Has anyone been on a Kodaly course or anything similar? Was it beneficial? How has this affected your teaching?

I haven't been on a course exactly, but I did many years of Kodaly-influenced work at music school. This type of training is HUGELY beneficial and if you go on a course and pick up the beginnings to use in your teaching you'd be surprised at how good it is. Instrumental music without aural/singing skills is nearly impossible (in terms of progress/develpoment). I have seen Kodaly (and other good methods) students in action - it really is something.

T_D

Hi everyone,
Can someone give me some insight as to what exactly is Kodaly method of teaching Aural training?
I looked up online and did get a lot of sites explaining it. Is it basically nurturing children through singing/voice and then developing to more aural listening skills?
then is kodaly more of method to cultivate singers? how does it work for adults? Can adults learn through kodaly with zero or very weak aural foundations?

much appreciated with all feedbacks.

thanks

Kodaly can be of benefit to anyone - I did a one day taster course for instrumental teachers and will definately be going back for more.

Essentially there are two main areas that we covered on the day Solfage and Rhythm.

By using solfage and well known rhymes to start to recognise intervals you can then apply this when learning a new piece of music, and of course sight reading. The teacher on the day Len Tyler, used his daughter to demonstrate advanced kodaly by taking a small section of her new clarinet exam piece that she had not previously seen, with a particularly nasty rhythm in it first he went through singing and signing the notes, then he went through with the rhythm, then they sang the line with the rhythm again then she played it, perfectly first time.

He then arranged for us all to do an orchestral version of 3 blind mice, just using solfage and the rhythm techniques with no music - it sounded really good.

This was my first introduction to kodaly and although I can't make it this year I definately intend to do further courses, my students all applied it in a basic manner to their sight reading and did really well. I just need to learn more myself now.

You can get more details on the Summer courses etc on the BKA website (which always confuses me because to me BKA means British Karate Association)

Hi - Margrave, if you look up the May 2003 issue of the AB's Libretto (on this website) you'll find an article I wrote on Kodaly which should give you some background and insight as to what it's all about.

Basically it's 'Sound before symbol' - young children learn songs and rhymes aurally first, then later are introduced to the symbol and name for what they have experienced. Children are taught to pitch accurately by copying another voice - then to recognise melodies moving up/moving down/staying on the same pitch - before beginning to learn solfa. Solfa names are accompanied by handsigns which express the pitch relationships spatially and also aid kinaesthetic learning (the physical movement becomes so connected with the vocal pitch that it becomes almost impossible to show one handsign and sing a different solfa name! They learn to differentiate between pulse and rhythm and how the two relate (both simple and compound time).

Later children learn to sight-sing, both from solfa letters and from the stave. Rhythm is taught using rhythm names (an adaptation of the French time names). Students learn pentatonic and diatonic scales, intervals, triads - major and minor - seventh chords, augmented 6th chords, Neapolitan, modes - the list is endless! Memory training, dictation and co-ordination also play a big part.

One of the 'magic' things about it is that whatever age or stage you are at there is something for you. Kodaly thought that music education begins 'nine months before the birth of the mother' - so we start with mothers doing songs and rhymes with their babies, and continue to conservatoire level and beyond.

Kodaly believed that musicians should be able to 'hear what you see and see what you hear' and that 'before we rear instrumentalists we must first rear musicians'.

I've said this before on another thread, but if anyone would like to come and watch the training in action, just send me a private e-mail. I teach Kodaly at the Guildhall on Saturday mornings (String Training Programme for 4-11 year-olds) and I and my colleagues are more than happy for people to come and observe classes. I also teach in state primaries where the standard is not so high - but I don't have a child out of 450 who would not sing on his/her own and the vast majority of them can pitch accurately and have a good understanding of musical concepts and skills.

So in a nutshell it's comprehensive musicianship training using the voice as the primary instrument through which to learn music!

Once it gets its hooks in you you can't leave it alone as it just does so much to develop the musical potential of each individual to the highest possible level.

Hope to see you on the Summer School, maybe!?

