I'm about to bite the bullet and send off my form for a Kodaly Musicianship Course starting in September.

I had the priviledge of observing Cyrilla teaching her kodaly courses at the Junior department of Guildhall on Saturday. I am so buoyed up by seeing the Kodaly approach in action - I can't wait to start.

I had been thinking about taking a course for a while - after hearing so many positive things about Kodaly in the forums. However, there was one comment that Cyrilla made last week that pushed me into action:

I was a very late beginner and now I'm very fluent in it

It was just one little comment in the middle of a post, but I was encouraged to hear that it isn't too late to learn. At long last I feel hopeful that I can become a competent musician.

I have always felt like a 'fake' musician. I have grade certificates but I don't have confidence in myself as a musician. I'm hoping that Kodaly will help me develop as a fully rounded musician rather than just being a trained monkey who can knock out a few tunes. It should be an exciting journey to make.

Anyone else taking a Kodaly course next year?

lis

I am doing a Kodaly course in Glasgow in September this year. It is being done with NYCOS, and includes Lucinda Geoghegan and David Vinden, two enormously respected Kodaly educators. It should be really good fun. Maybe one year I will find the time and money to go to the Summer School.

My own sentiments exactly. I'm going to the summer school in Leicester. A lot of money but living here it's not really a viable proposition to get to any 1 day courses. As Cyrilla well knows despite really wanting to go to this I'm also extremely apprehensive. I'll let you know how it goes...

Hi folks, don't suppose someone could give me a brief guide about Kodaly? I have absolutely no clue about it but have read so many good responses I am keen to know more! Andy, is there no one in our neck of the woods (NI) who does courses?

Cyrilla, I think you can help me here. Can you give me 'A Muppet's Guide to Kodaly?'

I am starting KODALY this September. Really looking fwd to it!!! I'm a late starter, too, although I had sight-singing as a chorister for many years but KODALY is so much more than just sight-singing!

Jazzy, do a SEARCH on KODALY on this website and all of Cyrilla's advice will turn up - hey presto!

Unfortunately I am somewhere else the Leicester week. After my taster in Birmingham I really want to learn and am doing what I can at home on my own. Hmmm ....a bit difficult.

Yes we could really do with a few regional courses.

Anyway while I was in a second hand music shop in Vienna I came across Lois Chosky's book for 10 euros. Needless to say I snapped it up!

Can you tell me about the 1-day courses? I'm sure it'd interest friends of mine who are currently hesitant to sign up to a one-yr commitment. Let me know of any 1-day or weekend courses in London as we all live in east London which is very commutable and it'd be FUN, too, to go together - all girls, or rather, women!

THANKS, ANDY.

Tess, the best thing to do is to contact CELIACVIIC@aol.com and ask to be put on the BKA mailing list - then you will find out about any courses going on.

I will also try to post about any happening during the next academic year on these Forums.

Jazzywench - as Tess says, there is lots of K-related waffle on here from me but you might want to read my article that was in the May 2003 issue of the AB's Libretto which explains a bit of the background to the approach and how it can help general musicianship skills. I THINK you can find it on the AB site somewhere. Let me know if you can't and I'll send you a copy.

Tess - who is going to be your teacher???

janexxx - woo, 10 euros for the Choksy book - brill!! Well done you!

Thanks, Cyrilla. Done an e-mail to Celia just now. Abt the teacher, I don't know her. Heard she's quite reserved. Not much is known of her except her name is Jo and she hails from Trinity. Will see her end of Sept when we start. Can't wait!!!!!!

Ah, well, let me know when you do know her name! Is this under the Waltham Forest umbrella too??

This is my first post. Sorry it’s a bit long – but there seems to be a lot of interest in, and limited information about, Kodaly out there. So…

Here’s a perspective on Kodaly from someone with relatively little musical training (Grade 4 Piano obtained about 30 years ago), but who tries to listen to two children practising four different instruments (when there’s time) and sing competently in a local choir. I have been going to Cyrilla’s Elementary Musicianship (adult) course with other regular contributors here such as Bagpuss and Hammerklavier and trying to work out what I was doing there and what it was doing for me.

It’s not just about singing in sol-fa (i.e. using doh-re-mi etc.) and in tune, though that’s a central part of it. It’s about developing a broader musical awareness through singing whilst beating a rhythm, or singing the notes whilst playing them on the piano a few beats behind or with other people singing the same thing a few beats behind (i.e. in canon). Or singing the intervals (thirds, fourths, fifths etc.) and learning to recognise them when played or sung. Or conducting others singing in canon. And making the appropriate hand-signs for each note of the scale whilst singing them or (after a bit of practice !) a few beats later.

It helps to know a bit of music theory although a lot of this can be picked up as you go along. It requires practice but if someone like me with relatively little formal training can do it then anyone can (and of course if children start young it becomes part of their normal development).

Although most people doing this particular course are music teachers of some kind, I would encourage anyone with an interest in developing their musicianship skills, to think about it. It makes you listen to singing, and tuning, in a more focused way, and link your inner musical voice (those tunes that go round in your head) better to your singing voice.

Kodaly says, in one of the books I have for the course, “Only lively musical activity can produce a musical expert. Listening to music is by itself insufficient”. I think (though I’m no Kodaly expert) by listening, he means passive listening in the sense of the type of half-listening many of us do a lot of the time (I hope it’s not just me !) Listening in the sense of actively listening to others sing, hearing the intervals or the other relationships between different sounds and rhythms, is essential to develop the skills needed for the course and to reproduce those things in a musical way. He might also mean that there is no point in actively listening unless you are going to do something with that skill – either way, it shows the importance, which I now realise, of being able to listen properly before being able to do anything really musically.

Cyrilla’s starting another elementary course in the Autumn in South London and before you ask, she isn’t paying me for this and hasn’t promised me a better mark in the end-of-course test for writing it ! We usually manage to end each lesson singing a three or four-part canon pretty much in tune, creating lovely unaccompanied harmony which makes all the practice worthwhile.