Hello all,

I have been asked to teach two children practical musicianship - not the exams, just in general. Parents are musical and want the children to have a firm underlying foundation in music before they take on an instrument. Theey are very young (5/6), and they want to learn the Piano, but the parents want them to take a year of fun musicianship lessons first. I think it's brilliant to have such conscientious parents!

My question is really one of advice - I have not said yes to this as yet, although it would be a fun challenge for the three of us, because I wanted to make sure I knew what I was doing! Does anyone here teach musicianship to children this age and have any advice as to how to begin? I have my own ideas but would very much like some more experienced teachers in this field to point me in the right direction!

Thanks!

Kodaly and Dalcroze are the finest double act I know...

Sorry, I didn't have time to reply properly yesterday.

My own feeling is that you do need to have at least a little training in the two 'finest double act' approaches to musicianship training, Kodály and Dalcroze, before you start something like this (you wouldn't teach an instrument that you hardly played).

You know that you are always welcome to come and watch K and D classes at Guildhall again, if that would be of any help .

Or maybe advise the parent to find an existing class (two is a very small group to work with and precludes playing a lot of the games) - either the Guildhall, or Colourstrings or similar.

Obviously the main focus will be on pitch (including pitch-matching), pulse, rhythm (and the differentiation between the two), dynamics and tempo.

At the risk of this being a plug, you could always look at a certain 'Music Handbook' for some initial help - just right for this age group (and the second book will be out in about March/April).

Let me know if I can be of any more help.

Yes! The Music Handbook is absolutely fantastic. The kids love it, I love it and it gave me an excuse to get puppets. Everyone's a winner!

Please announce the arrival of the new one when it comes Cyrilla as I want to buy it!

Also, as Cyrilla said teaching this kind of thing with a really small group is kind of tricky as the games won't be as good when there are less than say 6. I have a group of six and they get on very well with it, as do my larger groups of 11 or so.

Cyrilla, you're a genius! Keep it up!!!

Oooh blimey .

Glad you're finding the book so helpful, pianodub, and thank you for your kind words!

We had a review recently proffering the opinion that we haven't brought K up to date so that it's 'relevant' to today's children - but, as you're finding, the proof of the pudding etc....(which reminds me, the reviewer said that we shouldn't include songs like 'Pease Pudding Hot' because pease pudding isn't on the menu in school canteens these days..!!).

The second book should be winging its way to Singapore next week to be printed - so I'll keep you posted on the likely publication date.

Oh for goodness' sake, who ARE these people?! I suppose they would have liked it better if it was Dr Who themed or some such nonsense.

By the way, where can one buy this marvellous tome? It is not available on Amazon yet

Ewww...I think 'marvellous tome' is taking it a bit far, SueHM !!.

It IS on Amazon (and WH Smith and Waterstone's - discounted on these first two). If it doesn't come up under 'The Music Handbook' try putting the authors' names in to the Search.

One very firm principle of Kodály teachers is to use high-quality, traditional material that has stood the test of time - so if anyone seriously thinks that I'm going to change the words of 'Pease Pudding Hot' so that they are about iPods and Playstations then they have another think coming (GOW )!

Why does everything have to be 'relevant' to a child's immediate experience of life? I thought 'education' should be about giving children experiences and knowledge of things outside their own lives, developing their sense of history and heritage, stimulating their imaginations...(silly me, 'education' means passing tests and exams, doesn't it ?).

If you can get your hands on the Going For Bronze book it may be a good source for you. These are done by NYCOS and go right up to Silver, Gold with two parts to each level (6 in total). They are quite standard in Scottish primary schools.

Yes, 'Going for Bronze' is very good, but I would think moves rather too fast for an average 5-6 year-old??

But, but, but....but, that's how you learn things! You say "Please, Mrs-Kodaly-lady, what's peas pudding? Who'd make pudding out of peas, it's like making cake out of carrot!" and you get informed.
If you're only allowed to be taught about things you already know then, well...I dunno, perhaps it's not possible to learn two things at once!

Quite, Maizie!

Durrr....

Mrs-Kodály-Lady

One word: piffle.

My lot are learning Pease Pudding at the moment and they love it, especially saying "Brrr" when it's cold...some of them are going for an Oscar I think!

Good luck with the publication of book II...I'm sure it will be a huge success!

Mine love Pease pudding, too! Well, playing it anyway! Right, I'm going to check your book out straight away, Cyrilla!

Another one has been re-written ...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7860869.stm

Oh, for GOODNESS' SAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bag x

Ooo - I think Cross-Bag-the-Bad has just posted..

I just read the next bit of the article entitled 'Baa Baa'. As Bagpuss will know (!) I am receiving some tutoring from an extremely fine musician whose outstanding playing sells well the amazing benefits of working things out by ear. I have been frantically incorporating these techniques into all my lessons recently and the other day I asked a young student to pick out on the piano the tune to 'Baa baa black sheep' and practise it at home so she could play it to me with ease the following lesson. It was only some time later that evening I thought - oops - as the little girl is of mixed race. I don't even notice her skin colour so why would I think to avoid nursery rhymes that could be seen as racist? Thank God her parents were sensible - they thought nothing of it at all and obviously fully supported the task I had set their daughter as she played 'Baa baa' beautifully at the first attempt!

Surely the term "baa" is being sheep-ist????



B x

Well, it's certainly being barbarianist. I mean, that's where the ancient Greeks derived the word 'barbarian' from. Those foreigners who went around speaking in their strange language which sounded like the baa-baa-baa bleating of sheep.

Hi All.....

Thank you for your replies and sorry it has taken me so long to reply!

I was actually in one of my MA Lectures last week discussing the Psychology of Music when your Music Handbook came up Cyrilla; people spent 10mins talking about how wonderful it is, and someone may be bringing it in next week for us all to look at!

I also found this resource; a video of it was played in the MA class as part of a research project; what does everyone think of it?

http://www.musicmindgames.com/

Is it worth getting?

Is this book (THe music handbook) what I have been looking for??!!

Is it suitable for age seven on an individual basis??

EEEP!!!




I've PM'd you, KrisE.

I have Music Mind Games and I love it! It has very interesting and fun ways to approach learning music theory from children from Kindergarten to much older. I use lots of the games in different ways in my piano teaching as well as in group theory lessons. She uses a lot of resources which are for sale on her website, but I just made my own as I couldn't afford them.

However I do think that the Kodaly approach is more appropriate for younger kids.

If you can stretch to getting Music Mind Games and the Music Handbook you will have LOADS to keep you busy!

I have just tried the one online game they have on this site - notes and rests solitaire and found it REALLY HARD: It claims that unlike ordinary Solitaire you win every time - I've had three goes and haven't won at all and got lots of nasty noises when I got it wrong! I don't think I'll recommend it to my pupils!

Your comments ring a very loud bell Sue - I think I tried this some time ago and thought it was not user friendly - had a couple of goes and decided I had misunderstood the instructions.