Couldn't find your email address anywhere but I sent you a private message, Cyrilla. Hope you got it OK!

Margrave - I just re-read your message and saw the last part which I didn't reply to!

In answer as to whether you can learn Kodaly as an adult with little or no aural skills, the answer is YES! (I was that adult....) - and now I am purely a Kodaly teacher! If you had told me at the age of 22 that I would end up teaching music, I would have laughed heartily as I believed I wasn't musical as I had always found aural difficult.

Digby, Cyrilla...thanks for all your insight. I have a better understanding of this philosophy now. I'm going to the library again tomorrow to learn more about it.
Cyrilla ..how you said the kids learn Sound before Music /Symbols sort of reminds me of the Suzuki method. How do you see their differences? Teaching music to your embryo before the infant is even born. I think that's an interesting thought. I actually want to do that myself when i become a mother =p
I want to know how some of you think about the Suzuki method, for those of you who are Suzuki teachers or students too.
My aural skills seem to be very weak and i look into taking some sort of progressive classes that can improve my own listening skills. My grade 7 exam is this fall and i'm frightened each time i practice the Aural training by myself. yikes. I have the ABRSM cd and i seem to have a pretty good grasp in listening to the bottom melody for part A of the exam. But who knows...when the exam comes i'll really mess up and sing all the top notes. argh. Too bad i'm not in the UK, i would love to sit in in one of your classes this summer

Margrave - I'm not a Suzuki expert, I'm afraid, so maybe there are others reading this who are trained in both Suzuki and Kodaly and could answer better than I can.

You are certainly right in that they both start with the 'sound before symbol' principle, but Suzuki is an instrumental method whereas Kodaly stays almost exclusively with the voice (but not entirely), and is musicianship training. I THINK Kodaly students are introduced to notation sooner than Suzuki ones.

Where are you? Perhaps you can find out if there are any Kodaly classes near you. There are Kodaly societies in most countries.

Good luck with the exam!

I'm in Hong Kong. So anyone hkers out there reading this and know of summer short Kodaly classes..i'll be happy to get the info.
The only Kodaly class i see so far that's happening in the summer here in hk though, is a class for kindergarten teachers and you have to bring along a kid to take the lesson. Is a one day workshop thing too. So that's not suitable for me.
I have already signed up for the traditional method/teaching for aural training class this summer. But i want to take up Kodaly since is interesting and definitely something i can use for my future to teach piano.

Cyrilla,
I just finished reading your Libretto article. Thanks for contributing and writing such an insightful and beautiful piece. While reading I just identified with you so much. I feel completely musically inept.
Thank you for the writing. It makes me want to learn Kodaly right now.

Margrave - wow - thank you for your kind words regarding the Libretto article. I don't think you were the only one for whom it struck a chord (no pun intended!).

I too felt 'musically inept' and you sound how I used to feel - so I really hope you manage to find a good Kodaly course to attend.

Next summer the British Kodaly Academy will be hosting the International Kodaly Symposium, which is a really big event. I think the dates are 13th-20th August (2005). If you could get over to the UK I think that would be fantastic for you! It's in conjunction with our Summer School, which I think is running concurrently.

Or you could always go to Hungary! The Kodaly Institute in Kecskemet (Kodaly's birthplace) runs a three-week summer course every other year (next one will be 2005) and you can also go and study there during the year - I think for anything from one term to two years! Also if you ever want to visit and observe classes in schools then I think they will arrange that too. I've done two summer courses there and they were fantastic. They are very international and students come from all over the world. Also watching classes taught by these stunning teachers who are so highly-trained is quite mind-blowing and inspiring.

If you look up the BKA website and the Institute one (can't remember the address but I'm sure Google will find it for you!) you can find out more.

Good luck and I hope you manage to find a good course sooner or later!

Do please contact me again if I can be of any further help.

