The Nuts and Bolts of the Kodaly Approach
The Kodály Approach has been in practice in the United States since the late 1950s and early 1960s as an outgrowth of the work of composer, professor, and ethnomusicologist Zoltán Kodály. Kodály began developing his music education method in 1929, when he real- ized students were not receiving quality music education in Hungarian schools. Music was not taught by music specialists, did not occur daily in the school schedule, and the young people of Hungary were not learning their musical heritage. Eventually, Kodály’s approach to music education was adopted in Hungarian schools, and it quickly spread internationally. But what is the Kodály Approach, and why is it still relevant today? This article summarizes the basic tenets, philosophical underpinnings, aspects, rhythmic and melodic sequence, and three-phase plan of the approach. I have also written a sample lesson to demonstrate the flow of a Kodály lesson.
What is the Kodály Approach?
Kodály believed that music belonged to everyone and that an education in music was a fundamental right of all human beings. He advocated for music education to be included as an integral and necessary part of school cur- riculum, so that everyone would become musi- cally literate. To that end, the approach strives to foster a lifelong and informed love of music in all students.
To fully develop students’ musical abilities, the Kodály Approach maintains a few key values as the foundation for curriculum design and music instruction. First, music instruc- tion should begin as early as possible for children, occurring through activities children already know or would enjoy, such as lullabies, chants, singing games, dances, and folk songs. It should also utilize active learning strate- gies that engage children in the making of the music.
The second tenet is that the voice is the main 13
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instrument used in the approach. Though other instruments are commonly played in Kodály- inspired classrooms, singing, chanting, and speech are emphasized because the voice is in- herent in almost every student. Kodály insisted that students learn to sing in tune and develop their abilities to use inner hearing to produce accurate pitches.
Third, the Kodály Approach strives to advance the goal of fostering every student’s musi- cal abilities, so that each student becomes the best musician possible. This is accomplished through creating curricula that are developmen- tally appropriate, concept based, sequenced to allow for scaffolding, and encompass a wide range of learning styles. Additionally, music specialists should be highly trained and profi- cient musicians in order to teach children.
Kodály believed that children deserve only the best music, and the approach seeks to use top-quality repertoire in music instruction. Folk songs are the cornerstone because they are the mother tongue of the students and include the elements necessary to teach and learn music. Included in these folk songs should be ex- amples that are specific to the students in each school culture, as well as authentic multicul- tural music. Kodály teachers also use sing- ing games, lullabies, playground games, play parties, chants, children’s literature, ballads, and other types of music. Finally, high-quality composed music is selected for the classroom.
What is Involved in the Kodály Approach?
Several common tools are used in the imple- mentation of instruction. The Kodály Approach uses moveable-do, la-based minor solfege syllables and Curwen hand signs to sight-sing, practice intervals, and sing melodic or harmon- ic content. The traditional rhythmic syllables were adapted from Chevés’ system and labels quarter notes as ‘ta’, eighths as ‘ti’, sixteenths as ‘tiri’ or ‘tika’, and dotted quarter as ‘tam’.
General Music
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