Kodaly

[Gargamel314]

I just thought i'd share this, kinda puts a new perspective on all those music teachers out there who teach this method (think ta ta ti-ti ta)

So I'm taking this grad class on Kodaly (there's actually a mark over the 'a' but my keyboard doesn't have that letter)... it's a elementary general music teaching practice. This class is HARD...not so much in learning the teaching strategies, but part of the class is like boot camp for the right half of your brain. Just an example of one of the assignments:

This was actually my first homework assignment. I had to sing a song called "Viva La Musica." Then replace all of the words with Solfege syllables (do re mi so la). in my right hand i had to conduct a 4-pattern. in my left hand i had to tap a repeating rhythm, it was quarter, eighth eighth, eighth, sixteenth sixteenth quarter, sounds like ta ti-ti ti-ti-ka ta)... all SIMULTANEOUSLY. lol spent about 45 minutes just practicing that one, before i moved onto the next 3 (which were similar kinds of things).

so far i get 4 of these crazy musicianship exercises a night, plus about 50-70 pages to read a night... class is 8 hours a day, monday to friday for 2 weeks. I've never been challenged musically in this way before, that's for sure!

whoever said "those who can't do, teach" never took this class

[Diego]

Wow, that song is quite challenging, with all these accents on odd beats...very very nice!

[Synthoid]

So I'm taking this grad class on Kodaly

Is that sponsored by the Kodak corporation?

[Diego]

LOL

[Gargamel314]

I just finished my last class today... lol and came home and slept for 7 hours. Kodaly - "Zoltan Kodaly" (pronounced "KO dai" -long I sound on the end) - I took it at West Chester University in Pennsylvania. It was listed as two classes, but it's actually more like 5 - Methodology (teaching strategies), Musicianship (the crazy musical multi-tasking class), Choir (i pretended to be a voice major for two weeks), Games & Materials, and Folk Dancing.

He's written some really great music too, but his biggest accomplishment was redesigning the music education system in Hungary, and teaching musical concepts through singing. I have to say, i feel like a much stronger musician after taking this class, after only taking the level 1 classes. And now when i talk in my sleep, it's sung in solfege I have 3 more summers to spend on this now.

[Diego]

I would love to take a masterclass about this Kodaly method as soon as possible.
Maybe merging it with our common habits should give great results.

Would love to have in Italy the same musical education...!!!!

[Giner]

I'm not familiar with the Kodaly method, but any method is going to entail 'un'learning your previous way of doing things. That, I would think, is the most difficult part.

[Gargamel314]

how are children taught in italy? do you have general music classes in public schools?

The class I took was Kodaly Level I - which encompasses curricula for grades kindergarten through 2nd grade. Next summer, i'll be taking Level II for grades 3-5, and then Level III goes beyond that. The 4th year is individual classes - choral conducting, games & materials, and some other class i can't seem to recall.

You're very right about "unlearning" my old training - especially when it comes to sight reading. I was self-taught to sight-sing using intervals, and i can sight-sing very accurately on a neutral syllable, but Kodaly insists on using solfege... so i see the note, have to think of which solfege name it is, figure out what pitch it should be in the scale, and in some cases, show the hand-sign for it. The philosophy is, that the learner will eventually innately associate the correct pitches with the hand-sign (combining visual, aural, and physical learning). Unfortunately, i've learned it so well THE OTHER WAY, i haven't quite gotten to that stage yet.

If you ever saw the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (very slow 80's sci-fi movie), they actually use the Kodaly hand signs in this movie to control a synthesizer to musically communicate with aliens (haha - far-fetched, but it's one of the only times Kodaly ever made it into the movies)