Cyrilla,
I signed up for kodaly Class for this summer. Finally found one here in hk. Is a brand new course..taught by an American prof from LA. I hope there will be enough people attending for the class to operate. Or else i'll have to drop it. But the class is actually...well teaching non music teachers in pre-sch or kindergarten to teach kids musical concepts through Kodaly. (i'm pretending to sit in as a teacher)
So, so far i cant' find any class that teaches you Kodaly. But i figure..hey i can jsut take this class and learn some basic rules teaching Kodaly...perhaps that will help me understand how the whole thing works at least. I'm assuming if they had to teach us, we have to und what a child is going through first in order to pick up the method of teaching it to a child. So we'll see Is a total of 10 classes..each class 2 hours.
Yippie!

Brilliant! I'm so pleased you've managed to find a course.

As you say, it's not teaching to you at your level, but it is long enough at 20 hours to give you an insight into how it can develop young children's musicality.

You may teach yourself at some time so it will be very helpful in this respect too.

Although it's not ideal, I really hope you get something out of it and at least start to understand what the approach is all about. Hopefully it will inspire you enough to maybe venture to the UK or Hungary at some time to study some more.

You are NOT 'musically inept', just not taught in a way that has developed your full potential - which is what excellent Kodaly training will do for you.

Good luck - ENJOY - and let me know how it goes!

Cyrilla

margrave of brandenburg,

One also from Hong Kong also here. I know that Hong Kong having two places offering Kodarly Course, one is in APA, and another is in a pravite studio. However, I am planning to go US to have those class next year, since that I believe the course overseas would have better quality than those who offer in Hong Kong.

20 Hours Lesson probably not enough for the 1st Cert of Kodarly (as far as I know there should be 3 levels, and after 3 levels you could get a Kodarly Teacher Cert, or sth like that.) I am interested in the one offered by NYU, a far much more expensive but seems to be much more worth to me since it offer Recorder Ensemble Lesson too.

Probably we could share some more, that's so lucky to me to meet Hong Kong people here!~

Recorder,
Thanks for letting me know there is another place that offers this course. (geez..in a private studio...no wonder i can't find it all over hk. ) They sure need to do some more hardcore Promotions.

Would you mind telling me about this private studio..and if you have their number or smthing..so i can call up and check out their syllabus etc. Do you know if the class is only open to children?

Do you teach privately or at school?

thanks.

QUOTE (margrave of brandenburg @ Jun 16 2004, 05:19 AM)

Would you mind telling me about this private studio..and if you have their number or smthing..so i can call up and check out their syllabus etc. Do you know if the class is only open to children? Do you teach privately or at school?

1) In fact I have checked the syllbus in America Kodarly Society (sth like that), with that offered by the centre. I found that a "qulified" Kodarly Teacher would having a 3 part Cert, and it required servals hours in lesson length and Papers too. However, this centre simply seems to only offering a "Cert" under their names, which probably not admitted as the Kodarly Society did - that means a kind of waste!~ When the time I look for the course fee - well, I guess it would be better to sit in APA course rather than that, seems both are just a beginner course, and not = the part one of the Kodarly Teacher Cert.

2) I do teach pravitely, probably will have some schools in coming acdemic year. Teaching Recorder is not much fun in Hong Kong - hope that you understand, most parents only like their children playing Piano and / or Violin, Recorder to them is just a "toy" - Undoubtedly, that's probably some result from Kodarly Method - SiGH......

Let's share more Look for your reply

QUOTE (isa.recorder @ Jun 17 2004, 12:51 AM)

Teaching Recorder is not much fun in Hong Kong - hope that you understand, most parents only like their children playing Piano and / or Violin, Recorder to them is just a "toy" - Undoubtedly, that's probably some result from Kodarly Method - SiGH......

[QUOTE]

Hmmm - teaching recorder in England can suffer from the same problem - that it is seen as a toy.

I agree with the SIGH - but not for the reason that this has anything to do with the use - or misuse - of Kodaly training!

There is no specific connection between Kodaly training and learning the recorder (although someone I know has written a recorder tutor linking with Kodaly work), so please don't blame Kodaly for parents only liking their children to learn piano or violin, rather than the 'toy' recorder!

