathered other teachers to help develop his philosophy of music education based on universal music literacy.
Core Components of the Kodály Philosophy
This model is extremely important in the Kodály approach, and is followed for every melodic and rhythmic concept that is taught.
Preparation Phase
Presentation
Practice Phase
Zoltán Kodály was a Hungarian teacher, composer and philosopher who believed that music could be taught using the folk repertoire of a culture. He traveled with Belá Bartok around Hungary in the early 1900s to collect folk songs. After his travels, Kodály gathered other teachers to help develop his philosophy of music education based on universal music literacy.
Core Components of the Kodály Philosophy
- Creating a joy of music in children will create a society of lifelong music learners.
- Singing is the essence of the philosophy. The voice is universal instrument. It is the best teaching tool because it is "free and accessible to all."
- Music literacy is the key to understanding and enjoying music. It is the right of all people.
- Experiencing music cannot begin too early. Children first connect musically through the voices of their parents. When Kodály was asked when music education should begin, he replied "Nine months before the birth of the mother."
- Music Literacy is like language literacy. Reading music should be like reading a book. "We should read music in the same way that an educated adult will read a book: in silence, but imagining the sound."
- Folk music provides the best and most natural material for becoming a literate musician.
- Using a sequential approach based on the culture and age of the student will result in music literacy. We teach easier melodic and rhythmic concepts first to build musical knowledge. We emphasize the experience of music before introducing notation and terminology.
- Only music of the highest quality should be used in teaching. Kodály believed that "only best is good enough for a child!"
This model is extremely important in the Kodály approach, and is followed for every melodic and rhythmic concept that is taught.
Preparation Phase
- Students are not held accountable for the information.
- Teacher isolates and extracts the new concept.
- Students move from known to unknown.
- Teacher provides physical, visual, and aural activities to reach every learner.
- This phase is lasts weeks until the students show that they have a strong understanding of the new element.
Presentation
- When the students are ready, they discover the new element.
- Students learn the element name, symbol or place on the music staff.
- This phase takes place in a single lesson.
Practice Phase
- Students will practice the new material forever.
- The students are now held accountable for the information.
- Practice activities include reading, writing, improvising, composing, performing, listening, inner hearing, solo singing and part-work.