Well, in fact I am not blaming Kodaly method. What's happening to me is that, most parents thinking Recorder is just an educational instrument which can be just play in school for Music lesson. I do believe why we have that in music lesson mostly due to the side-effect of using Kodaly method.

In fact, it's a very nice system, to let all children to "play" music...

Same cases go toward the Harmonica / Melodica, they were just taking part as an educational stuff, which make people think they are not able to reach the professional levels.

Kodaly is a relatively effective system, especially for beginners and for perfect-pitchers (to overcome their weaknesses in dealing with tonal systems); it becomes really non-effective, however, when the student needs precize aural recognition/oral reproduction of intervals; major problem areas at this point are: modulations and contemporary music, particulary one with elements of atonality or frequently mutating tonality.

Best regards.

QUOTE (ananeyka @ Jun 26 2004, 05:24 AM)

it becomes really non-effective, however, when the student needs precize aural recognition/oral reproduction of intervals;

Hi ananeyka - I'm not quite sure what you mean by this? I've found solfa to be of immense help in both these cases..

Also solfa works beautifully with modulations - and I've studied Alban Berg and the like using it...

Actually Cyrilla, one thing I don't understand is why do you feel Kodaly is better than just recognising intervals numerically? Remembering doh to doh is simple enough, but what about when augmented fourths and minor thirds come along? You've then got a whole lot of other symbols to remember, whereas with my numerical system I just think "minor third" or "minor sixth" or "augmented fifth" or "major seventh" etc. Then modulations don't pose the situation of having to switch doh around; you just carry on recognising the intervals.

What do you do in your head when the more unusual intervals come along?

Violinia

Violinia - there aren't any 'other symbols' to learn for the 'more unusual intervals'. Learning to sing in solfa is really just like learning another language, and it's only when you actually do it that certain things become clear - very difficult to explain some things on paper!

t,-f is the 'ordinary' augmented 4th, but of course you can name it differently, depending on where it is in the scale and its function. d-fi, for example. And as for your other example, minor thirds - in a major scale there are four, and three major thirds. So d'-l, s-m, f-r and r-t, are all minor 3rds. Students learn just to sing and recall the solfa for particular sounds BEFORE they are introduced to their numerical names. So the two are not mutually exclusive but eventually sit side-by-side! You must have students who can't do what you can do naturally, which is 'just to recognise the intervals numerically'. I never could, whereas now I can - so something must be working somewhere...

Re modulations - rather than thinking of 'having to switch the doh around' as a bit of a nuisance, I see it as a blessing! There just comes a point where it is too difficult to keep singing in the original solfa as there are too many altered notes - and it becomes clear that a modulation has taken place (if you've just been too slow, as I used to be, to notice visually from the 'new' key sig suggested!). So solfa makes modulations extremely clear and understandable.

Hope this makes some sort of sense...

I think the problem Violinia and others are having is that we are trying to understand solfa all at once starting form whwere we are at now.

I see what you mean Cyrilla. To understand it properly and effectively would mean starting right at the beginning.
I think some of us have been trying to fit it in with our current understanding and trying to work out how it all fits together at once.

sbhoa - you're right, it's almost impossible to paint the full picture in words on an AB Forum

I can only try to answer any queries the best that I can and just suggest that people go to watch classes taken by experienced Kodaly teachers and go on courses to start learning for yourself! There is nothing better than the Summer School where you *suffer* total immersion for a week - then follow it up with a year's certificate course if at all possible.

Once you have been taught by one of the wonderful Hungarian teachers you won't look at teaching music in quite the same way again...they are the most fantastic pedagogues, musicians and teachers I have ever met and are completely inspirational. There are a couple of totally outstanding ones whose classes I would fight to be in! I have learned more about the art of teaching from them than from anyone, and I am constantly trying to emulate them. My life's work....

Thanks Cyrilla, at least that bit's now fallen into place in my creaking brain. So you start recognising the sound of various intervals by hearing them in solfah terms at the various spots they occur naturally in the scale.

As sbhoa rightly points out, it's hard to get your head round when you already have a strategy for understanding all this. But I'm becoming more and more convinced that it must be an excellent teaching method; I've certainly not been able to teach aural skills all that effectively - being able to do it yourself doesn't necessarily mean you can easily pass it on.

Roll on summer! (And this weekend!!)

Violinia

The problem of Kodaly method is the stereotypization of aural concepts; intervals are recognized attached to a certain tonal center. What if the center shifted? And several times? And the new tonal system is really new, and must be LEARNED,RE-CONSTRUCTED from its elements, not RECOGNIZED by the ear? I really doubt, that Kodaly solfa with its rather simplistic aural "mechanics" can help to master Alban Berg. I really doubt that it can help with Beethoven either. Or Gregorian Chant. Where Kodaly really helped, was school education in former Hungary where choral solfeggio promoted musical education among 'masses'.

Best regards

Sorry, I have to disagree! In my experience, Kodaly HAS helped me with all that you mention - Gregorian chant, Beethoven, Berg. I studied all these at the Kodaly Institute in Kecskemet, Hungary, with inspirational teachers.

And yes, of course the approach worked stunningly with the 'musical education of the masses'. Isn't this what we are all aiming for - to provide the best possible music education for the biggest number of people?

No approach can possibly have 'all the answers' - but Kodaly comes as near as anything I have found (very closely followed by Dalcroze). The beauty, for me, is that whatever age or stage you are at, it has something there to offer you and to help you develop as a musical being. As a music educator with a passionate belief in the development of the whole person, I can ask for nothing more.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH =(
THEY CANCELLED MY KODALY COURSE HERE IN HONG KONG. &*(^%$$###!!!

i'm so upset!! There is no other course like this offered in hk except only in summer classes & depending if they could find the professor that teaches Kodaly.

hk sucks!!!

I hate this place.

OH NO!!!!!!!!

Only yesterday someone posted that they were interested in a Kodaly course in Hong Kong and I said I thought you had found one.

THWARTED!

So sorry....

You could always come to the UK for next year's Summer School - or to Keckemet for the International one!

After having studied both Kodaly and Dalcroze as part of my PGCE at the RNCM I have only good things to say about both these methods. I only wished I had been introduced to these methods at a much younger age. The kodaly method in particular would have benefited me greatly at A-level. After two years training I can't understand how I worked out intervals or studied works using any other technique. The sound of minor thirds haunts me in my sleep!!

Cyrilla...my solfa singing expert...please give me a few tips. I am currently enrolled in this grade 7 aural training crush course for my exam. I CAN'T DO SOLFA...ahhhhhhhhhh
well of course i know do re mi fa so la ti do etc. But only from mid C to the octave above it. Once the key changes (not C major piece anymore), i have very much difficulty in translating the note to Solfa symbols and then of course i can't internally hear the note (esp if the note has a flat or sharp), and i sing it out all not in pitch/tune.

So for example, the short melody to sight sing is A major...and then the first note in the piece is F...it takes me a sec or two to figure out F is La and not the usual Fa (b/c of movable Do)...etc and then i sing it all out of tune cuz i can't hear the notes.

HOW CAN I PRACTICE getting used to Solfa by myself..ins uch a short period of time. My entire aural course is base on solfa..our teacher wants every student to learn/know it. And of course i'm in one of those genius classes where every student is a kid making me the oldest person...and every kid is trained already...so they can just not look at the piano..hear the notes going up & down and sing the solfa note.

I have to get used to solfa ...or else i'll get lost pretty soon in my class. Can u give me some tips...my teacher told me to use very simple songs/pieces..and translate every note i see on the page to solfa note...until i get used to it..and then sing it with the piano.

What u say?

pls help!

Sight-sing anything you can get your hands on in between classes. Don't worry everyone has this problem. The worst part is you start coming out with sounds that aren't related at all like sa and foh!! Relax!! You'll get the hang of it eventually. We used to giggle through half the class! Believe it will come eventually

Una,
Thanks for your encouragement!
i have started to train myself in singing all the Major scales with solfa, in chromatic, melodic, harmonic. I close my eyes to sing it while i play the notes on the piano so i can hear myself sing and hear the notes and not looking at keys.

Then i started to make combinations of duel notes like C to Se or C to Le or So to Ti or Do to Sa etc., randomly to see if i can sing back the same tune as the piano before i hit the keyboard. This still needs some work.
I think i will spend an hour practicing solfa each day before i practice my piano pieces.

Are there any like workbooks or something exercises that i can get (simple ones) to practice?

thanks

Ooooh - at first you sounded very daunted but it seems from your last post that you are getting to grips with it all!

It IS a daunting task when you are in a class with people who can all do it easily - but don't give up, as Una says, it DOES come eventually! But as you say, it needs practice - yes, as much as you do on your instrument. Don't forget it's really like learning to speak a new language, so you have to learn the 'new words' and then how to speak them in many different sentences and situations.

Singing all the scales in solfa is a good way to start, as the sound of the scales is so familiar to your ear already.

Rather than just random patterns after that, I would suggest sequences as a good way to practise.

Start very simple, eg drm/rmf/mfs etc. Don't forget to do similar ones descending.

Patterns of 3rds are good - d-m/r-f/m-s etc. This really helps with fluency. Then sing them and name them - d-m, major 3rd/r-f, minor 3rd and so on.

Then try 4ths - d-f, r-s, m-l etc. And so on!

Every time you do a sequence in solfa, then try singing it with letter names in different keys. This will help you become fluent when reading music in other keys than C!

Kodaly wrote a little book of pentatonic tunes called '333 Reading Exercises'. Kodaly training often starts with pentatonic as it is a)historically an ancient scale and it is much easier to sing with good intonation without semitones. This book is published by Boosey and Hawkes so you can get it through their website (www.boosey.com). Let me know if you have any trouble getting it. Half of the melodies are written on the stave (mostly keys D, F, G) and half are written with the rhythm and the solfa letters printed beneath. These 'rhythm solfa' ones are very useful in that you can use them for transposing - sing them with letter names in different keys once you can sing them in solfa.

Hope this helps a bit. Please let me know if I can help more.

Good luck - keep practising - and you will be fine, the star pupil of the class!!

thanks Cyrilla, I'm so grateful to have found this forum where so many knowledegable musicians share.
I will take up your advice and try the patterns. I'm looking into finding if they sell the book here in hk ..or have them order for me or smthing.

I'll keep you posted on how i'm coming along. =p I'm sure & hopefully, after I manage the method you suggested I will come back and ask you for more to practice =)

thanks again

No problem - glad to have been of some help.

I forgot to say - also try working out the solfa for (very simple, at first) songs or melodies that you know really well. Just practise singing them in solfa until you can do it really fluently. In this way the sound of the intervals will become embedded and you will then find it easier to recall them when singing something you don't know. When you then sight-sing something and you're not sure if you've sung the correct interval you can check it against that same interval in a song you know.

Hope this makes sense - it's very much easier to DO than to explain on paper!!

Greetings! I am a new user on this message board and I have just participated in the 23rd Kodaly summer school with the brilliant Cyrilla being my tutor. (Cyrilla.......I was the only chap in our little group so you will now know who this is!)

I must say to all musicians that a Kodaly course or courses will be of benefit in huge ways. It has opened my eyes to many things not least the fact that there is so much about music that I do not know and feel I ought to know. One has the opportunity to learn how to 'listen'. True listening I believe must take place inside of oneself. In other words to hear things without outside sound. If we stop and think for a moment we can all be aware of the internal conversation that goes on inside all of us. How often are we aware of it? It is a wonderful resourse and to be able to develop it in a musical form I think can lead us to much greater and deeper experiences of music as well as a sound and acute ability to use our aural skills in a musical way.

I discoverd the Kodaly method through the brilliant Cyrilla when I participated on the CT ABRSM course. She came to talk to our group about it and the only thing up to that point that I knew about Kodaly was that he was a Hungarian composer. My perceptions were changed within the first five minutes of the talk that Cyrilla gave not to mention the other changes that took place during the other one hour and 55 minutes!

I felt compelled to do the summer school and having done so. am now intending to take the one year elementary course with the intermediate course following that all being well.

I would encourage all musicians to consider getting involved with Kodaly. It will change you and any teachers will certainly benefit, I believe, in doing a course.

I would like also to 'plug' the CT ABRSM course since it was that which introduced me to Kodaly.

The CT course is a brilliant course and does exactly what it says it will.....develops you.

Bye for now!!

Hi Hammerklavier - if you were the only guy in Cyrilla's group then I think I know exactly who you are! Did you play a beautiful Moonlight Sonata, marred only by a wailing cat in the background? And did we turn the hall into a smoky jazz club for a little while on the last night?

Nice to see you here!

I would reiterate everything Hammerklavier just said: the CTABRSM course was brilliant- I completed it two years ago (and haven't looked back since). Cyrilla's workshop was absolutely stunning and unforgettable - she actually brought tears to my eyes, and I would recommend both the CT and Kodaly training to anyone, the latter particularly to people with aural difficulties or teachers with or without good aural skills who want to teach their pupils to play in a primarily aurally-based way.

The problem with so much music teaching today is that it relies so heavily on notation, and the student can very easily fall into the trap of seeing the notation primarily as symbols for where to put their fingers, without the necessity of being able to hear the music in your head as you play it - or before playing it. You need to activate so much of your brain to be a real musician, and learning good aural skills will help you to do this.

Actually I think it's a real shame that the AB (are you listening?) abandoned the "intervals" part of the aural tests. I remember doing these tests when I did grade exams many years ago, and they certainly got you learning to recognise your intervals. Why did the AB drop them? Was it because people found them too difficult, I wonder?

Anyway, glad to see a Summer School particpant here today! (keep those jazz riffs coming!)

Violinia

Hear hear Violinia re intervals - seems crazy to exclude them to me. Glad you had a great summer skool (funnily enough Cyrilla brings tears to MY eyes too, but only in the context of us being siblings! Oddly enough my flute playing has been known to move HER to tears). Wish the AB would sponsor C to run a baby Kodaly course for some of the poor youngsters on the students' forum who clearly struggle with aural and genuinely believe it is simply a matter of something one can either do or not. Aural, as has been said before, is 80% of the time merely tested by teachers rather than taught. In my last exam session 7 out of my 10 entrants scored full marks for the aural tests so IT CAN BE DONE. (1 pass, 2 merits, 7 distinctions.....yay yay yay, lovely students, teacher skipping round garden throwing rose petals).

Hi margrave of brandenburg,

I'm definitely interested in this Kodaly. Do you teach it too? Where am I able to learn it.

And, for everyone who knows:
1) What are the differences between a Suzuki method
2) or a Hal Leonard method
3) Yamaha Courses.
4) a Kodaly method

Do they complement each other? If learnt together would it confuse a child learning it? Which is a better choice for a young child below 5yrs.

Thanks for your input guys.

alcool - resident Kodály person here!

I'm not sure how much I can help - I'm in the UK - but if you can find a good teacher I would definitely recommend that your child attends some Kodály classes.

I can't speak about Hal Leonard or Yamaha, I'm afraid (I'm sure there will be others here who can) - but the Suzuki approach is also perfect for very young beginners.

Both Kodály and Suzuki use the 'sound before symbol' approach. Parents are very heavily involved in Suzuki classes and are expected to work with their children in between lessons. The children learn to play very much by imitation in the early stages and have the music they are playing recorded so that they can listen to it at home.

Kodály believed that 'music should belong to everyone' and gathered together some of the best teaching techniques and tools, together with a deep understanding of pedagogy and how people learn - he saw the voice as the most natural instrument through which to learn music, too. He and his students developed their ideas in the 40s and 50s and people are still re-interpreting his concept today.

Kodály can be taught at any stage and any age, to anyone who is interested in developing their musical skills and understanding.

Good luck with finding a teacher!